f13.net

I suppose we need a thread for this, no? 

Watching this Slopestyle competition a little bit this morning.  I think this a new event for OL?  It's pretty cool, it looks a great deal like what you see in those SSX video games.  I didn't actually know pro snowboarders could pull off some of that shit in real life.  I like this better than the half-pipe stuff.

Bring on the figure skating!  Or not.

As long as we spend time ogling the awful venue and speculating on why they are in Sochi, sure.

Is this the first time they have had a bunch of events on TV prior to the actual opening ceremonies or do I just not remember it?

They've done it before, people usually just don't notice.

Deadspin is doing a great job of pointing out how much of a clusterfuck this is in Sochi.

http://deadspin.com/womens-downhill-skiing-halted-because-jump-was-too-big-1517321814
http://deadspin.com/the-olympic-village-has-an-extreme-shortage-of-pillow-1516842155/@barryap
http://deadspin.com/a-users-guide-to-the-bizarre-toilets-of-sochi-1516518904
http://deadspin.com/hey-the-olympics-have-started-1517319138/@barryap

This is only going to show that world that Russia is a true Third World country even though most people don't think of it that way. 

Also, The Haters Guide to the Winter Olympics (http://deadspin.com/the-haters-guide-to-the-sochi-games-1517404335?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow)

Bonus points for him referencing Clint Malarchuk in his rant.

I am with Drew- I watch most of the speed/aerial sports just in case someone wipes out. And yes, I know this makes me a terrible person. It is about 74th on the list  :awesome_for_real:

When does hockey start?  Because that's all I care about.  I don't give 2 fucks about downhill moguls, skeleton, cross country skiing (what an awesome spectator sport that must be) or whatever other obscure sports they drag out every 4 years for 2 weeks.

The 12th

Slopestyle competition just finished, and the first medals are now in the books

Also, now there is something on called Skiatholon.  Apparently, this means doing a big ole loop of cross-country skiing, and then you make a pit stop and change skis, and then keep going.  WTF.  I get why they need to have cross country skiing in the Games.  I absolutely don't get why there has to be so many different events, because there is virtually zero excitement involved from a pure sporting point of view.  The relative speed is not impressive, there are few actual racing "moments" and they look positively retarded and ungraceful while doing it.  And the winner will be a random Norwegian, because shit, that's how they commute to work.  And it's just about as fun to watch as morning traffic. 

Nordic skiing ins like the long distance running in the Summer games. It is an endurance sport.

I remember one year they showed the entire marathon on TV for the Olympics. I was like... it's a camera on a truck following somebody running for 3 hours. Seriously?

Its the Olympics.. so you can be fairly certain its both. There's already reports of Russian and American judges agreeing to help each other in figure skating (judging corruption in figure skating!? Never!) to screw the Canadians (I mean, really?). I have no idea how true the reports are, which came from a French magazine I believe, but given the history of the Olympics? Guilty before proven innocent really, when it comes to judges.

That's true, and it has its place.  Problem is that there is just too freaking much of it.  It would be like if you the marathon in the summer games....and then also ran a 15 mile race, a 20 mile race, a 40 mile race, and then repeat all those again, but with breaks to do some archery.  And then do another set of those same distances where halfway through the race, you have to change your shoes.  Possibly just prior to more archery.  Exciting!
 

I posted it on Twitter which got retweeted by Drew Magary (highlight of my day for a joke), but the only thing that would make cross-country skiing remotely interest is if they released a pack of wolves five minutes after the start.

Cyrexx, You do realize that there are like 15 distance races of barrios flavored I. The summer Olympics, right?

I'm not even sure what you are saying...barrios what?  Whatever it is, I doubt it is prime time viewing like X Country is here...and it actually makes up a big chunk of the medal count, too.  It doesn't help that I live in a Nordic country.

As a Norwegian who occasionally enjoys watching stuff like cross-country skiing and biathlon, I have a harder time understanding the fuss about stuff like 100m sprint, which lasts for all of 10 seconds. Months of training. For ten seconds of sprinting.

God damn autocorrect on my phone screwed me.

"various flavors in" not "barrios flavored i"  :ye_gods:

Well that makes more sense, then.  I don't think they are comparable, personally.  Also, 15 is a fairly small number as a %.

