| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| The 4th Line Banger |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 12:10:32
Top 10 Olympic Edition
On the morning of what many are coining ‘Super Sunday’ I am inspired to do a quite rant about the Olympics to this point. Good, Bad, Ugly, and indifferent.
Here we go!
1) I feel a little ignorant and arrogant as a Canadian after the first week of the Hockey Tourney. Let’s face it, the quality of the likes of Germany, Belarus, Latvia, Switzerland, and Norway is not up to the standards of the Hockey Super nations. However, they still are World Class and deserve that respect. They get none.
2) Does anyone else find is garbage that the 2 best guys in hockey media (Don Cherry and Ron MacLean) have no part of the games but we are stuck listening to the likes of Nick Kypreos, Mike Milbury, Darren Pang, and Pierre McGuire?? When ‘Mean Gene’ Principe is at the Olympics, it should trigger the Broadcast School’s across Canada to join forces and make sure that we have quality sportscasters in Sochi. At least Dave Hodge and Bob Mackenzie bring come credibility to the Canadian Hockey Media.
3) Where’s Stevie Y??? I have not watched a single interview with him or any of the other Executives. Gretzky brought some Hollywood to the past games that Stevie Y just doesn’t have.
4) Through 15 Olympic Hockey games we have not watched a single fight (or major penalty for that matter) or a single iced puck player get taken out. Do we need more proof that hockey can actually be played the way it was designed and still be physical and entertaining??? Love the IIHF direction that anything that even resembles a head shot gets a penalty.
5) Does anyone know who this stand-in for Peter Forsberg is??? Someone should let him know that the Olympics have started. 2 games, 26 minutes, 0 for everything. Maybe his feet/ankles have finally ended his brilliant career. Could have been a great Swan Song. Here’s to it turning around for him this week.
6) Totally not hockey related, but someone in the American Media should at least apologize for saying that Betty Fox is the mother of actor Mike Fox. I mean, the woman has done so much in the legacy of her son, getting her identity correct is the least the media could do.
7) When is Ovechkin going to realizes that he has 22 other guys to help him win? I am expecting Jagr to teach the lad a little something about the proper way to carry a team on his back. Just like Phaneuf taught Ovechkin the beauty of the North American game a few years back at the World Juniors by beating the crap out of him for 2 periods to the point he could no longer continue. Totday, Ovechkin will learn a valuable lesson through these Olympics when the Russian team does not succeed. This will make him better than ever before and catapult him past Crosby as the not only the most exciting player in the game, but the most complete. Ovechkin will learn how important it is to play a team game to win by losing doing everything on his own. (Or I will be completely wrong and Ovechkin will own the Czecks. Either way, today's game is a defining moment in Ovechkin's still young career.)
8) I wonder how many NHLer’s are going to come back to the league 5 lbs heavier after laying on the beach in Mexico or Hawaii? I bet most of the Oilers will!
9) Hype vs. Substance. I know it’s still the prelim round, but this was touted to be potentially the best hockey tournament of all time. We have a long way to go to get into the same sentence as the 72 Summitt Series, the 87 Canada Cup, and the 96 World Cup, or the 02 Olympics. I’m still optimistic as the best hockey should be played this week. That being said, the quality of hockey has been NHL or better quality.
10) One beef with scheduling. ‘Super Sunday’ should have been ‘Super Saturday’. We should have watched this brilliant 3 game set (Russia vs. Czech Republic, Canada vs. USA, and Finland vs. Sweden) yesterday. It’s so much harder to drink copious levels of Malt Beverages watching Germany play Belarus and most can do a significantly better job of nursing that post-libation illness at home on a Sunday rather than at work on Monday as many of us will be doing tomorrow.
See you Next Week.
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