The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

He looked ok to me on that save against Malkin.

But seriously, what goals would you fault him on? He made a couple big stops, a whole bunch of 'normal' stops, and let in 3 goals that were very nice shots/plays from talented hockey players.

So my answer? Not sizzling hot, but certainly not cold. A solid B+ performance.

I actually missed all of the goals because I was watching the Gophers choke to Purdue. I just looked after 2 and seen Russia had 3 goals on 20 shot attempts but Canada was winning 7-3.

[MikeVic]

I thought shots don't count or something.

[EagleFan]

She had it, except the landing...

Doesn't that technically mean that she DIDN'T have it?

[MikeVic]

Some nice pics in here:
Hot olympic babes of vancouver 2010 - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I thought shots don't count or something.

Haha

Well my point was that as soon as Canada starts scoring like they should have earlier the goalie doesnt much matter.

[Johnny93g]

Awesome game by the Canadians. I only got to watch the 1st period, but it was over after that. The time keeper kept giving us updates during my hockey game.

For those who saw the game, was the 3rd period just blah, had the Russian's given up, or was it still competitive?

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Haha

Well my point was that as soon as Canada starts scoring like they should have earlier the goalie doesnt much matter.

It helps when your goalie doesn't do something boneheaded and have you playing from behind.

[Big Fo]

Czechs and Finns are still 0-0 in the third period.

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Some nice pics in here:
Hot olympic babes of vancouver 2010 - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

It's not the point of that thread but I burst out laughing at the Sam Cassell/ET picture.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

Awesome game by the Canadians. I only got to watch the 1st period, but it was over after that. The time keeper kept giving us updates during my hockey game.

For those who saw the game, was the 3rd period just blah, had the Russian's given up, or was it still competitive?

Russia didn't give up, the 3rd seemed reasonably intense, Canada just sort of locked it down, both goalies made some big stops.

[sterlingice]

Fins with a power play goal to go up 1-0 in the 3rd. It's going to be a crazy last 6 minutes of the game.

SI

[Logan]

Empty netter for Finland. Agree with the announcers in that being too early to pull the goalie.

[Fidatelo]

I'm happy for Finland, I think they are my second favorite team next to Canada (mostly because of Teemu, but just in general Fins seem kind of like European Canadians... or something).

[Logan]

Very excited that we're on SWE-SVK now. I love watching Henrik and the rest of Sweden play.

[Fidatelo]

Ignorant Question of the Day: why are Sweden and Finland so much better than Norway and Denmark at hockey? Sweden I guess I can kind of understand, they have almost twice the population, but Finland, Norway, and Denmark all appear to be similar in size and location in Europe. There must be something culturally or perhaps geographically that separates them?

[MikeVic]

Maybe Jari Kurri led to more younger kids playing hockey?

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Ignorant Question of the Day: why are Sweden and Finland so much better than Norway and Denmark at hockey? Sweden I guess I can kind of understand, they have almost twice the population, but Finland, Norway, and Denmark all appear to be similar in size and location in Europe. There must be something culturally or perhaps geographically that separates them?

Coaching. Interests.

The same could be said about why Norway is so much better in skiing and cross country than Finland.

[johnnyshaka]

Had a power outage in our neighbourhood tonight and missed the first period. Missed the 2nd period taking care of the wife (recovering from surgery she had yesterday) and getting the kids fed. Saw the last bit of the 3rd and obviously loved what I saw.

Just watched the first half of the game online and boy, that was definitely some fun hockey to watch!!! Team Canada definitely had the pucks bouncing their way tonight. Nabby really didn't play "terribly" as at least half of those goals weren't his fault...just unlucky.

Didn't see any of the US game but I'm assuming it was much like the first game they played against each other...tight checking and solid netminding...am I close?

Great to see the Fins find a way to get through...those guys are just plain fun to watch.

And the Sweeden/Slovakia game is likely set to go down to the wire...sweet!!

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Coaching. Interests.

The same could be said about why Norway is so much better in skiing and cross country than Finland.

I've just never understood why the Netherlands aren't big hockey players. Those folks are born with skates on. I guess few of them ever decided to pick up a stick and slap a rock around, then punch the guy next to them.

[jbergey22]

Today is setting up very nicely for that USA/Canada re-match.

EDIT Well that sure changed in a hurry

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I've just never understood why the Netherlands aren't big hockey players. Those folks are born with skates on. I guess few of them ever decided to pick up a stick and slap a rock around, then punch the guy next to them.

I think it is all about culture.

Norway skiing
Sweden Ice Hockey
Netherland Speed Skating

USA Baseball/American Football
England Futball/Soccer

[Big Fo]

Netherlands are also a soccer crazy country, they produce a ton of talent for a country with their population. They're consistently one of the 5-15 best national teams around.

[SackAttack]

Everybody who had the Czechs losing to the Finns and the Slovaks defeating the Swedes, raise your hands.

...