But whatever.  People who are more exposed to it probably enjoy it more than those of us who aren't, much as Xuri points out.

Well, it looks like there might be another figure skating controversy involving conspiracy between judges, this time with the US and Russia (allegedly) agreeing to help each other in different events.  Oh figure skating, never change. :awesome_for_real:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/alleged-pact-between-us-and-russian-judges-would-shut-canada-out-of-figure-skating-gold/article16762373/

Anything that needs judges to decide the final scoring isn't a sport. It's a farce.

You just de-sportified boxing, judo, and kendo among others.

I'm fine with that. Fights don't need judges, they need one guy on the ground and the other guy standing with his arms in the air.

The judging in boxing in particular is a farce too.

Yeah that's uh ... not how kendo works.


edit: In any case, pretty much every sport has referees, who can also be pretty subjective in how they interpret the rules. Judges are just more powerful refs.

So I guess the only real sport is fencing with their robo-judges.

I don't really think martial arts are sports. They are sort of their own thing where you're training to kill each other, but you never actually kill each other.

To expand: even though sports have refs, they have scoring systems that are fairly simple. Ball goes in net, puck goes in net, ball crosses line, guy finishes faster than other guy, etc.

It's not scoring by a bunch of really subjective material on whether or not the ball went in the hoop.

This also isn't to say that other endeavors aren't competitions in their own artistic right, but they are more art than sport.

At no point are the people training in kendo "training to kill each other." It's specifically been sportified. The way you hit each other is not how you'd hit each other if you were trying to murder your opponent, and no one I've encountered in kendo thinks otherwise. There's some grumping from the older school people that it's getting TOO sporty, but only in that the focus is shifting to "win" rather than "win properly."

It's guys fighting with fake swords. I can't say I'm familiar with the judging but I imagine it has some artistic components.

If it's just a bianary scoring system of hitting people, then I don't see why you need judges.

If it was "point, yes/no," you'd still need judges, just like you still need refs in soccer. Is it the name? Is it because they're called "judges" instead of "refs?"

Even fencing with its electronic scoring still needs referees.

And someone has to tell you if that field goal was good or that home run was fair or foul.

EDIT: Actually, I think baseball is probably not a sport by this definition, because of ball/strike calls.

Neither is football with its subjective 'what is really a catch' and pass interference calls, which can directly impact scoring plays.

Basic argument can be translated to: "I don't enjoy it so it is not a sport"

That's the worst part, I don't even like figure skating!

I hate it myself.

I want to watch skiing but NBC have decided ice dancing is what I get :(

I've been telling you this for years now!

I think a better argument would be any event that scores things based on choreography isn't really a sport. Anything with style points opens itself up for a LOT of interpretation.

The point I'm trying to make is if the sport has an artistic element that requires subjective judgement to determine the outcome, I don't think of it as a sport.

 :why_so_serious:

This is so annoying. Some points are just clean, obvious touches. Most end up becoming annoying interpretations of whom had priority. The most fun I ever had fencing was the day the teacher showed up like 30 minutes late and we were jumping around the bleachers sword fighting.

On the other hand, the club I later fenced with pretty much went entirely epee just because it was the easiest/least complicated to score. (Epee rules are basically first touch scores, whole body is legal target.)

Worst part about fencing?  The way they react in the moments after winning/losing.  Dudes, it's fencing....calm the fuck down already.  Nobody cares.

That wasn't a subjective call. The rules give priority to the offense in a simultaneous catch.

I think people are mixing up referees and judges incorrectly.

With sports with judges (ties in MMA, skating, etc..), who wins is purely a matter of the judge coming up with an arbitrary score for how much they liked a particular act. 

Sports with referees are using referees not to determine a winner but to make sure the rules are followed and those rules define who wins the game.  That includes baseball with ball/catch calls because the rules clearly define what a ball/catch is but it's not the easiest thing to call correctly in the moment.   There might be some subjectivity on how rules are applied but it's the rules that define the winner not the referees directly.

I totally agree that the former are not really sports.

True enough.  I think the original point here is you get something like Figure Skating, where interpretation plays such a huge role that nobody can really guess what a score should have been for a particular performance.  As opposed to something like boxing, the degree of interpretation is not as significant, because often times even a relative lay person can determine who is winning a fight or even a round.  That doesn't mean both cannot be equally corrupt, only that it becomes far more obvious in the latter cases, and therefore probably rarer as well.

