Fantastic web site that, a mine of information and easy to find.

ursus arctos wrote:
Finland are my dark horse, ...
Hmmm, much as I'd love you to be right, I've got the strongest of doubts. Boring as it is, the over-reliance on NHL players, this time anyway, makes sense, but the squad is experienced to the point of almost being geriatric. Jalonen's a sound tactician, but he's been used to a well integrated, close-knit squad, not a load of stars who think they know better than him. How well he gets them aboard his train is going to be important.

And I really can't post without the obligatory what the fuck's Olli Jokinen doing in the squad. Jarkko Ruutu too, for that matter.

Why is it regarded as "jingoism" when USA fans get boisterous but charming and colorful when its the Dutch, Norwegians, Canadians, etc??

Muukalainen wrote:

Hmmm, much as I'd love you to be right, I've got the strongest of doubts. Boring as it is, the over-reliance on NHL players, this time anyway, makes sense, but the squad is experienced to the point of almost being geriatric. Jalonen's a sound tactician, but he's been used to a well integrated, close-knit squad, not a load of stars who think they know better than him. How well he gets them aboard his train is going to be important.

And I really can't post without the obligatory what the fuck's Olli Jokinen doing in the squad. Jarkko Ruutu too, for that matter.

I've just got back in from the Saddledome in Calgary after seeing another fine performance from Miikka Kiprusoff. He's been terrific this season, and is the sole reason the Flames are still clinging onto the last playoff spot, rather than 12th or 13th.

If he brings the same sort of form to the Finland team, they could do very well.

Reed of the Valley People wrote:
Why is it regarded as "jingoism" when USA fans get boisterous but charming and colorful when its the Dutch, Norwegians, Canadians, etc??

Because we've all seen too much footage of your troops chanting U-S-A, U-S-A.

(Speaking of which, my first memory of that little chant was Los Angeles, 1984 - but does anyone know where it originated? I have this vague memory that we discussed this on the old borad...)

Canada beats Slovakia 18-0 in women's hockey.

Lest you think this is the worst result of all time, let it be known that during the qualification tournament for the Olympics, Slovakia dispatched Bulgaria 82-0. Shots on goal were 139-0.

Sven Kramer wins the first gold of the Speed Skating in the 5000m. First of possibly 3 for him, and several for the Dutch (I hope).

Because we've all seen too much footage of your troops chanting U-S-A, U-S-A.

Oh, c'mon. We had to listen to that AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!! OI OI OI!! shit and everyone supposedly thought it was charming. It's not fair to disparage fans or athletes just because their government is a bunch of assholes and pursue a destructive foreign policy.

The troops thing is a bit irritating, but after watching The Hurt Locker, I have a lot more sympathy for those guys. Yeah, they signed up for it, but I try not to hold stupidity against people.


(Speaking of which, my first memory of that little chant was Los Angeles, 1984 - but does anyone know where it originated? I have this vague memory that we discussed this on the old borad...)

I think it started in Lake Placid. Fans weren't ready for us to be successful in hockey so we weren't prepared with a better cheer and then that just stuck. Bear in mind that the USA usually didn't win much at the Winter Olympics until the early 1990s and then more recently when snowboarding and women's hockey were introduced and we started to have a bit more luck in speed skating (I think the invention of the in-line skate had a lot to do with that. A lot of our speed skaters started in road racing) and the sleddy sports.

Oh, c'mon. We had to listen to that AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!! OI OI OI!! shit and everyone supposedly thought it was charming.

No. Aussie fans, like British, English, US and German fans, are just never charming. Fans from harmless little countries that you can patronise, like Andorra or Canada, are charming.

I'm watching, as background, Nordic combined at the moment. What a weird sport. I can see the concept of biathlon; or modern pentathlon; or whatever. But where would you need to ski-jump a long way then cross-country ski, without either having to downhill or to shoot things?

No. Aussie fans, like British, English, US and German fans, are just never charming. Fans from harmless little countries that you can patronise, like Andorra or Canada, are charming.

I agree, but the US media treats every other country as harmless and patronizable, except China and Russia.

The guy doing the color commentary on the Men's Luge sounds exactly like John C. Reilly.

The biathalon sprint was sort of ruined by the weather. Right in the middle, they got a load of wet snow, so anybody who started in the middle of the pack (it's like a time trial, not a mass start) had no chance at all. And a lot of the favorites didn't shoot well, so the winner was a French guy who'd never won much of anything at the highest level before. Good for him, though. The bronze went to a guy named Fak, which is a great name.

The USA's Teela finished 9th, the best finish for the USA ever in that event.

And the finish in that determines the start of the pursuit. That's stupid. One race shouldn't have so much influence on another, unless they're only going to give out one set of medals.

In these events, the NBC crew are doing a good job of balancing discussion about the Americans with discussion of the event overall and the leaders. Of course, if any other countries are stuck with the US broadcast instead of their own, that would suck.


But where would you need to ski-jump a long way then cross-country ski, without either having to downhill or to shoot things?



A 1940's animated short featuring Bugs Bunny, Goofy or Woody Woodpecker, perhaps?

Brilliant finish in the combined!!!

Johnny Spillane nipped at the end by the France's Lamy Chappuis (born in Montana, BTW) for Gold. First USA medal in the event. USA also got fourth. Silver went to a guy from Switzerland with the excellent hip-hop name of T.Hug.

A guy named Kobyashi from Japan really pushed the pace. I wonder if he's related to the hot dog guy?

Just to note that the guy the thread is named after was among the biathletes screwed by the climatic conditions Reed noted. He finished 9th or 10th, but will have other chances to get his tenth medal.