Everybody with your hands raised, you're a pack of liars.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Everybody who had the Czechs losing to the Finns and the Slovaks defeating the Swedes, raise your hands.

...

Everybody with your hands raised, you're a pack of liars.

Why would the Czechs losing to the Finns be a surprise? The Czechs have a solid team, but the Finns came in as one of the better teams, probably about on par with the US.

Agree 100% on the Slovaks beating the Swedes (although they are probably the best or in the argument for best with the Swiss of the "non-contenders").

[jbergey22]

Finland was -125 today. A small fav.

[BishopMVP]

Czech Republic can't be happy at all with the way that goal was scored. I love some of the things international hockey does, but what a BS rule there (and the Langenbrunner high-sticking call).

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I'm happy for Finland, I think they are my second favorite team next to Canada (mostly because of Teemu, but just in general Fins seem kind of like European Canadians... or something).

On the contrary, the Fins always seem like the New Jersey Devils of Europe. Switzerland is awesome to root for (unless they are playing your home country) because they are clearly outclassed, but Finland has some talent and still relies on negative hockey and disrupting the flow to win. I'd rather a team like Sweden, Slovakia or Russia that tries to open it up advance over them.

Should still be some fun matchups though.

[FrogMan]

holy frigging crap! Just saw the final result for Slovakia/Sweden, wow...

FM

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Why would the Czechs losing to the Finns be a surprise? The Czechs have a solid team, but the Finns came in as one of the better teams, probably about on par with the US.

Agree 100% on the Slovaks beating the Swedes (although they are probably the best or in the argument for best with the Swiss of the "non-contenders").

I agree. I had the Fins and Swedes winning. Slovakia was really the only upset yesterday. Canada beating Russia wasn't an upset at all, it was very surprising how Canada won. They totally dominated that game.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Finland, Norway, and Denmark all appear to be similar in size and location in Europe.

Wait....what?

[sterlingice]

For the record

Name of country, with flag	Population (2009 est.)	Capital
Åland	27,456[4]	Mariehamn
Denmark	5,519,287[5]	Copenhagen
Faroe Islands	49,006[6]	Tórshavn
Finland	5,349,829[7]	Helsinki
Greenland	57,600[8]	Nuuk
Iceland	319,756[9]	Reykjavík
Norway	4,836,183[10]	Oslo
Sweden	9,336,487[11]	Stockholm
Total	25,382,411[12]

SI

[Ajaxab]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to read about the Russia-Canada game on the Google translated version of Sovetski Sport. These translations are always a crapshoot, but this paragraph seemed to capture things nicely.

"Before the match many speculated whether Canadians play in person against Ovechkin. No, the guard to him without touching. Simply Alexandra severely beaten, as soon as he got the puck. Mercilessly thrashed in the back of patch. So do the other Russians.....Gloomy morning in Russia ... Of course, this is a catastrophe."

[cuervo72]

Sure, but by geographic size:

Rank	Country	Area km²
5	Sweden	449,964
6	Norway	385,155
8	Finland	338,145
30	Denmark	43,094

(Fidatelo did mention population earlier in the post, but size - specifically mentioned with location and appearance - seems like it should be geographical size. Nitpicking.)

[JonInMiddleGA]

The absence of an American contender in women's figure skating is being blamed for the third straight night of <24 million viewers and the first night with ratings lower than the comparable Turin night.

And while the online buzz is hockey, it doesn't seem to be able to drive the ratings the way the skating does (back to the whole women drive TV numbers thing).

edit to add linkage
http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...rvor_melts.asp

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The absence of an American contender in women's figure skating is being blamed for the third straight night of <24 million viewers and the first night with ratings lower than the comparable Turin night.

And while the online buzz is hockey, it doesn't seem to be able to drive the ratings the way the skating does (back to the whole women drive TV numbers thing).

edit to add linkage
Media Life Magazine - Without U.S. skating, Games fervor melts

To be fair, the US game was on from 3-5 PM, and the other hockey games were over on CNBC. How do we know how Olympic hockey compares to figure skating without an apples-apples comparison? The medal round games may be a better reflection if they are on NBC in primtime (haven't checked times yet).

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

To be fair, the US game was on from 3-5 PM, and the other hockey games were over on CNBC. How do we know how Olympic hockey compares to figure skating without an apples-apples comparison? The medal round games may be a better reflection if they are on NBC in primtime (haven't checked times yet).

I think the games on Friday are on at 3:00 pm (or around there) and 9:30 pm. The US game, the afternoon one, will likely be on NBC, the Canada/Slovakia game on CNBC.

The Gold Medal game is on at 3:00 pm Sunday.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The absence of an American contender in women's figure skating is being blamed for the third straight night of <24 million viewers and the first night with ratings lower than the comparable Turin night.

And while the online buzz is hockey, it doesn't seem to be able to drive the ratings the way the skating does (back to the whole women drive TV numbers thing).

edit to add linkage
Media Life Magazine - Without U.S. skating, Games fervor melts

This isn't surprising in the slightest.