Having started this conversation regarding the slopestyle competition, the contention that the local announcers made (and it passed my eyeball test as well) was that the tricks the Norwegian did, and did flawlessly, were harder than what the American guy did.  When the Norwegian kid's score came up, one of them yelled "Fucking Ridiculous!!", which I thought was a nice journalistic touch.  If there was anything positive to say about it, it is that the snowboarders themselves took it pretty well, and nobody throws a hissy fit.  They are all smiles and hugs, regardless of the outcome.

Even if you think parts of the game are subjective to refs, and they are, the actual scoring system that defines the winner isn't subjective. It can be hard to determine at times due to camera angles or replays, but that's not the same thing. Ball goes in end zone, ball goes into goal, puck goes in net, guy crosses line first, that's what makes the winner in sports.

For other things like figure skating, gymnastics, diving, arial tricks, etc. Those are no different than beauty contests in terms of scoring.

I think there are degrees, though.  Especially when there is an artistic component.  I have heard some really good gymnastic color commentary, where the lady was able to estimate quite accurately the scores that were eventually given...this is because there are certain rules for how much points a routine or a component of a routine is worth, and also rules for how much to deduct.  Not perfect, but more predictable than something like figure skating, where God only knows.  I think Diving is probably similar to gymnastics as well.

Figure skating was changed after the scandal several years ago and they have all kinds of scoring criteria like you mention for gymnastics etc.

I could care less about the scoring as I dislike figure skating, gymnastics, and diving. But I also think it is stupid to rail about how something is "not a sport". Especially for things like figure skating or gymnastics where the people competing have to train as hard and be in such good physical shape to be able to compete. They require incredible athletic ability and dedication to even participate in the olympics, and I am not going to take that away from them even if I dislike it.

(http://i.imgur.com/dq1v9Ux.gif)

It was certainly subjective whether it was "simultaneous" or not.

So that crazy drunk/stoned Ukranian hijacker was wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey... woot?

Be more fitting if it was a Canucks jersey, though.

Still, I'll find it hilarious if these Olympics end with fewer deaths than the Olympics in Vancouver (where the Georgian bobsledder died, because of gross stupidity on a couple fronts) given the amount of time and effort the media has spent on portraying the Socchi Olympics as the most dangerous thing ever.

I haven't watched ice skating in about 20 years.  Is that a standard "trick" or is that as amazing as I think it is?

anyone know of a site that is streaming events.  The NBC coverage is driving me nuts.

I want to say everything up until she turns into a drill bit is relatively 'standard'.

The last bit of the sequence where she attempts to bore into the floor is as amazing as you think it is.

So THAT'S the spin they were talking about.  Yeah, I don't think that is a things humans normally can do.

Curling is badass.

Agreed. Give me that over wall to wall soccer any day.

Skeleton is insane, plus the helmets are cool.

Skeleton is for people that went "Bobsledding? What am I a pussy?"

So, there's a beer fridge in Sochi that only opens if you have a Canadian passport.  If you have one, you get a free beer.  Pfft, and the Americans thought it was a big deal they had access to a free Coke machine. 

Canada 1 - USA 0. :raspberry:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1954801-team-canada-has-beer-fridge-that-only-opens-with-canadian-passport

Yeah, but do they have curling in Canadia?

Not sure if serious.

Curling is huge here.

The coolness of slopestyle snowboarding seems to be perfectly offset by the lameness of slopestyle skiing.  That shit is boooooooring.  At least the women's was, not sure about the men's version.  Their best trick seems to be attempting to not fall down.

I would think the trick in slopestyle is to not shit yourself when you launch off one of those huge jumps, those things are ridicolous. Also watching the Czech girl crash and knock herself out with a cracked helmet was not cool.

Didn't see the crash.  In any event, the air achieved for whatever reason is far less than the male snowboarders.  It looks really tame in comparison (I have no doubt that it is scary as shit), from a viewer standpoint.

It is because speed is hugely impacted by the surface area in contact with the snow. Freestyle skis are short which decreases the speed you can go because they have less surface area to distribute the weight across. A snowboard has a lot more surface area.

