The opening ceremonies took place last night (Friday, February 12) for the 2010 Vancouver Games. The Hat Trick is a big fan of the winter Olympics...obviously getting to see some great men's hockey is part of that...but for other reasons as well.
In addition the Men's Hockey, the Hat Trick is a big fan of Women's Hockey and especially the U.S. women's team. This post is actually being written while watching the opening women's game between Sweden and Switzerland (0-0 in the first period). Women's ice hockey was added as a medal sport at the 1998 Nagano, Japan Winter Games and the U.S. team won the gold medal, with Canada winning the silver medal and Finland winning bronze. The biggest difference between the men's game and the women's game is that checking is not allowed in the women's game so you see a lot more finesse in how the women play the game (Finland now up 1-0 after a nice goal). The U.S. women's team plays China tomorrow (February 14) at 3:00 EST...unfortunately the Hat Trick will be in a car driving to West Palm Beach, Florida and will miss most of it. I doubt there will be a radio option, even with XM/Sirius in the car!
The Hat Trick is also a big fan of the downhill skiing, especially the downhill and slalom. Skiing is one of the few sports the Hat Trick can do well so it's always fun to watch...especially the speeds of the skiers! The speed skating is also fun to watch along with some of the ski jumping. Should be a good two weeks for the Hat Trick...especially since it gives my Red Wings a much needed rest to stop the bleeding all these recent losses have caused to the team's postseason opportunities.
Happy Olympic Watching!
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Wings Lose a Rough One
The Hat Trick got to watch the Red Wings yesterday due to a national broadcast on NBC. Needless to say the Hat Trick has missed quite a few games this year...unemployment forcing the decision to cancel the NHL Center Ice package and then the pissing contest between Versus and Direct TV has not helped matters...but I digress...
The game was a match-up of the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup teams...namely the Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Wings played solid throughout the game and kept is close forcing an overtime and getting an important point that is desperately needed for making the playoffs. Unfortunately the shoot out didn't go as well with the Penguins taking the victory on a Evgeni Malkin backhander that Wings Goalie Jimmy Howard couldn't grab.
Needless to say there is a reason why the Penguins are unbeaten in shootouts this season. The Hat Trick knew this was a problem going into the shootout but I had hope since Jimmy Howard had played very well throughout the game. At least the Wings got a point and are sitting at the number eight spot in the conference right now with the Calgary Flames.
It's been a difficult year for Wings fans...the salary cap really hurt the team by forcing them to part with several key players. Add in a really tremendous amount of injuries and it just adds up to some bad losses and bad hockey. Luckily the Wings are starting to get some players back so hopefully we'll start seeing that with the standings although even the Hat Trick could not have predicted that the Wings, if the playoffs started today, would be counted out for the first time since the 1980s. Luckily they have time to recover and hopefully we'll see that in the coming weeks, especially with the Olympic break in play that is coming up later in February.
Let's hope things improve otherwise it's going to be a boring playoff season for the Hat Trick.
The game was a match-up of the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup teams...namely the Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Wings played solid throughout the game and kept is close forcing an overtime and getting an important point that is desperately needed for making the playoffs. Unfortunately the shoot out didn't go as well with the Penguins taking the victory on a Evgeni Malkin backhander that Wings Goalie Jimmy Howard couldn't grab.
Needless to say there is a reason why the Penguins are unbeaten in shootouts this season. The Hat Trick knew this was a problem going into the shootout but I had hope since Jimmy Howard had played very well throughout the game. At least the Wings got a point and are sitting at the number eight spot in the conference right now with the Calgary Flames.
It's been a difficult year for Wings fans...the salary cap really hurt the team by forcing them to part with several key players. Add in a really tremendous amount of injuries and it just adds up to some bad losses and bad hockey. Luckily the Wings are starting to get some players back so hopefully we'll start seeing that with the standings although even the Hat Trick could not have predicted that the Wings, if the playoffs started today, would be counted out for the first time since the 1980s. Luckily they have time to recover and hopefully we'll see that in the coming weeks, especially with the Olympic break in play that is coming up later in February.
Let's hope things improve otherwise it's going to be a boring playoff season for the Hat Trick.
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