Olympics Posts

1-10 of 20

  • Enter the Vikingstad

    I ordered mine…can’t wait.

    http://www.puckinghilarious.com/store.php?Design=vikingstad

    I wonder if the Leafs could somehow land this guy?  It would certainly be a boon for jersey sales, not that I’m not eager for my Luca Caputi jersey.

    March-02-10 at 2:36:53 PM
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  • A Downside?

    If there’s any downside to the Olympics, it’s that it makes the Leafs virtually impossible to watch.

    Seriously.

    I’ve maintained that I’m not an avid supporter of women’s hockey because when I’m watching hockey I don’t care whether it’s men or women playing the game, I care about the quality.  And if men played hockey at the same level as the women, it wouldn’t be very entertaining.

    Now that I’ve had prolonged exposure to Olympic hockey, it’s making the Leafs look worse than we all know they are; at least, I hope that’s the Olympic effect.

    It’s going to be a long drive to the playoffs.

    March-02-10 at 11:27:11 AM
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  • Olympic Hockey and Fighting

    I’m not a sufficiently talented writer to express my thoughts on the conclusion of the Olympic hockey tournament in anything resembling lucidity, so I’m not going to bother trying.  Suffice to that I was immensely happy and that it was an incredibly exciting end to a great tournament. Anyhow… One of the biggest follow-up stories making the rounds the last couple of days is that the Olympic hockey was so much better because of the lack of fighting.  Proponents of eliminating fighting point to this as evidence of what the NHL could be. There’s just one problem with that. The
    March-02-10 at 9:16:27 AM
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  • The Russian Game

    While watching the German game tonight, I couldn’t help but realize one very important aspect of the tournament thus far. You can essentially throw out the results of every Canadian and Russian game that’s been played thus far. Here’s why. With the exception of short stints of USA/Canada and Russia/Czech Republic, nobody has taken an attacking approach to either of the super-powers.  The game plan going into all 7 games they’ve combined to play has unanimously been “let’s not get stomped.”  The Norwegians and Swiss played a tough trap against Canada, any prolonged offensive pressure resulted from a breakdown of
    February-23-10 at 3:07:38 PM
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  • Thoughts from the Germany Game

    It looks like Mike Babcock kind of followed up some of my advice, although he still has this strange delusion that Corey Perry is worthy of a regular shift. The Canadians played the same game they have thus far in this tournament.  Sloppy, scattered, and disorganized.  They rarely established any prolonged organized pressure; Greiss was instead peppered with randomly sprayed shots from anywhere.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Chris Pronger seemed to log a lot of minutes once the game was in hand, which I believe is an indication that Chris Pronger will not see a lot of minutes
    February-23-10 at 2:22:21 PM
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  • How to Fix It

    What a disaster. The problems with the men’s Olympic hockey team thus far are well documented, but nobody’s really talking about what I believe to be one of the biggest factors.  For 3 years now, we’ve been anticipating a Canada vs. Russia final, a Crosby vs. Ovechkin showdown for gold.  Both teams have lacked enthusiasm in their game thus far, and I think that part of it relates to looking forward and forgetting that they have to win to get there. That said, here’s some adjustments I’d make. Martin Brodeur is done, for this tournament at least.  I’m rolling Roberto
    February-22-10 at 9:35:04 AM
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  • Questionable Truthiness

    Yahoo’s hockey blogs are typically spot on, but after this comment from the Slovakia vs. Czech Republic live blog…I’m starting to lose faith. Czechs got a power play at 1:54, and Halak was fantastic: Stopping three booming Tomas Kaberle(notes) shots, including one on which the puck trickled through his legs. Kaberle?  3 booming shots?  LIARS!
    February-17-10 at 10:44:44 PM
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  • Checking in on the Olympic Divisions

    4 games into the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, focus is beginning to shift from pre-Olympic hype into the requirements for the elimination round.  If the IIHF is good at anything, it’s creating ridiculously complicated tournament formats with plenty of room for debate and controversy.  These Olympics are no exception. Before getting into possible scenarios, here’s a breakdown of the format. The 12 teams are divided into 3 pools of 4 teams each.  The teams within each pool will play a round-robin.  Afterwards, the winning team from each division will earn a bye into the quarterfinals.  Joining them will be the
    February-17-10 at 10:03:25 AM
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  • More of Bill Watters Genius

    On one of the hockey shows that I listen to, Bill Watters was talking about the Olympics.  As Bill does, he offered his uninformed opinion. He claims that the Russian Olympic hockey team has no goaltending.  Let’s examine some numbers. The Russian goalies rank 5th, 8th, and 15th amongst NHL goaltenders in save percentage (Nabokov at .927, Varlamov at .924, and Bryzgalov at .919).  Roberto Luongo leads the way for Team Canada with a .920 mark, followed by Brodeur at .917 and Marc-Andre Fleury at .906.  Edge?  Russia. Evgeni Nabokov has long been a top NHL netminder.  Semyon Varlamov is
    February-08-10 at 11:50:23 AM
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  • Canadian Content

    Why do certain members of the media feel obliged to mention (at least twice during HNIC) that only 2 of the 23 players named to Canada’s Olympic roster (Roberto Luongo and Jarome Iginla) play for Canadian based NHL teams? Is that somehow relevant? Guess what.  None of the members of Team Finland play in the Finnish league.  Heresy. This argument reminds me of people who complain about American based teams being comprised largely of Canadians and Europeans, or of those who complain about Canadian teams not winning the Stanley Cup. Misplaced patriotism?  Perhaps.  Pointless?  Definitely.
    January-02-10 at 5:41:19 PM
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