The surface area of the ski shouldn't matter. Less pounds per square inch yes, but proportionally more square inches. Half the weight, twice the frictional area = same friction. So long as the total area is large enough to float on the snow (rather than cutting into the ground) it shouldn't make a difference. Ski length mainly depends on the amount of control for the type of skiing you're doing

Women go slower because all things considered they weigh less and heavier people have proportionally less air resistance

(http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/838643400.gif)

 :drill:

Holy shit that RUS vs. USA game was awesome.

The whole story line of sending out TJ Oshie for every single shot was fantastic (probably would've been even better if it was 1984 or something but hey).

When do we get the Oshie as Captain America mashups or something.

Jesus the two minute commercial breaks every four minutes is getting annoying.

I blame the Moose and Flying Squirrel for Russia's loss.

I was shocked by the US/Russia result - never would have bet on the Russians to lose this in a shootout. I was even more surprised to see Datsyuk seemingly under-utilized in the shootout.

Had no idea Oshie was so good - Flyers don't play STL until after the break, so I hadn't actually seen the kid play yet.

Woke up early not feeling well and couldn't go back to sleep. Logged on to EVE to update my skill queue and someone mentioned USA v RUS was starting, so I got to watch the whole thing. Not a bad consolation prize for missing sleep  :grin:

god I hate shootouts

the gold medal has been determined by this asinine crap, and might be again

Yeah I don't understand why they do shootouts in medal rounds. In prelims, whatever, but when a medal is on the line?

And I better not hear any more people whining about how the NHL needs big ice, these games are super boring.

Are you kidding? The Russia/US game was electric.

EDIT: I'm not advocating changing the rink size - just that some of the games have been great.

Ugh they put like the Nordic Marathon on the middle of Sunday for 2 hours. WTF NBC

I haven't been able to watch a bit of this as for some reason there are no channels showing it. FFS who cares if is recorded footage of stuff that happened this morning, let me watch it and not fucking Showjumping or or some bum ass soccer league that no-one gives a shit about.

Sigh, BBC 4 did show a bit of it but then some Brit won won a gold and it turned into hours of jamming their tongue down their shorts rather than showing any more of it.

Yes, I'm pissed off at my TV lack of choices.

Edit: nm, I did the thing where I reply to the last post a few pages back.

Figure skating is in no way fixed and corrupt. :oh_i_see:  Fuck that "sport". 

Ok, now I can go back to not caring again.

Glad your life is back to normal.

We found the one person who cares about ice dancing. Quick, point and laugh.

Well, its 2 weeks every 4 years that I have mild interest in sports I normally don't care about or even know exist.  It could have been tiddlywinks but the outside "drama" makes it a mildly interesting story.  Honestly, I could care less if Canada didn't win another medal as long as they win the gold in hockey.  If they won that and had no other medals, I still consider it a successful Olympics.

Edit: The fuck I gave about this is miniscule compared to this guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh4kECZiXyM

(http://media.giphy.com/media/4LZMbup5iNpPqT4HK2TC/giphy.gif)

Ice dance is one of the things that I believe has no place in the Olympics (and if it does, why isn't stuff like ballet not in the Olympics?). I'm not a huge fan of things that rest entirely on pure subjective judging being an Olympic sport, but at least if they have tricks or jumps to judge you can have an event where the layman can see differences between competitors. In the ice dance (from what little I watched, which was only due to the pre-event controversy -- which was correct as it turns out) its too damn murky. Hell, in this case, the guy who created the single "move" that is judged, came out and said the Canadians nailed it (yet, the judges gave them a 3 out of 4), and the Americans didn't nail it (who were given a 4 out of 4) as well as having poor pace on a couple other sections. He was astounded the Canadians lost to the Americans. Fix was clearly in, and this was no surprise (this is the event the French magazine had earlier claimed there was a judging fix in so that the Canadians would lose to the Americans).

Nothing will happen, however, unlike in 2002. Figure skating in general is a joke, however, due to judging. Imo, Americans and Russians shouldn't be allowed to judge the event, both have long histories of corruption. However, I'd actually like to see that any event with judges or refs never allow judges/refs from a country involved in a medal hunt as it just allows for the opportunity for corruption.

http://deadspin.com/olympian-has-interesting-underwear-choice-1525137645/+bubbaprog

 :awesome_for_real:

Made the mistake of turning on the Olympics when I went to bed late last night. Kept me up far longer than  I wanted. I really enjoy the downhill skiing events apparently.

