The Turino Winter Olympics Thread

Anyone watching the Winter Olympics? It sure seems like they scheduled it for a good time of year at least in North America. Hockey's taking an Olympic break and Baseball and Football are off.

I found all the hype on NBC kinda annoying which made me want to take a pass on it. I'll probably end up watching some of the hockey at least.

I'm an Olympics nut so I'm watching as much as I can even if the coverage kinda sucks & I wish they would show the "good" events live instead of delayed for primetime. I also work for GE who is the biggest sponsor of these games (& also owns NBC) so it's easy for me get into the Olympic spirit when your work enviroment promotes it! Can't wait for men's hockey to start!

Whadya think of the opening ceremonies? The people with flames shooting out of their head was kinda cool, but totally wacky. I have a tough time following the Olympics even when there's stuff I do really want to watch. I'm hoping to catch some of the hockey though.

Wow Latvia ties Team USA in hockey. Any way you look at it, that's amazing. Old school Sharks goalie Arturs Irbe made like wall like old times in the third period stopping 18 of 19 shots. It's good to see him get some limelight.

I can't seem to get behind Team USA as far as hockey goes...nor Team Canada. Maybe it's because there's virtually no San Jose presence on either team. In hockey, I'm rooting for another Belarus shocker like in Salt Lake City. Go underdogs!

Speaking of Belarus, who was it that they beat in 2002 again? Was it Sweden?

The Swiss just upset the Czechs & Russia will beat Sweden so it's definitely not a shoo-in for USA although I think Canada is way too strong not to win it all. I'm taking next wed & fri off to watch the quarterfinals & semifinals!

Yeah, can ya believe the Swiss?! How many NHL players do they have? Is it just Aebescher? That's like last time's Belarus upset win.

Well, some SJ Sharks doing good things in on the rink in Turin. Nabokov got a shutout in Russia's win over Sweden and Christian Erhoff scored a goal in Germany's loss to Canada. Erhoff!

I kinda like the larger international ice surface that they use in Olympic play. It sure seems to open the game up more.

QUOTE (peterc @ Feb 16 2006, 09:00 AM)

The Swiss just upset the Czechs & Russia will beat Sweden so it's definitely not a shoo-in for USA although I think Canada is way too strong not to win it all.  I'm taking next wed & fri off to watch the quarterfinals & semifinals!

Wow, how aobut the Swiss upsetting Canada? Did you see that game? Martin Gerber was from another planet. Even if you count that controversial disallowed goal, the score is still 2-1 and quite frankly, I agree with the replay officials call that it wasn't conclusive. It looked like it MOST LIKELY went in, but most likely doesn't cut it when ruling against the call on the ice.

Looks like the larger international ice surface really changes the game dynamics a lot. It can favor the shooters, but it probably also makes it easier for the most athletic goaltenders too. They can see the shots better. Go Switzerland!

what a day in hockey although I thought they were going to show the USA game live but apparently not which turned out fine since the Finland-Czech game was awesome! I didn't think the Swiss had a chance so I didn't bother getting up early for it. The Slovakia win is by no means an upset & my picks for the semis are Canada, Finland, Sweden & Slovakia or Russia, no medals for the USA unfortunately. Watch out for Finland, their top line is awesome & they are playing the best team hockey as is Slovakia!

I didn't think the Swiss had a chance either. I figure they were probably still drunk from celebrating their win over the Czechs. I wasn't planning on watching that game, but I was up already and I checked the Olympics website to see what hockey action was on today and noticed that Switzerland was up 1-0. That intrigued me enough to turn it on.

Gerber was unbelieveable in the third period. Most of the period was played on his end of the ice and there was always one or two players parked in front of him because none of the Swiss players were big enough to even budge much less move the Canadians out of the way. How anyone could rob Team Canada 23 times out of 23 times playing under those circumstances is beyond me. They threw everything at him... bad angle shots, shots from the point, wrap arounds, deflections, one-timers... nada nothing but leather.

I agree that the Slovak's upset win wasn't all that much of an upset. When you've got the likes of Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik, and Pavol Demeitra on your team, you're not owed much of a handicap.

yup & don't forget the veteran Satan. So USA-Sweden at 8am & Fin-Can at noon are the games to watch! Tough matchup for the USA & Canada to rebound but a great test for all 4 teams! May just come down to which goaltender is hot! Who are your picks?

did you catch the games? both USA & Canada couldn't buy a goal to save them even w/ two 5:3 PP's for the USA. The swedes played great D & the finns are the best team right now. Unfortunately, USA will play Finland in the quarterfinals. I checked the schedules carefully & I'm so bummed that NBC won't show the Gold & Bronze medal game live in the west coast

That's awful that we couldn't score on two full 5-on-3's! I saw the finaly period of the Canada - Finland game and by that point, the game wasn't too exciting. Finland played smothering defense. Even if it wasn't too exciting, it was impressive to watch them snuff out one Team Canada rush after another and the few that they didn't nullify were canceled by incredibly heady defense and goaltending.

