XXV Winter Olympic Games

[Jimbo]

Interesting Opening Ceremonies.  Apparently, multiple site games are now the new normal.  I thought having the Parade of Nations at four different locations simultaneously was outside-the-box thinking and pulled off well.

 

[Joseph Zarr]

I think US Women's Hockey have outshot their first two opponents 199-30. Man, they are absolutely cooking. Outscored first two opponents 10-1. Outshot the Finns 49-11 today.

[Jimbo]

Breezy Johnson wins gold in the Women's Downhill.  Loses a little luster when Lindsay Vonn crashes out 13 seconds in.  I was up at 4:30 to watch live.  Not to diminish the seriousness of the situation, but it was interesting to view the rescue effort and everything that went into it and how the event handled it.  Thirty minutes in all.  NBC cut away after the 24th skier, so I switched to Peacock.  Then the Andorran skier (#26) crashes and had to airlift her out as well.  Since it involved Andorra, NBC didn't feel the need to mention that.  Then the competition finishes up with the South American skiers (Chilean and Argentinian).

 

ETA; The addition of drone footage during the Alpine races is pretty cool.

 

 

[thebruce44]

6 hours ago, Jimbo said:

ETA; The addition of drone footage during the Alpine races is pretty cool.

 

 

Its amazing. I didn't know I needed this!

[young guns]

I just came here to mention how awesome the drone footage is for these races.

[young guns]

Pretty upset that we got to see 1 end of the mixed doubles curling gold medal match and now it's being preempted by figure skating fluff.

[thebruce44]

10 hours ago, young guns said:

I just came here to mention how awesome the drone footage is for these races.

It really shows the sense of speed that they don't capture on the still cameras.

[Samurai Bucky]

10 hours ago, young guns said:

Pretty upset that we got to see 1 end of the mixed doubles curling gold medal match and now it's being preempted by figure skating fluff.

They actually have some pretty good highlights on YouTube.  You won't see all of the ends, but they show most of the scoring portions of the ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oka9VFmX58E

[Jimbo]

A nice huge win for Shiffrin.  Unfortunate breaks for the 2nd and 3rd place racers, but Mikaela is the GOAT.  Watched on Peacock with the British commentators, then on NBC with the American commentators.  Both have pros and cons.  Some people rag on some of these folks and say what you will, at least the commentators on the American feeds know when to get excited, adds to the viewing pleasure.

USA medals in XC sprint relay, an exciting finish.  Women's race entertaining as well.  Missed the part with the dog loose on the course.

What is with the American who skis cross country shirtless?...twice.

--

Today, USA v CAN in the women's hockey final, again.  This is on my to do list as soon as I get home.  Stolz races again today.

 

[nate82]

I haven’t watched a single second of the Olympics but I have heard there is some controversy on Canada and curling.  

[homer]

 

[Jimbo]

A good day to be a Badger.  I went in thinking the hockey game was going a nice relaxing watch ended up getting pretty anxious.  My favorite player with tying goal to keep it alive.  The best part of the winning goal was I able to see it trickle over the line.  After the game I had took up some background.  Goaltender Frackel was the one who got punked by Daryll Watts in the 2021 NCAA title game.  Swiss phenom Lani Muller was also on that Northeastern team.  I remember watching her as a 15 year old in the Sochi Games and thinking "Johnson better get her".

Stolz takes silver.  Unfortunately, the result was spoiled but still watched to see how it played out.  He was in the final pair and knew before hand he had his hands full, the Olympic record broken twice just minutes before hand.  The Chinese Ning with an out-of-body performance.  Stolz was a -2000 favorite.

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

Watching Canada-Finland semifinal hockey game, and no wonder Team Canada always looks like they have skaters everywhere on the ice...apparently they get to play with 6 on the ice with their passive line change strategy.  They did get caught with a penalty once early in the game (they actually almost had 7 on at that point) and should have gotten another penalty late in the 1st.

If I'm one of their opponents, any time you see them going through a change at full strength, send the puck towards their bench - you're likely to hit someone or draw one of the guys going off the ice right back onto it.  They have guys going over the boards onto the ice well before the other players are anywhere close to the bench to come off.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Check that - Canada hockey also gets the referees on their side, too....

Finland goes up 2-0, then every penalty, questionable icing, offsides, and other call goes Canada's way.  Their last 2 goals should've been waived off due to goalie interference and an offsides on a 2nd power play that was called based on Canada being great at finding sticks to skate their faces into and react like they got slapped in the face with a tortilla point blank to sell the call.

[Samurai Bucky]

15 hours ago, homer said:

 

The picture of the dog crossing the finish line was funny.

[Joseph Zarr]

US vs Canada in the Men's Hockey Final. Absolutely steamrolled Slovakia. This is the Finals we all wanted. May we have our best game and give the Canucks hockey hell.

[Samurai Bucky]

NM

[Joseph Zarr]

18-of-18 (!!!) on Penalty Kill for the Red White n Blue. 3-for-3 in the Gold Medal victory vs Canada. Billy G sacrificed speed and elite offensive zone talent for veteran grit, Face-Off probability, and Penalty Kill. Sure looks like a good set of decisions now. He can thank Helley. My gods to get that type of Goalie performance at that stage? Legendary stuff. That performance will never ever be forgotten. Proud US hockey fan today, boys!

[nate82]

Has it ever happened before that both the men’s and women’s teams won in similar fashion against the same country?  Same score also.

[Samurai Bucky]

I still don't understand why they don't wear full face guards.  I understand they want the freedom.  Hughes' mouth looked screwed up.

Back in the day, they didn't have to wear helmets.  Old time hockey!

[HarveysWBs]

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

2 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

18-of-18 (!!!) on Penalty Kill for the Red White n Blue. 3-for-3 in the Gold Medal victory vs Canada. Billy G sacrificed speed and elite offensive zone talent for veteran grit, Face-Off probability, and Penalty Kill. Sure looks like a good set of decisions now. He can thank Helley. My gods to get that type of Goalie performance at that stage? Legendary stuff. That performance will never ever be forgotten. Proud US hockey fan today, boys!

Feel really good for Helle. He has been so good for my Jets so many times, and the playoff choker narrative is oppressive. Nice to have him as hero versus a Chuckie.

A great hockey game. Feel for Canadian fans. That was a heartbreaker, and 3v3 is such a hard way to lose that kind of game. Puck gets hung up just a little bit with Werenski, and there's a cross ice pass for an easy goal. You kind of felt, this whole tournament, if Canada kept falling behind and struggling to put away teams, it was going to catch up with them. They deserved this win by the numbers and game flow, but that's hockey. Hard to build a huge narrative around random bounces, but I am sure many will try. All I know is, despite having some complicated feelings, that was an incredible athletic event.

[Joseph Zarr]

Helley will now go down in the history books. I absolutely LOVE that for him. He was easily the best American on that ice today. 'The Save' will go down in hockey lore forever. What a stunning world class ELITE performance under the brightest of lights.

[RedStickBrew]

 

[Fear The Chorizo]

there are some fantastic memes/reels with that insane Helley save as the image