Downhill was always my sport too. I guess becasue they are all essentially doing the same thing even you can start to see the mistakes and good moves involved.

I like the skiing and snowboarding races where they run 4 guys down at the same time. Like short track speed skating vs long track, it's more compelling when there's direct competition to advance via heats, and dynamic passing situations, as opposed to just rigid time trial competition.

While an understandable desire, for some sports that's just tossing out everyone who actually knows what the hell they're doing from judging/reffing an event, which is not going to lead to better scoring. Still, punishing the shit out of obviously fucked up judging would be a nice start. Like booting the Russian and US judges from ice skating for a while because they can't have nice things.

Yeah, I know what I want is a pipe dream. But yes, booting the American and Russian judges would be a nice start -- judges from those two countries have a long history of fixing results (and picking on Canada! I mean, seriously.. U.S./Russia ganging up on Canada will always have bad optics for the judges, especially when the fix was telegraphed in a magazine long before the event started and was right on all counts). Ironically, Canadian judges have a long history of being harsh on Canadian figure skaters to avoid the mere perception of bias.

51 billion dollars and the Russians won't get the one medal they really want.

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg2GXtvCMAAH5pz.jpg)

Teemu is STILL playing... I love that guy, ever since he played for the Jets. Wonder if he'll be back for the 2018 games.  :grin:

Watching the Russians lose still has a lot of  :why_so_serious: for Americans.

I think for more recent generations, Canada vs. USA has become a slightly bigger rivalry in international hockey - but for me, the Russians will always be the biggest rivals.

This is his 6th Olympics! That is just unreal.

god team Canada is so frustrating to watch, too many stiffs. Not bringing Thorton & Giroux, plus benching Subban, just to watch Kunitz flail around. So dumb.

Eh. I have no issues with not bringing Giroux. One of the more over-rated players, in my opinion. The guy can score.. and he can also give pucks to the opposition on a silver platter (see: the last World Championships). Not bringing one of the (f not the) top Canadian LWers in Hall was idiotic. Bringing Nash and Kunitz, benching St. Louis, not bringing Big Joe.. I'm ambivelant on the Subban issue. Fantastic player.. but also over-hyped (mainly by Sportsnet), as he will sacrifice his defensive responsibilities for the big hit or offensive opportunity (how he ever won a Norris is mind boggling.. oh, wait.. same people that couldn't remember what position Ovie played..)

All in all, Canada has problems. The biggest one, however, is unlike teams like Sweden, Finland, U.S.A, the Canadians don't play that good of a team game because Canada builds its teams from its top favourites (who tend to be centers), instead of building an actual team.

Right now, I'm hoping Canada beats the U.S. solely because, well, U.S. (I had hoped for a Czech upset.. but alas, that coach is bat-shit stupid.. although, at least Hemsky did well), but I'm hoping Finland takes Gold.

Red bandana guy is not happy.

(http://images.smh.com.au/2014/02/20/5180870/1392830266623.jpg-620x349.jpg)

..no he doesn't

This is rad. (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=777_1392789840)

AHAAHHAAHHAHAHA
good god
I had to make sure it's a real sport and not some made up parody.
FFS. Curling.
Something new.  :awesome_for_real:

Curling is a great game.  Now that I fully understand it, I find it enthralling. 

It's shuffleboard. It's a game played by people before they die in old folks homes. Except it's on ice.

I used to think that too, but watching a great deal of it changed my mind.  There are interesting tactical and strategic elements to it that you might not at first appreciate it, coupled with the skill required to actually place those fucking stones where you want them. 

Curling is awesome.

Even moreso after you have seen Men With Brooms.

I have tried curling a few times, it is MUCH more difficult than shuffelboard.

I would love to try it some time. The scrubbing and brooming not so much, but the rock chucking looks fun.

I need good video game versions of curling and cricket so I can learn more about them. Curling I think I have a decent handle on, but cricket is a fucking mystery.