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:
Fans from harmless little countries that you can patronise, like Andorra or Canada, are charming.

The NPS takes names. When we complete our bid for world domination, you'll be first up against the wall, trust me.

Reed; I think they're called Metis, with an accent on the I. Metis are what happened when French voyaguers married Natice Canadian wives and had childred. One of them Louis Something I forget (Riel) led a nasty prarie rebellion in the 1830 against the Anglo/British army out there.

The one reason I kind of dislike the Olympic hockey tournament is its small sample size, by definition. To me, it usually translates to hottest goalie wins, as opposed to the (hopefully) best team.

I will happy watch *anything*, except figure skating. I am a total Olympic junkie. Even the X games crap, which I usually loathe, apart from snowboard cross, which is awesome.

Just to note that the guy the thread is named after was among the biathletes screwed by the climatic conditions Reed noted. He finished 9th or 10th, but will have other chances to get his tenth medal.

Partially. He missed a few shots too as I recall. They pointed out during the broadcast that 60% of the Olympic winners of that events have shot clean and the most misses a winner has ever had is 2 for the whole course.


The X-Games "crap" is the best. No other sport rewards guts and risk-taking like the flippy-jumpy sports. Even figure skating is incredibly conservative. When a figure skater falls, everyone in the crowd does that disappproving tisk-tisk. When there's a wreck in snowboarding, the crowd cheers for them to finish the run and shows their appreciation for the balls.



The one reason I kind of dislike the Olympic hockey tournament is its small sample size, by definition. To me, it usually translates to hottest goalie wins, as opposed to the (hopefully) best team.

It's a Cup competition. It's not intended to award the best team, but the team that plays the best on the week. The advantages of Cup tournaments is that anything can happen and nobody can run away with it like is possible in a league. It's all about who has the focus and the guts in that critical moment. Like, there's no doubt that if the USA had played the USSR 10 times in 1980, the USA would win maybe twice, at the most, but on that day, they had the mental edge and created that moment. Fortune favors the bold, he who dares wins, etc. If sports were all about just rewarding the most talented team, it would be incredibly boring and predictable - like the Yankees in the 1950s. In fact, there'd be no point in playing the matches at all. You could just compare scouting reports. A bit like college football would be if the BCS had its way.

Besides, at least in an olympic team sport, there is pool play. In something like skiing or luge, if you fuck up just once, your chances are gone. Everything you've been working for for four years can go up in smoke in a split second.


The disadvantage of short tournaments are that a superior team can get bounced and so the finals might not be the dream final. A Cinderella team might crap out and make the marquee event boring. But that doesn't happen too often.

I like the English football tradition of having both kinds of competition and keeping them seperate, but that's not possible in international hockey. So we have to enjoy it on its own terms.

In tournaments like this or the Stanley Cup, it often appears that it's merely the hot goalie that wins over a superior team, but that's not exactly true. The elite teams are actually pretty evenly matched, so really any of the top five or six teams could conceivably win it in a league format if there were one. It might seem like it's just the goalie, but really, it just seems that way because it was so close and any one play or player will appear to make the difference when really you could pick any number of hundreds of moments and say that made the difference. It's not the whole game any more than that one interception was really the difference in the Super Bowl.

Maybe I'm not explaining that well.

A hot goalie from an otherwise weak team might eliminate one of those teams along the way, but then that's their fault for not finding a way to get it done. And it's extremely rare that a goalie alone can carry a weak team all the way to a medal.

Canada finally get a gold at home.

Yeah (see the other thread.)

jefe wrote:
\ One of them Louis Something I forget (Riel) led a nasty prarie rebellion in the 1830 against the Anglo/British army out there.

Louis Riel led two rebellions. The first was 1870-1 (the Red River Rebellion), which led to the creation of Manitoba (yes, my province was the only one created by a democratc revolution...we're also the only province to have shot our way into confederation). He was elected to Parliament for the new territory but never took his seat as they tried to arrest him when he came to Ottawa. He fled to the US, where he stayed for over a decade.

The second was the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The metis of Saskatchewan asked him to come back and lead their rebellion. By this time he was a serious religious nutjob a la Joan of Arc. He led this new rebellion, which was ended by General Wolseley (the one who would later lead the relief column to Khartoum) at Batoche after Riel unwisely decided a set-piece battle was a better idea than guerilla attacks. Riel was captured and hanged in Regina shortly therafter.

Just bumping this to note that Bjoerndalen has won silver in the 20km biathlon.

It's his 10th medal (the Winter Olympics record is 12, and held by his countryman, the cross-country skiier Bjorn Daehlie).

Norway now have 101 Winter Olympic golds, more than any other nation.

Antonio Gramsci wrote:
jefe wrote:
\ One of them Louis Something I forget (Riel) led a nasty prarie rebellion in the 1830 against the Anglo/British army out there.

Louis Riel led two rebellions. The first was 1870-1 (the Red River Rebellion), which led to the creation of Manitoba (yes, my province was the only one created by a democratc revolution...we're also the only province to have shot our way into confederation). He was elected to Parliament for the new territory but never took his seat as they tried to arrest him when he came to Ottawa. He fled to the US, where he stayed for over a decade.

The second was the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The metis of Saskatchewan asked him to come back and lead their rebellion. By this time he was a serious religious nutjob a la Joan of Arc. He led this new rebellion, which was ended by General Wolseley (the one who would later lead the relief column to Khartoum) at Batoche after Riel unwisely decided a set-piece battle was a better idea than guerilla attacks. Riel was captured and hanged in Regina shortly therafter.

In the spirit of this thread, given that I was going off of old memory, I will happily live with the bronze.