Offtopic: Olympics

So olympic hockey starts today (though the U.S. doesn't play till next friday. See [sports.yahoo.com] )

I just wanted to briefly lament that Japan's hockey team didn't make it this year. I remember reading an article in ESPN magazine about Japan's hockey league, and how their hockey team surprised the heck out of everyone at the last olympics, and it all sounded awfully charming. I was hoping I'd get to root for them (or at least watch their freakishly good fundamentals and nearly complete absence of body contact. : )

As a final note, and much closer to home, I didn't see any cornell alums on the team (though the Rangers make a good showing, right Age? : ) Does anyone know when/if there was a cornelian or alum on an olympic hockey team (ours or someone elses)?

Dana Antal is playing for the Canadian team, as is Joe Nieuwendyk.

Once again we are subjected to the nonsense of NBC's "plausibly live", and I have to avoid seeing the results of Cornell senior Hannah Hardaway in the freestyle skiing until they show it tonight (the event started at 11AM EST).

A total of 23 Ivy athletes will be competing in Salt Lake City.

I'll only repost the hockey info but you can find the whole list at www.ivyleaguesports.com.

Men-Canada

Joe Nieuwendyk (Cornell '05, Men's Ice Hockey for Canada)

Women-USA

Julie Chu (Harvard '06, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
Andrea Kilbourne (Princeton '03, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
Katie King (Brown '97, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
A.J. Mleczko (Harvard '99, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
Tara Mounsey (Brown '01, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
Angela Ruggerio (Harvard '02, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)
Sarah Tueting (Dartmouth '98, Women's Ice Hockey for U.S.)

Women-Canada

Jen Botterill (Harvard '02, Women's Ice Hockey for Canada)
Correne Bredin (Dartmouth '02, Women's Ice Hockey alternate for Canada)
Becky Kellar (Brown '97, Women's Ice Hockey for Canada)
Cherie Piper (Dartmouth '05, Women's Ice Hockey for Canada)
Tammy Schewchuk (Harvard '01, Women's Ice Hockey for Canada)

I'm not sure why Dana Antal isn't on the ivyleaguesports.com list, but Cornell has her on theirs.

[cornellbigred.fansonly.com]

Did Antal actually graduate? I know she left the team a year or two early to train with the Canadian national team, and I'm not sure what happened to her academically. She may have transferred to a non-Ivy to finish her degree, which would explain why the Ivy League doesn't have her listed.

Another possible explanation is that the Ivy League just didn't know that Antal had played at Cornell, especially since she left school before women's hockey started getting any attention.

So email them.... right at the top of the page, they ask for corrections.

Well, I'm here before bed, I might as well respond. . .

Antal spent a year at the University of Calgary, which may have caused her name to be dropped from the Ivy League list. After all, she isn't an Ivy League student anymore. I suppose I could email the Ivy League to find out for sure, but 1) it's not that important to me and 2) I'm waaaaay too lazy.

Joe Nieuwendyk (Cornell '05, Men's Ice Hockey for Canada)


did I miss something?

Dana Antal just scored about two seconds ago

I'm shocked that nobody corrected this yet. It is obviously a mistake. He is class of '88.

U.S. - Russia was a GREAT game. A tie seems appropriate. I hope that we get them again in the Gold Medal game (If that is even possible).

Dana's stats after the preliminary round, from [www.iihf.net]
2 goals, 1 assist, 3 points, 2PIM, +5.

The NBC commentators mentioned her time at Cornell under Team USA assistant Julie Sasner.

This has probably been discussed elsewhere, but why isn't NBC letting anyone (i.e. ESPN) show highlights after the even has already been shown? Seems a bit monopolistic, eh?

pat,
they have exclusive rights.
what is even more annoying is that they do not even have multimedia clips on the web. so for someone who missed the us sweep of the pipe (like me), there is no seeing the runs. oh well.

Nieuwendyk gets an assist on the 3d Canada goal against Germany. 3-0 Canada so far.

thank god....for awhile there i was ready to get in my car, drive to salt lake and shake some sense into my flailing fellow canadians

awwww god. maybe i spoke too damn soon. jeez.

don't drive. hop southwest. it's faster.

Relax. You made it out alive.

don't know if cdn game is on eveyrwhere right now so i won't spoil anything but the second period has the weirdest goal i've ever seen

Nieuwy just tied it up for CANADA. HUGE goal!!!!

BWHAHAHA

It's about time we played a real game of hockey.

GO CANADA GO!

it's paining me to watch germany play this game.

As it should.