As a newbie I think I only managed to get 2 rocks into the target in about 8 attempts my first time, and that was the best result of our group. Really makes you appreciate it when they can knock out double combos and such or make perfect hit & rolls. Like I said this is a lot harder than other games like pool or shuffleboard.

The sweeping is pretty difficult too, you are using weird muscles when you are in an ice- bracing stance to stay up and moving up/down the sheet (you brace hard since tumbling down onto ice hurts) and also brooming really fast. You will be sore after even if you dont slip and land hard on ice. That's why most of those olympic curlers are pretty buff looking and spend a lot of time at the gym because being athletic definitely gives you an edge there.

There's a reason curling is super popular in Canada, and definitely could be more popular elsewhere too. It's a challenging game, not just for old duffers, a lot of skill needed, but the basics are easily grasped. So easier to get into than say golf, but just as challenging. It's a bit more social than golf too, because you're not just playing in a group of 2-4 but 8+ whoever else is hanging around since curling rinks generally also pull double duty as bars so it's more spectator-community friendly while in say golf you're limited to immediate players until the clubhouse after.

So the Russian girl wins the figure skating gold.  It may or may not have been deserved, I cannot comment smartly on that (the local commentator said the Russian girl had a slightly more difficult program, so that's something).  I will just assume she did...I mean, she was damn good and hugely charismatic.  What fucking gets my blood boiling is that the Korean girl (Yuna Kim?) skated last and gave an absolutely flawless performance - she is just far more graceful than the others in the competition, even I can see that - I mean, it was great.  So great that the Russian fans in the stands could sense that it was very nearly good enough to give her gold over the Russian girl, and so what do they do?  They go silent.  Because God forbid you show appreciation for an amazing performance at the possible cost of probably nothing at all.  A complete fucking disgrace.  I am not sure if it is Russian fans specifically, or just figure skating fans in general.  

Sport or not, it is amazing what some of these people can do on skates.  It is too bad that they and all the people involved in the support seem to be complete shit-eating wastes of space.

I respect curling more than the farce that is figure skating. At least we know why somebody won in curling.

Gold medal game in OT (women's hockey). I am making as many Cindy Crosby jokes as humanly possible.

this is why I prefer to watch red bull crashed ice races if I want to see non-hockey skating.

So fucking ridiculous that they advertise ON THE AIR that you can watch the hockey matches live on NBCOLYMPICS.COM but the website forces you to log in with your cable provider account (which I don't fucking know because fuck using Comcast email). What if you don't have a cable TV subscription? OH RIGHT, YOU CAN'T WATCH SHIT.

Fuck NBC's coverage.

THANKS GOALPOST.

(http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/19gaq4z3o2zxagif/ku-xlarge.gif)

And so ends the one women's hockey game I watch every 4 years.

(http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/19gau2ljpkicugif/ku-xlarge.gif)

The U.S. deserved to win that women's hockey game. Thankfully, however, they did not win despite being the better team. Was nice to see the Swiss get the bronze, too. Ever so slowly women's hockey is becoming more competitive beyond just Canada/U.S..

Now, Canada needs to complete the other double (men's curling/hockey) of the double double and we might just pass the Americans in gold medals.

It got even worse this time around, you used to at least be able to watch replays of full events if it was 24 hours past whatever (I ... may have watched an entire fencing event during the London ones) and they didn't completely bury and/or remove highlight reels within a day of the event, but now it seems like you need a fucking cable subscription (which we do not have) to even do that. >< So basically unless I happen to catch one of their shitty highlight reels before they replace it (usually with some bullshit human interest piece), I don't get to see shit. Whee!

I guess there are ways to use proxies to watch bbc and other countries' streams.

I don't want the Olympics to think I care that much. <sniff>

Does CBC's streaming site lock you guys out regionally? Half my company was watching the Curling and Hockey at their desks yesterday.

And Murdoc, lets not forget that that goalpost only happened because the linesman threw a pick on the Canadian defense(wo)man trying to stop the puck at the point. That would have been a shitstorm had that gone in.

I am pretty sure they do. Simply because I am certain that it is part of their contract with the IOC.

So- I am going to try to remain unspoiled for the US v Canada game today. I figure my odds are about 1 in 5 of actually succeeding.

Stay off the internet, and TV, and hope none of your colleagues cares about it even to the extent of relaying a headline he sees.