Did you see that wide open net that Bertuzzi couldn't tap a Joe Thornton feed forward into in the third period? An alert Finn player spun around and just smacked his stick up off the ice as he came crashing in on the open goal? I'm really getting to like this Olympic hockey!

Kazakhstan's held their ground rather impressively the past couple of games. After losing 1-0 to Russia yesterday they only lost 2-1 to Slovakia.

Could it be that both Team USA and Team Canada picked a roster and a strategy that worked better in the old NHL style of game?

Perhaps. But I'm wondering if it's because the others teams are working together better. It seems that the Canadian and US teams are so full of NHL players from all over North America, that it's a team of individuals not working together very well. The Finnish team, judging from their amazing performance yesterday, work together really well, and are using clever and sometimes unusual strategies.

Most definitely. The finns have essentially the same team that played the 2004 world cup (Canada beat Finland so I'd love to see the Finns avenge that loss for the gold). Unfortunately for Canada & USA, you have to select the top NHL players, the good news is they should get better with each game so it's ok to lose in the prelims. I'm still picking the Finns to win in all but you never know w/ single elimination!

couldn't ask for better matchups in the quarterfinals! I mean Canada-Russia & Czech-ko-Slovakia, gonna be some hurting going on tomorrow!

I'm totally psyched!!!!!!!!!!

I have never been into sports so the Olympics just don't appeal to me. I had dinner with a friend last night who said he got the same response from most of his friends. None of my friends are huge sports fans. I don't hang out with anyone who's a hardcore Niners or Raiders fan, etc. I like to think of it as hanging out with people who are like-minded. My previously mentioned friend also said there are just too many things vying for our attention nowadays.

Um, but you hang out with Sheldon and me on occasion.... We're honored to be part of a select few.

I really knew nothing about most of the sports featured (besides men's ice hockey), but I've learned a lot about them over the past two weeks, and it's been really fun. I find the commentary can be very helpful to me. I've gained a lot of respect for what the athletes are doing.

Now I just don't know whether to cheer for Russia or Finland in the men's hockey semi-finals!!!! Oh drat!!!

But do we ever talk about sports?

O.k.! You've got me!!

back to hockey, if history matters, then you have to cheer for a Finland-Sweden or Russia-Czech final! either one & in fact, both games would be awesome! and that would also make every match not a repeat, what a treat!

some things are exciting but I like the stories behind the stories, for example:

hendrick four years ago watches Dereck Parra (he friend and competitor) win silver at the olympics and decides to participate. He switches to Ice skating and becomes world champ in two years. Wins a gold in four years.

while holding first place Bodi Miller, the pre race olympic gold favorite, is disqualified for missing a gate in the second to last race of the combined. His team mate who is expecting to finish out of the medals is in fourth for the last run. He has the run of his life and wins the gold on the last run. WOW.

First ever african american to win an individual medal in the olympics.

Just a few.

QUOTE (techvbjoe @ Feb 24 2006, 04:23 PM)

while holding first place Bodi Miller, the pre race olympic gold favorite,  is disqualified for missing a gate in the second to last race of the combined. His team mate who is expecting to finish out of the medals is in fourth for the last run. He has the run of his life and wins the gold on the last run. WOW.

The fact that Bode Miller seemed to have saved all the drama for the pre-Olympic publicity adds to this Olympics subplot. How much ya want to bet that there are a lot of companies who want their endorsement deals back? Ted Lipinski going on the run of his life was especially dramatic because the guy made that run sick as a dog. He said that between the coughing and nerves, he couldn't sleep or get comfortable in the days before the event.

It's really too bad that Sasha Cohen had to go into the long program for women's figure skating injured. It looked like she was about to get the "underachiever" monkey off her back, but maybe she got it off her back anyway given how gutsy the rest of her performance was in light of the injury and the way she started the program with two straight falls.

Anyone catch the ice dancing competition? With all the falls, it was kinda painful to watch. It got to the point where I was expecting people to fall at some point. Ow.

For the record, Sasha Cohen has a sort of long-term, recurring injury, so she's had her leg taped all week, but it wasn't really bothering her last night during the long program. She just messed up. Amazingly, though, she recovered well and skated the rest of the program (after the first two bad jumps) beautifully. It's pretty incredible that she's a good enough performer to put the trouble aside and just go for it like that. She deserves that silver medal.