BTW, has anybody else been enjoying the curling that they've shown after the hockey games? My Canadian colleague has been amused at the announcers having to explain so much of the sport, but in my first real exposure I'm finding it almost as fascinating as snooker. And it doesn't hurt that the US women are playing well, headed for the medal round. D'you suppose NBC will alter their original plan to show the men's curling semi-final (tape-delayed) in between the Canada and US men's ice hockey semifinals and instead show the women's curling semi involving the US? It would seem to be a no-brainer from a ratings point of view, but TV executives can often be brainless.

My housemates and I have discovered the joys of curling over the past week. It's really a great game which is surprisingly exciting to watch. It has had us jumping off the couch and screaming on a couple of occasions )

Nieuwy got great facetime in front of the cameras after his huge game-tying goal. Great to see him one-time and bury it, just like the old days.

I too have discovered the joys of curling, including the crusty US skip (don't you think he'd be a sea captain in days of yore?).

I really enjoyed the legendary announcing team and learning from "eavesdropping" on them (like listening to two Italian guys talking bocce strategy in the park) but it was even more interesting when Bob Papa had to fill in for the play-by-play announcer (who was ill) and basically became the voice of most of the US, asking questions like the novice he is and then tentatively making statements about the action/strategy, follwed by "right, Don?" to his color man.

yeah i have gotten into curling as well. some of my classmates dont agree, but they will see the light! curling rocks

CUlater '89 wrote:

I too have discovered the joys of curling, including the crusty US skip (don't you think he'd be a sea captain in days of yore?).

Just imagine:

"Yarr, 'tis a forty-two pound stone, and the ice be o'er fifteen fathoms long."

Probably enjoy it even more if you were stoned.

The US Skip(per) was pretty entertaining. Can't you just hear him yelling

HARD to starboard!

Ahh..The light warriors.. FF1.. that was a great game.

Curling is really fun. Try playing it once, and you'll immediately appreciate the game. It's one of those games that's simple to play (I guess to slide the rock down the ice), but hard to master.

ROTFLMAO! Exactly!

The figure skating commentators on CBC are morons!!! They just proudly mentioned that Sarah Hughes had a hockey connection - her father was on the Yale hockey team! They did go on to say that he played with a fellow named Dryden, but I was already yelling at the screen.

Maybe I should hunt down a CBC email address....

Christine

I heard the announcer say the same thing and I found a e-mail
address and let them know they were wrong.

CBC coverage? i am jealous!

sadly cornell is unheard of in most of canada. still, that is no excuse for mixing it up with Yale! ewwww! Yale is in New Haven!!!

this is not a spoiler. it's just a comment on the michelle kwan pre-skate segment...what the hell's with the self narration? anyways, hasn't her story been heard over and over and over and over again?

With the first Olympic Bocce Ball scheduled for the Summer of 2004 I am wondering if the Italians be favored?

From an interesting article on the US curling team:

"Somerville's father, Bud, is a past world champion and a beloved figure in the sport. Tim, on the other hand, is a notorious, dreaded and disliked curler who curses and glares and snarls on and off the ice. Mention his name at rinks around the country and curlers shake their heads and tell tales about his profanity, fights with his own team and run-ins with the law."

> this is not a spoiler. it's just a comment on the michelle kwan pre-skate segment...what the hell's with the self narration? anyways, hasn't her story been heard over and over and over and over again

Does this mean that somebody else on the planet is sick to death of Kwan?

This isn't a spoiler because the short was broadcast last night, and anyway it's just venting: I watched her short program last night and after, what, 9 years I still don't get what the judges see. It's not that she isn't a good technical skater -- she deserved her tech marks. But my god she is so unrelentingly bland and boring in presentation... yet she scores 5.9's across the board?

I will make her a deal, though. She can have the gold this time (now that Sarah's out of it) if she promises to just... go... away.

Update:

Men's hockey (start of 2nd period):

Sweden 1
Belarus 2

yeah. just checked this out. what a SURPRISE!!!! wish that i could be home watching it. hope they show lots of highlights this evening, even if (as they likely will) sweden comes back and wins the game.

Team Sweden goal @ 10:23 second prd

Sweden - 2
Belarus - 2

2-2 at the end of the second

ok. i know that sweden is a better team ( and i love mats sundin - he did this cute segment on the NHL channel on how to go safely into the boards when being checked with this group of little kids) but i'm rooting for the underdog. it'd be so cool if Belarus could come out on top.

Belarussian GOAL @ 2:47 of the 3rd!!!!!


Belarus 3
Sweden 2

Sundin @ 7:54. . .tie game

Sweden - 3
Belarus - 3

GOALGOALGOAL. . .Belarus just scored!!!

Sweden - 3

Belarus - 4

olympic page doesn't say score is final. is game over yet? do we have an official upset?? i sure hope so! ben, sounds as if you are watching the game. is it as good as i imagine??? damn. was going to tape it. wish that i had.

