Winter Olympics - 2014

[Cyrrex]

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

[Paelos]

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

[Cyrrex]

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. 

[Chimpy]

Curling is awesome.

Even moreso after you have seen Men With Brooms.

[Speedy Cerviche]

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

[WayAbvPar]

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.

[Speedy Cerviche]

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.

[Cyrrex]

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.

[Paelos]

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

[WayAbvPar]

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

[Speedy Cerviche]

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

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

[Chimpy]

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.

[murdoc]

THANKS GOALPOST.



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

[Ceryse]

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.

[Sjofn]

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.

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!

[Miasma]

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

[Sjofn]

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

[Bunk]

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.

[Chimpy]

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.

[WayAbvPar]

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.

[Speedy Cerviche]

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.

[Speedy Cerviche]

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

[Paelos]

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

[Nebu]

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

I prefer the larger surface.  Promotes skating over thuggery.

[murdoc]

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

Disagree completely about it being a boring game.

[Speedy Cerviche]

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.

[Ceryse]

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.

[Abagadro]

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.

[Ceryse]

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.

[Abagadro]

Well to be fair he was in his 60s.

[Paelos]

Choke job USA.

[schild]

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

[Ginaz]

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.

[Paelos]

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.

[Strazos]

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.