Figure skating/ice dancing would seem to cater to the "American Idol"/"Dancing With The Stars" crowd, which, as we are very sadly aware, is massive.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

To be fair, the US game was on from 3-5 PM, and the other hockey games were over on CNBC. How do we know how Olympic hockey compares to figure skating without an apples-apples comparison? The medal round games may be a better reflection if they are on NBC in primtime (haven't checked times yet).

We know because the US-Canada pulled 8.2 million viewers on MSNBC, roughly 1/3rd what ice dancing et al drew on NBC. The household gap is only 78m vs 112m. No way that extrapolates to making up the gap.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Figure skating/ice dancing would seem to cater to the "American Idol"/"Dancing With The Stars" crowd, which, as we are very sadly aware, is massive.

Which is precisely the point I was shooting for.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Sure, but by geographic size:



(Fidatelo did mention population earlier in the post, but size - specifically mentioned with location and appearance - seems like it should be geographical size. Nitpicking.)

I was talking about population, but Denmark is really the only geographic outlier. And I'd be fine with the answer being related to geography as well, but so far I haven't seen a real explanation. "Coaching. Interests." isn't really an explanation. Why would coaching be worse? Why would they be less interested? These are the things I'd like to know.

For instance, it makes sense that Canada is more hockey mad than the US. There is a large segment of the US that rarely sees snow, or only for very short periods. Not conducive to hockey, especially 100 years ago. But the way Norway, Sweden, and Finland are lined up it seems a little stranger. It would be like if you told me that Ontario and Quebec are each way better at hockey than Western Canada. I wouldn't really get why.

[Dr. Sak]

Fidatelo, I was watching ski jumping on one of the first days of the Olympics and the one announcer made a comment on how Norway is such a good ski jumping country but yet not good at team sports like hockey. He said that the Norwegians have a culture of being good individuals but have yet mastered the team aspect and how to work together as a team in sports.

Not sure how true that all is but it was a tidbit I heard.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

Just for the heck of it, I decided to read about the Russia-Canada game on the Google translated version of Sovetski Sport. These translations are always a crapshoot, but this paragraph seemed to capture things nicely.

"Before the match many speculated whether Canadians play in person against Ovechkin. No, the guard to him without touching. Simply Alexandra severely beaten, as soon as he got the puck. Mercilessly thrashed in the back of patch. So do the other Russians.....Gloomy morning in Russia ... Of course, this is a catastrophe."

Thanks for sharing that. Went to read the whole article, pretty interesting insight on how they're living it now...

FM

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

We know because the US-Canada pulled 8.2 million viewers on MSNBC, roughly 1/3rd what ice dancing et al drew on NBC. The household gap is only 78m vs 112m. No way that extrapolates to making up the gap.

Putting households aside, what's the typical ratings gap between MSNBC and NBC, and how did hockey vs ice dancing compare to that? Also remember that far more households have access to NBC-HD vs MSNBC-HD (look at this thread for that reminder), and hockey shows MUCH better in HD and is nearly unwatchable in SD (yes, I understand that HD remains a minority among households, but still affects the ratings).

What we really need is a US game in primetime on NBC to compare ratings, not a US game buried on a cable channel.

That being said, it wouldn't surprise me to see hockey still lose out. I'd just like to see an accurate statistical comparison.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Putting households aside, what's the typical ratings gap between MSNBC and NBC, and how did hockey vs ice dancing compare to that?

Not sure that's really fair either, since the gap between the quality of programming on the two networks on average is even greater than with the Olympic events.

But since you asked, I finally dug up a reasonable answer to your question I think.

Past year NBC primetime average (minus Olympic coverage) is 3.0 HH rtg, 2.9 A18-49. That translates to roughly 8.7 million total viewers, 3.828 million A18-49 viewers. MSNBC primetime seems to usually land in the 750k to 800k range, CNBC prime anywhere from 100k to 250k.

and hockey shows MUCH better in HD and is nearly unwatchable in SD (yes, I understand that HD remains a minority among households, but still affects the ratings).

Oh please. HD has revolutionized the way people outside Buffalo don't watch hockey but that's about the extent of it. I'm no hockey basher, it hasn't been that long ago that I had a subscription to THN myself but let's be realistic.

[Galaxy]

Vancouver Now - Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes - Post Sports

[sterlingice]

Can there be such a thing as an emergency shipment of condoms?

SI

[Logan]

Ovechkin and Malkin have seemed pretty friendly lately...

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Vancouver Now - Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes - Post Sports

Headline rules. Makes me think of this.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Vancouver Now - Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes - Post Sports

Studying the effects of Olympic sex on performance of athletes would make a great PhD dissertation.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Studying the effects of Olympic sex on performance of athletes would make a great PhD dissertation.

Sex and Sports: Should Athletes Abstain Before Big Events?

[stevew]

SD Hockey is really hard to not watch, once you have not watched it in HD.