Occasional blogging, mostly of the long-form variety.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Olympic Hockey


Click for a larger view.

Via TBogg, the above snapshot is pretty funny. As I wrote elsewhere, the Men's Hockey Final was a good game. Team USA scored an amazing goal in the last minute of regulation, but Iginla and Crosby earned that OT game-winner. I was rooting for Team USA, but honestly, this meant so much more for Canada - it meant more than any other event for Canadians - so it's hard to be too upset.

Last Sunday, John Amato posted about NBC analyst Mike Milbury's wanker act as he (yet again) trashed Alexander Ovechkin in relation to Sidney Crosby. As I wrote then, I'm a Caps fan and Ovechkin is my guy. However, if you love the game, you have to respect talent in your opponents. Crosby is an exceptional player and a good leader. His Penguins teammate Malkin is also a superb player, and played on Team Russia with Ovechkin. It's ludicrous to knock either Crosby or Ovechkin - they're two of the best players out there, and it's early in their careers. That's not to mention that hockey is a team sport. The same is true of all team sports - Dan Marino never won a championship, but was one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. If a skilled individual player is selfish and hurts the team, that's another matter, but that applies to neither Crosby or Ovechkin, that I've seen. I think it's smarter to just enjoy some great hockey. (It was nice to see Jagr and some other older players out there, too.) I'd prefer it if the Olympics and the NHL used the wider rinks standard in Europe (they did in at least one Winter Olympics) because those rinks favor skill, finesse and passing and can feature sudden reversals. I also wish NBC hadn't broadcast key games only on cable. Still, there was some good hockey during the Olympics, and here's hoping the rest of the NHL season is good.

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