CANADA WINS!

Wonderful game - exciting right to the end - now that's what I call a game of hockey. Enjoyed all the Olympics and the Closing Ceremonies are terrific. Proud to be Canadian.

Sharon (N.B.)

Wonderful game - exciting right to the end - now that's what I call a game of hockey. Enjoyed all the Olympics and the Closing Ceremonies are terrific. Proud to be Canadian.

Sharon (N.B.)

Great game--but even curling was exciting at the Olympics! I want one of those closing ceremony giant moose for my lawn

Dawne

I watched the bit where the US scored with less than a minute to go, from there on. I was at my daughters for my eldest grandsons 34th birthday lol Reckon I felt old. So we watched the rest and then heard all sorts of noise without, they live not too far from Cole Harbour. Good to be 'Squidney' I guess.

A Stanley Cup ring and now an Olympic gold medal at the age of 22 is pretty impressive, eh? :)

The play by both teams made it an exciting game too watch......now they can go back to playing together in the NHL!

Mavia

ed the rest and then

It was a great game. In fact the whole tournament was great. It will be interesting to see if Miller is in goal tomorrow night against the Penguins. For some reason he doesn't do as well against them. Sidney seems to have his number: the first "Winter Classic," a hat trick in early Feb and now the gold medal game. But any which way....it was GREAT hockey.

Nancy

It really was a great game, showing amazing parity between the teams. Glad to see that the interview with the winner was pretty gracious. And nice to note that Ryan Miller was given the MVP of the Olympic Hockey tourney.

We were talking about this amongst our various hockey friends, and can't believe that the NHL brass (i.e. Bettman, owners) are so short-sighted and greedy as to make such a stink about the 2 week break, insisting on starting up again the day ofter the Olympics. It's absurd. As if the market would so tank with season tix holders, and other fans if the break were a few days longer. Honestly, it would be nice for the hockey players to be able to truly enjoy the Olympic experience and be there the whole time, and able to stay for the closing. Alex O. got "permission" from the team to stay for the closing as he was one of those that got some face-time for the Sochi

There was an interview with Gary Bettman, IIRC it was either Al Michaels or Bob Costas (but I could be wrong) and Bettman said again the NHL hadn't made a decision about the games for 2014, and on. Seems they're concerned with the marketing - being in the Sochi location won't have the same impact as a more Western Europe local, visibility, and then he actually cracked about NBC not having signed up yet. Personally, there's so little pure amateur sports in world class type events, that if the NHL guys are there, heck, let them have the experience. I don't mind 2.5 weeks of not going to hockey games at the arena. Understandably, pro teams don't want to take the chance of big injuries, but this tourney was a great example of no-fighting, just play. We thought there might be something last night 'cause by then who cares if you're thrown out for the remainder of the tourney, but it was a good, clean game. The other "hockey strategy" we were talking about was that Ronnie Wilson didn't put Orpik on Crosby, me thinking, hmmm, maybe Wilson thought the playing together the rest of the time thing wouldn't work so well. But, my DH totally disagreed, and anyway, for most of the tourney - except that one little moment, Crosby was pretty well shut down.

Oh, well, it was a great game. Now if the US women would decide to come to play next time, that would be nice. And congrats to the winners. We have to see Ryan Miller in the opposite goal this week - darn it!

ellice

LOL - we watched soooooo much curling. DH was so rooting for "the pants" that I'm afraid he wants some. Plus, he's been threatening to go curling - as if we don't have enough time in cold ice places. The facility at Laurel MD (The Gardens IceHouse) has 3 rinks, and a curling facility. With some Friday night party curling (we have other ref friends that indulge) - but it's about 35-40 mi from here so....But, we heard that a rink which collapesd (roof in) at Prince William (Dale City VA) during the big ice storm is contemplating coming back in the rebuild with 3 rinks (from 2) and also a curling center.