Game OVER. . .

Sweden - 3

Belarus - 4

Wow. Sounded like a great game. I was gonna stream the games from home so I could watch at work, but I've been a lazy ass. I think that was sufficient motivation to get it done though...

That really, really changes things.

How the heck did Belarus just beat the best team in the world?

pure adrenaline. when you have nothing to lose it seems people play a heck of a lot harder! i wonder why exactly that is.

While wondering if Brett Hull will ever pass the freaking puck instead of trying to blast it through the chest of the goaltender, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this Hockey Day at the Olympics.

Shocker for Belarus! Salo let in such a weak goal from a neutral zone shot for the winner. Since they only have 2 NHLers on the roster, they've got my full support from that side of the bracket.

The path to the gold medal game just got a lot easier for Canada. If they can get past Finland tonight...

The Czech Republic got a taste of their own medicine. In '98 they rode Hasek to the gold. Khabibulin was amazing. If you saw the offensive pressure the Czechs put on in the last 10 minutes, you'd just concede them a goal.

Another reason to love Herb Brooks. In response to the trash talking the German coach was doing how they welcome playing the Americans, Brooks said, "Maybe that's why they lost the Second World War". Another interesting Brooksism.

I watched the Canada-Finland women's game yesterday. Finland actually held a 3-2 lead at the 2nd intermission. Canada then went nuts. Scoring twice in 6 seconds to take the lead and 5 unanswered. That would've been a bigger upset than the Belarus one.

Russia wins, setting up a US rematch if we can beat Germany.

it's 5-0 USA...

hull just scored a beautiful goal...

The Hull goal was just incredible (as much as I hate the guy). But I prefer the beautiful give-n-go with Amonte and Roenick than some lucky between the leg swat.

They're not the best team in the world without Peter Forsberg (and even then....). And anything can happen in one game, as the USSR found out.

How the heck did Belarus just beat the best team in the world?

I guess just like Clarkson last year, they are not the best team. Quite frankly, although many like to complain about the US, and heaven knows in the past they have deserved it, this year they are looking like they may be the best team. As an aside, I'd have Brett Hull on my team any day.

This entire message has been edited out of existence. Sorry, Rich, if you read this before it was edited. I just read your post incorrectly.

Is there anything more intriguing than a flame that has been obliterated? Nope, didn't see it, apple. And sorry for mistakenly upsetting you. I'll be the first to admit that my syntax hasn't been exactly crystal clear lately.

Okay, so was I the only one who dutifully avoided possible sources of information on the results of the women's curling semifinals in hopes that NBC would show the USA-SUI match, waited around through about an hour of postgame after USA-GER hockey, watched the preview of the upcoming curling coverage, and then was utterly flabbergasted when Jim Lampley [name corrected through the magic of revisionism] revealed the result of the match before NBC showed it? How much brainpower does it take not to blurt out the result of an event you're carrying tape-delayed the same evening?!?

If I'm not alone here I encourage others to write to sports@msnbc.com and let them know how much you appreciated that piece of spoilage.

If you want to talk about idiocy, I think you have to include the fact that their hockey coverage has missed showing more than one goal because they hadn't come back from commercial yet.

Well...Jim McKay is 80 years old. And I'm pretty sure that it wasn't NBC's plan to reveal spoilers of their own broadcast.

Speaking of McKay and spoilers...he was the host of the primetime ABC-TV broadcast that showed the tape-delay of the Miracle game in 1980. It's funny to watch now, because McKay goes out of his way to say that he won't reveal the result for those who didn't know the outcome. Meanwhile the blue-screen behind him shows a wild, flag-waving celebration on the streets of Lake Placid outside the Olympic Center.

The commercial-timing thing isn't just the network's fault. In fact I think there is a rule that they have to drop the puck within 20 seconds of a stoppage. Or something like that. I tend to like the fact that the officials don't give a bleep about any network hoo-hah...speeds up the games. What NBC should've done is what the I've seen networks do for a soccer match...have a rolling sponsorship of a period.

For the most part, I've been very pleased with the NBC coverage. Having 3 networks going throughout the day has been terrific, and you can count on CNBC to be hockey/curling central. Plus the analysts have been top-notch.

Actually, I think it was Jim Lampley; I realized Jim McKay was a lot older and somebody else. Anyway, whatever his name is (the one who was wearing the Canada jacket after the last game), he looks really out of place talking to the hockey people, who are basically ESPN's hockey crew.

yeah. that guy bothers me. it seems as if he doesn't fit in.

It is Jim Lampley, right?

If he's the one who looks kinda like a monkey. Am not sure. Am not very knowledgable about announcers and sports broadcasters. He's always the one on the right (behind the desk) during olympic hockey coverage.