Such a boring game, like all the others. This large ice blows chunks.

Yep, I hope Way doesn't wait around for this one.

I prefer the larger surface.  Promotes skating over thuggery.

Disagree completely about it being a boring game.

Not much more skating. There's no forechecking because it's too easy to pass around it a single man, and a 2 man leaves way too much room up ice if it fails, so teams line up a trap instead at the red line, therefore forget the big end to end rushes you dream of. The only extra skating is more perimeter cycling around edges of zone if a dump is retrieved successfully, since it's easy to avoid to aggressive checking in the corners, they sit back instead with a 5 man fort. So thrilling.

Without the stakes of that game being Can-USA Semi final, it was worse than some 1-0  NJ Devils- Min. Wild snorefest, which I normally would change channel one pretty early on.

Meh. Any one-goal game of import coached by any coach worth his salt is going to rely massively on the trap. Doesn't matter if its on big ice or not. You see it all the time in the playoffs, even. I prefer the bigger ice and, honestly, the biggest problem with the larger ice surface is a lot of players and coaches struggle to adapt NHL strategies to it. Canada, for example, has a long history of a horrific powerplay on the larger ice surfaces because coaches seem unable to grasp the changes they need to make in the point positionings.

However, all I care about is Canada > USA. I would actually rather see Finland take bronze than Canada take gold (if I had to choose). Its unfortunate, however, to see team Canada succeed despite several absolutely moronic decisions (let's bring Kunitz.. and not play him with Crosby much at all until we play the Americans, despite Crosby being the only real reason Kunitz was even considered for a spot, much less actually picked, and, well, Nash). Thankfully they've avoided the situation of Luongo in net by simply going with Price.

I dig curling and want to try it (we have the curling arena from 2002 and they have lessons) but my boss tried it a few years ago and ended up with a concussion from falling on the ice.

When I learned to curl back in junior high, as part of gym class after a number of local rinks donated time at rinks to the schools, we were taught a very simple way to deal with that; "It's ice. It's slippery. Don't fall. If you fall, use your arms. If you hit your head, stop being an idiot and pay attention." But then, around here a great many people just shake their heads when they hear walking on ice is dangerous to anyone but the old, infirm or careless.

Well to be fair he was in his 60s.

Choke job USA.

The Russian win in the biathlon relay was great. That said, what a stupid fucking event.

Wow, the US hockey completely shit the bed.  I know it must be disappointing to only be playing for Bronze, but what a complete lack of heart and effort.

The US Olympics team is a complete failure to me now. The Women choked away the Gold, the Men didn't even show up in either game. What a disaster. I don't give a shit about the medal count, or winning sports we invented like snowboarding and half-pipe.

Blah.

Yup - between the shitty performances in Alpine and Short Track events, and the complete clusterfuck that has been the US hockey teams, these Olympics have been an epic failure and a waste of time.

End of the 2nd period between Canada-Sweden.  Jesus, Canada is putting the wood to the Swedes.  The score should be at least 5-0 by now instead of 2-0.  Complete and utter dominance in all aspects of the game except on the scoreboard.

All too easy. :thumbs_up:

My college roommate, a lifelong hockey fan, put it this way:  "That performance looked more like a bunch of guys worried about getting an injury before the playoffs than an Olympic team."

yeah I noticed that once Canada went up 2-0 nd Sweden realized they were completely outclassed, the hitting pretty much ended.

Also the players did not celebrate nearly close to as hard as a stanley cup win, no matter what people say, they clearly did not care about this as much as the cup. doubt they will be back in 2018.

Why would they care more about this than the Cup? The Olympics may be for countries, but these guys aren't really "teammates" in the true sense.

Rob Ford was so excited by Canada's gold medal hockey win that he crotched himself on a fire hydrant.  :awesome_for_real:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1970841-rob-ford-runs-into-fire-hydrant-while-celebrating-canada-winning-gold-medal

Anyone who thinks that any player thinks Olympic Gold is worth more than getting a Stanley Cup is clueless, it's never been about that.

Got up at 4am to go watch the game at a bar with friends. They changed the liquor laws in Alberta for the day to allow places to start serving at 5am. It was -25 yesterday and people were lined up 200 deep to get into places. Thank goodness I had a reserved table - it was definitely the way to watch that game.