My only curling story....about 12 years ago (maybe my 2nd year reffing) I was working a kids (Squirts 10+under) game at a rink in Cabin John MD. Infamously for officials, it also had curling markings on this rink (in the rebuild there thankfully not so bad). Very close game, play-offs IIRC, and a late drop after a goalie covers. I go to drop the puck, look at the red dot, and think, hmmmm, seems a little close, but, oh well - must be the right dot. Throw down puck, and realize - YIKES - it was on a curling dot maybe 10 ft diagonally from the RH goal post. After the fortunate cover by the goalie on the shot...I picked up the puck from him, and the kid started laughing as I was red-faced and apologizing....he said "ah, I wasn't worried

- woke me up". Funny kid. That rink had no regular marks except a faint crease, but had curling lanes all across it so you had to count the lines and pick the right dot. Uck. That coach (now a ref) still gives me grief about the time I almost lost them some play-off game with the curling dot drop.

Ellice

Those pants! I was talking to DD about the Olympics, and of course The Pants were mentioned. She offered an opinion that there were some pretty good looking guys on that Norwegian team, and I hadn't even noticed--too busy looking at The Pants! (She was correct. I watched the final just to check that out--my story and I'm sticking to it) I understand they are actually from a golf wear company, so maybe you can head DH off to the green instead of the ice.

Dawne

"ellice" < wrote > It really was a great game, showing amazing parity between the teams. Glad

I was surprised to hear that the American team had actually been booked to fly home before the final, and the bookings had to be changed. Apparently the NHL players' association made the bookings, according to what the league wanted, and had assumed the Americans would be done earlier. So not only the closing ceremonies, but many NHL players would miss even time spent at the Games once their team was done playing. Or the big street parties in Vancouver.

Dawne

Yup, about the Norwegian guys. Back in the old days of the "big girl job" I spent a lot of time out in the field, which involved some large multi-national experiments. And...was telling DH that the guys from Norway were far and away so nice, and, well, absolutely the best-looking crew out there. I would hang out with them during parties when it was essentially me as the only female in the crew, besides maybe a couple of +60 wives with their tech husbands - sometimes an admin person down from the city, and then some locals. I have some clear memories of these very tall, soooo handsome, and equally nice Norwegians dancing in a really honky-tonk, middle-of-nowhere SW USA bar. Pretty funny. DH said, yeah - and I bet they were military, too. Yup - and married, but not going for the hanky-panky. Great to hang-out with

Pants - the announcers said they were from the company that does John Daly's pants. We actually have a golf course neighboring our development, and the teaching pro comes in to the coffee shop almost daily. I think we're putting golf on the list for when life straightens out. We have another friend that is a teaching pro at the local Trump course, and one of our best friends (a lawyer) that actually went to undergrad school on a golf scholarship - of course we met him drafting him to play on our old men's league team. So, plenty of opportunity for people wanting to teach us, but I think DH is extremely attached to anything on ice.

Ellice

We were talking about this last night. Prior to the tourney, the US Team was assumed to not make the medal round - surprise for all. But, evidently the posturing has begun from the NHL (i.e. Bettman) WRT the collective bargaining agreement which I believe is to be renegotiated this year. Our take is that the players really enjoy doing the Olympics, and if the NHL doesn't agree to a reasonable break for the Olympics we'd see a bunch of guys going regardless. The NHL gives up the All-Star weekend, which undoubtedly makes money for them, but the specialness, and visibility of the Olympics has to be worth something. Seems a shame for the players not to get the Olympic experience - if they want it.

Alex O. actually took a red-eye series of flights from Vancouver to be back here yesterday, and on the news they were showing CAPS practice. The coach was interviewed and said that the team didn't ask him to come back, and when he did get back it was assumed he'd just take the day off, but, he wanted to come to practice, so there he was.

So, the view of the streets in Vancouver was really something on the tv coverage. We love Vancouver, and enjoyed trying to spot places we'd been. DH has played a couple of tourneys there, and actually his most recent goalie pants, catch-glove, and some other stuff came from a great shop in Surrey. I have a couple of former colleagues, friends at U of Vic, and periodically we try to think of ways that maybe this would be a good place to move!

Ellice