hockey

Host Dave Thorvald with Dan Funboy wrap up the Men's and Women's hockey tournaments from Torino 2006 in this enhanced podcast with pictures. 

Topics include team leadership, puck possession, tactical strategies, tournament surprise teams, and a bit of looking ahead to 2010.

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Olympic Outsider Episode 6 - Hockey Tournament Wrap-up  (m4a)
Olympic Outsider Episode 6 - Hockey Tournament Wrap-up  (mp3)

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Quick wrap-up from the preliminary round of the Men's hockey tournament with Dave Thorvald and Toadler from upstairs.  Plus bold predictions for the quarter-final round and a wee bit of history tossed in.

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Chuq von Rospach writes a lot about NHL hockey on his blog. He's put together some notes on Olympic hockey with the same high level of quality:

Over on the women's side -- congratulations to Sweden for knocking the US out of the gold medal game, setting up the first ever international tourney where the US and Canada won't be fighting for the gold medal. This is historic, because it means it's no longer a two-team sport at the elite level -- and that can only improve the sport and interest in it.

Chuq goes on to point to the Vancouver Canucks OpEd stunned reaction to the Canadian men's hockey team loss.

In-game notes Canada vs Switzerland

Switzerland coming off a huge win versus Czech Republic while Canada has been clipping along nicely withs comfy wins versus Italy and Germany. 

The Swiss start goalie Gerber over Aebisher but no let down in play early as Gerber (wearing his NHL Carolina Hurricanes mask) is playing out of his mind.

Broduer looks a bit tired and unsteady and is coming out of his net a little *too* much for my liking but doing his soft goalie hands routine with some long lead passes and even getting passes back from the D (which isn't my favorite play).

Bertuzzi had an apparent goal disallowed when the play had been whistled down since he was in the crease.  Sakic, Iginla and Bert are playing OK but not as dominant as recent games and overthinking the plays a bit.  Bert's positional play and passing looks very good and he buried one guy into the boards.

Todd Bertuzzi does not wear a visor when playing for NHL Vancouver Canucks, and i don't think he was wearing one in the game Italy, yet here he is wearing a visor versus Germany (great pic Robert Scales). 

If i recall correctly, there is (an IIFC?) rule in which all players born after a certain age must wear a visor and perhaps Bertuzzi just found out about this rule?

Day Seven and I am in Heaven, How about you?

A few quick notes after busy day of attending the RainCity / Bryght-sponsored Symposium at Vancouver's Take 5 coffeeshop.

The event linked up the Torino street-maniacs Krug, Scales and (the not sooo maniacal) Bman at the BC lodge in Turin, Italy.  Participants on the Western hemisphere included Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati, plus photo-machine Roland Tanglao, boy-wonder Will Pate, very public Michael Tippet, photo queen Spiral Goddess, my buddy Bread and many more.

Dropping in with some thoughts, comments, ... coming in briefly cause so much going on!

Skating away with medals

The Canadian Men and Women both earned Silver in a brand-new event - Long-track Speed-skating Team Pursuit relay.  Two teams of 3 skaters start at opposite sides of track and race around 5 times or so.  The clock stops when the third skater crosses so some team dynamics, drafting come into play. 

The Women (3 skaters per race, but may alternate through 5 team members during heats) lost to the strong Germans led by the legendary Claudia Pechstein (this is her 8th Olympic medal), along with Annie Freisinger and Daniela Anschuetz Thoms (sniff and i knew her when she was just Daniela Anschuetz).

The men went down to a Italian team skating on mission in front of the home fans.  Cool event and did anyone even notice Canada does well at new sports in the Olympics (freestyle, short track, ...)?

Bleary-eyed after waking for the 4AM face-off, Dave Thorvald discusses the opening game of the Olympic hockey tournament in this 9:24 long podcast. 

Olympic Outsider Episode 2

Description: Canada beat Italy 7-2 - After a slow start, Canada turned on the jets versus a hardworking and speedy, but overmatched host squad.  Bertuzzi, Iginla and St. Louis had particularly nice games.

In other hockey news, Slovakia (thanks to 2 late golas by Marian Gaborik) beat Russia, Czech beat Germany (though uber-goalie Dominik Hasek sustained an injury) and mid-way through the 3rd period, Latvia and USA are tied at 3. Go Latvia!

Olympic Outsider podcast features audio discourse and chatter the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics sports with emphasis on Team Canada athletes. 

Host Dave Thorvald is joined by Mark Sommer to discuss recent noteworthy performances and remarks about the TV and other media coverage. 

Topics include: Women's moguls and half-pipe, Chinese figure skaters, Latvian fans, Long-track speed skating and then all about the Men's hockey tournament including bold predictions.

Olympic Outsider Episode 1

Well the public has spoken and they are crazy!  Well really, you never know what will happen in the Olympic tournament so I should keep my mouth shut but ...

Besides Canada (who i never pick against), I suggest that the Czechs are the team to beat. Two top goalies, forwards on fire and a better crop of defensemen than in years past.  Further, the Czechs play great as a team with a patient style which can explode at any minute for a couple of quick goals.

Russia (winners of this poll shown below) (oops, i accidentally thought the Russians, who were ahead through most of the poll, had won, sorry - Russia finished 2nd, Czechs third - see below for full details) are somewhat enigmatic darkhorses - they are disorganized like usual and don't always play with heart for their country (the old guard are resentful of the young players' money and lifestyle and vice versa).  That being said, with a crop of young guns taking over from the venerable stars, you could see some exciting performances if not a medal.