Rich Hovorka '96 wrote:

The commercial-timing thing isn't just the network's fault. In fact I think there is a rule that they have to drop the puck within 20 seconds of a stoppage. Or something like that. I tend to like the fact that the officials don't give a bleep about any network hoo-hah...speeds up the games. What NBC should've done is what the I've seen networks do for a soccer match...have a rolling sponsorship of a period.

For the most part, I've been very pleased with the NBC coverage. Having 3 networks going throughout the day has been terrific, and you can count on CNBC to be hockey/curling central. Plus the analysts have been top-notch.

OK, but here's the thing... NBC spent enough money getting the Olympics, and enough time advertising them to us, and has enough staffers working on them (some 3,200 NBC employees in Salt Lake City for the games), that if that rule exists (and I have no reason to doubt it does, and if it does then I think it's a great rule because, as you said, it speeds up the games), they should have been prepared for it. The rolling sponsorships that you mentioned for soccer work very well, and enable the viewer to get into the flow of the game very well, as opposed to having a commercial at nearly every stoppage that cuts into play.

That said, I think by and large, they've done a great job of coverage. While I haven't seen a lot of the events (damn you, job!), I'm pleased with what I've seen. And as Rich said, the hockey analysts have been top-notch. They really did bring in the best in the business, and not a hint of Barry Melrose!

Hey! I LIKE Barry Melrose! )

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with him?

If you can manage to wade through the greasy mullett, he's a pompous, self-righteous ass. All he ever talks about were his glory days in LA (when he couldn't even deliver with the Great One). He's extremely opinionated, and usually wrong.

One of my big gripes is Melrose's involvement with ESPN's coverage of the Frozen Four. Everyone else tries to convey the excitement/uniqueness of college hockey (ok, maybe sometimes the announcers lay it on too thick) while the whole time Melrose seems bored and of the opinion that it's second rate hockey. They can't find someone to do analysis that can express at least a modest amount of enthusiasm for the college game? I'm getting angry now just thinking about it...

OK. I guess I'm of the minority. i somehow tend to find his coverage of most things hockey entertaining (tho it might simply be the fact that i love hearing him talk - he has the funniest faint canadian accent and silly canadian lingo. he makes me think backwoods hick and for some sily reason i love that!)

Melissa wrote:

i love hearing him talk - he has the funniest faint canadian accent and silly canadian lingo.

Exactly! Just imagine him saying "Out and about in a boat, eh?"

Other than that, his greasy hair and attitude can be a little much...

I have exactly one comment to make about Barry Melrose:

"Say, have we mentioned yet that St. Lawrence is a small school?"

Beeeej

Hey, NBC is doing a great job,IMHO. You guys from out of town should realize that commercials interupt broadcasts of hockey. How come you don't complain about Gradys broadcasts? After all when he goes to commercial breaks and comes back the action has usually been restarted. I've never remember once reading about complaints here about that. Of course I certainly don't remember every post, so I could be wrong.

Anyway, I still like the US hockey team, Michele Kwan, and the TV coverage so far. No one is perfect, however.

> ...I think there is a rule that they have to drop the puck within 20 seconds of a stoppage.

I heard it was only 15 seconds. I love it. Now if they'd only apply it to ALL sports -- especially baseball... heh-heh...

BTW, I seem to remember Niewy getting caught by the 15(?)-second rule. It was during one of the earlier(?) games, and he failed to make it to the face-off circle in time. The ref, abiding by the rule, dropped the puck anyway, and the opposing player had himself a rather, umm, stress-free face-off win. I'll bet Joey felt kinda embarrassed about that one...

(I don't know how often that has happened, but I'm for anything that cuts down on the lollygagging -- especially when the dawdlers suffer the humorous consequences...)

NBC is doing a better job than I expected.

Well, with LynahCam, I no longer care about Grady coming back late for home games at least. And I never realizaed how much time he usually misses due to commercial until we got the video...

Greg Berge wrote:

NBC is doing a better job than I expected.

That's certainly true. Given the way CBS loaded up TNT with the same sports-anemic human interest crap, I am impressed that the CNBC (and to some extent MSNBC) coverage has been mostly sports. Of course Jim the Host has been abysmal.

I will make her a deal, though. She can have the gold this time (now that Sarah's out of it)

Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee...!!!

Beeeej

> OK. I guess I'm of the minority. i somehow tend to find his coverage of most things hockey entertaining

But not alone, Melissa. I think Melrose is a hoot. Nice Canadian Hick Makes Good.

I'm also glad that frightening mullet is back -- it's a trademark. He tried to go with the all-business-Jim-Rome sharp look, and... well, he looked like a rural Canadian goofball with a $300 hair cut.

Now, if Don Cherry were to do color for the Frozen Four....