The Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi, RUS

[kishnevi]

I understand that Mr. Miller did not medal today.  This does not Bode well.

[Mirror Image]

Wake me up when it gets to the Summer Olympics.

[lescamil]

Wake me up when men's hockey starts. I tried watching some of the other things. I really did. I just can't care about anything I normally don't care about.

[The new erato]

Wake me up when it gets to the Summer Olympics.

You really shouldn't play that much Delius!   

[Mirror Image]

You really shouldn't play that much Delius!   

[springrite]

Can't stand the X Games imports.

Watched some luge, downhill and curling. Kimi loves the downhill. She was really worried when they crash.

Kimi decided to support the Aussies. So she hasn't had much to cheer so far.

[Marc]

I got a bit emotional because of the Olympic victory of Stefan Groothuis (1000 meter speedskating for men), twice one of the favourites for this distance before, almost fell in Torino 2006, suffering from high fever in Vancouver 2010, former 'nutcase' (depressions, suicidal) and severely injured more than once, and now, finally, Olympic champion.
Also Canadian Denny Morisson, injured many times, sponsored by a gay nightclub, did a terrific job with his silver medal.

The women's downhill was historical, too, with a shared gold medal for Dominique Gisin (Suisse) and Tina Maze (Slovenia). They look like twin sisters!

[Karl Henning]

I got a bit emotional because of the Olympic victory of Stefan Groothuis (1000 meter speedskating for men), twice one of the favourites for this distance before, almost fell in Torino 2006, suffering from high fever in Vancouver 2010, former 'nutcase' (depressions, suicidal) and severely injured more than once, and now, finally, Olympic champion.

A triumph!

[The Six]

[North Star]

Sweden's hockey team looked dangerous indeed, and the Czechs may well be too, with their no. 1 goalie guarding the net.

[Marc]

Moscow, summer 1980.

When the world lived in peace.

(Bad result for the US of A, though: no medals.)

[lescamil]

Sweden's hockey team looked dangerous indeed, and the Czechs may well be too, with their no. 1 goalie guarding the net.

Sweden looked good today, but they ran out of gas in the middle of the game and let the Czechs back in. Not good for a medal-expected favorite.

[North Star]

Sweden looked good today, but they ran out of gas in the middle of the game and let the Czechs back in. Not good for a medal-expected favorite.

Yeah, but Sweden has always underperformed in the games that aren't really important.

[North Star]

Men's Ice Hockey, Finland 8 - 4 Austria

Obviously defensive playing will have to improve a lot, and finishing too - it could have very easily been 10-4 at least. But a reasonably promising start, with 16 players getting points. Selänne has some trouble with the back of his neck - nothing major, but he only played in the first period, assisting Granlund's goal.

Jarkko Immonen & Mikael Granlund both scored twice, with Jussi Jokinen & Petri Kontiola each scoring and assisting once.
Michael Grabner scored three goals for Austria...

Rask had a nightmarish game with 4 goals out of 20 shots - lots of bad luck and bad defensive playing there, and none of the goals was Rask's fault, though.

[springrite]

For a country that has only a few hundred people that plays the game, and half of them from the Kopitar family, Slovenia is playing really well and holding their own against Russia. Slovenia may well end with no points but a showing that they should be proud of.

Come on, Kopi!

[mc ukrneal]

Plushchenko injured and pulls out of men's skating! Russia now have no one in the men's competition.

[lescamil]

Henrik Zetterberg is out of the Olympics with a herniated disk. Possibly out for the season with Detroit. I think Sweden is finished now. After a discouraging second half against the Czechs, and with their best player and captain going down, they will be in tough for the rest of the tournament.

On the other hand, team USA looked very good against an undermatched Slovak team. Canada on the other hand never really got going against an even worse Norwegian team. I think USA and Russia have to be heavy favorites early to meet in the gold medal game. It's still very early, though.

[North Star]

Henrik Zetterberg is out of the Olympics with a herniated disk. Possibly out for the season with Detroit. I think Sweden is finished now. After a discouraging second half against the Czechs, and with their best player and captain going down, they will be in tough for the rest of the tournament.

On the other hand, team USA looked very good against an undermatched Slovak team. Canada on the other hand never really got going against an even worse Norwegian team. I think USA and Russia have to be heavy favorites early to meet in the gold medal game. It's still very early, though.

I'd be more worried about Russia's game against Slovenia than Sweden's game against Czechs.
But it's indeed too early to say anything based on Finland's Russia's, Canada's or Sweden's games yet. USA was impressive, sure. Probably 4 of those 5 will be playing for the medals, but that's hardly surprising.

[Brahmsian]

Well, if they handed out gold medals after the first game of the round robin, the USA would have the gold, and they would have had the gold medal as well in Salt Lake City and Vancouver.

I was surprised that USA blew out Slovakia 7-1, as I consider Slovakia one of the contenders. 

Doesn't mean a thing.  USA could potentially play Slovakia in the Gold Medal game, and a different outcome might occur.

It's the preliminary round.  Not about who plays the best opening game or has the most glamourous score in game 1. 

It's about playing your best game by the time the pre-lim round is over.

Looking forward to the Russia versus USA game, and the Canada versus Finland game.  Should both be dandies! 

[North Star]

Well, if they handed out gold medals after the first game of the round robin, the USA would have the gold, and they would have had the gold medal as well in Salt Lake City and Vancouver.
I was surprised that USA blew out Slovakia 7-1, as I consider Slovakia one of the contenders. 
Doesn't mean a thing.  USA could potentially play Slovakia in the Gold Medal game, and a different outcome might occur.
It's the preliminary round.  Not about who plays the best opening game or has the most glamourous score in game 1. 
It's about playing your best game by the time the pre-lim round is over.
Looking forward to the Russia versus USA game, and the Canada versus Finland game.  Should both be dandies! 

+1 to all of this, except Slovakia - I didn't believe for one second that they would stand a chance with their aging team, and not having their best goalie in there for the US game was just idiotic.

Damn that Switzerland - Sweden game was fine, at least until Sweden scored that goal right before the end.