Here Today... Gone To Hell!

no interrest in this? it's one of the sport higlights of this year damn it!

late nights and early mornings for me since it's in vancouver but it's worth it, biathlon is is on now :)

lastly, guess youve all heard of the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, may his soul rest in peace and thoughts goes out to his family

gotta say, biathlon.. were they drunk when they came up with that sport :P let's go skiing and shoot at targets

Those skills came in handy during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union....

I don't expect a Swede to understand though.  :rofl:




/jarmo

whats that game called when they slide some black object and you have people running with a broom?

meaning curling?

still making it an olympic sport :P

i wouldn't understand, just like if i'd try to tell you how it feels when your country win an olympic gold medal in hockey ;D

CURLING!

So does anyone else have issue with ruling that guys death ONLY on human error??

I mean ok he messed up, didnt recover in time.... But to smack a pole and die, and there is no problems with the track?!?!

Sure its a dangerous sport, but they need to protect these guys more than a steel pole

Yeah, I agree. What a bunch of losers. "Oh, let's go ahead as if nothing happened. He didn't 'compensate' enough"

How about talking about something a little more positive! Apolo Ohno. One more medal and he's the most decorated winter olympian in US history!

one thing i like about the olympics is that all sports gets a lot more interresting, i don't think i'd ever sit and watch short track speed skating if it was the world cup but now with the olympics, it's pretty awesome

cant wait for the Hockey. Nothing is better than Olympic Hockey

Agreed...Thank god Getzlaf will be playing...he looked amazing last night with 2 goals and 2 assists..Go Canada

Luongo gets call for Canada against Norway

In a bit of a surprise decision, Roberto Luongo will get the start in net for Canada's first game of the Olympic hockey tournament Tuesday against Norway.

Martin Brodeur will be in net for Thursday's game against Switzerland.

aTeam Canad head coach Mike Babcock confirmed the goaltender rotation following a spirited first practice as Canada Hockey Place.

"Marty has played a ton of hockey and this buys him some time," said Mike Babcock, who also admitted that he gave Luongo the opening start partially because Canada Place is the netminder's home rink with the Vancouver Canucks.

Canada also unveiled their tentative lines for the tournament with Sidney Crosby centering a top line featuring Rick Nash on one wing and Crosby's World Junior linemate Patrice Bergeron on the other.

While still far from 100% due to an ankle injury, Ryan Getzlaf was lined up with Ducks' teammate Corey Perry and Eric Staal on the second line. As predicted the Sharks' fearsome combo of Dany Heatley, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau skated together on the third line while Mike Richards and Brendan Morrow rotated centering a fourth line with Jarome Iginla and Jonathan Toews on the wings.

Of course the Canadians were not the only team to hit the ice Monday as most of the top squads got practice time in before the tournament opens on Tuesday.

In a practice that was described as ?extremely up tempo' the Russian's also set up their temporary lines that appeared a little top-heavy.

The Russian's have an abundance of scoring options on the top two lines with Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin flanking Pavel Datsyuk on the number one combo while Evgeni Malkin was centering Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov on the second unit.

40-year old veteran Sergei Fedorov was skating on a line with Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Radulov while captain Aleksey Morozov centered a fourth line with Danis Zaripov and Sergei Zinoviev on the wings

On defence, Andrei Markov and youngster Ilya Nikulin were featured on the top pairing with Fedor Tyutin and Sergei Gonchar paired up on the second unit. Dmitri Kalinin and Anton Volchenkov will likely be deployed as Russia's shut-down tandem while Denis Grebeshkov and Konstantin Korneev will be the extra pairing.

Team USA also took the ice with a top line of Patrick Kane between Zach Parise and Paul Stastny. Joe Pavelski centered the second line with Phil Kessel on one side and Ryan Malone on the other. Ryan Kesler was flanked by Dustin Brown and captain Jamie Langenbrunner on the third line while Ryan Callahan and Bobby Ryan rotated in on a line with Chris Drury and David Backes. The defensive pairings were not immediately available.

I've gotta say the US team looks very very dangerous top to bottom

Sweden got our first medal (gold) of the olympics yesterday :)

and our second today, also gold  :D

Congratulations to Lindsey Vonn on winning the gold medal today in the downhill competition!  :love:

Norway got 2 gold medals, and one silver today... =)
Got one gold medal yesterday too. =)

 : ok:

I'm very happy for Anja P?rson's sake, she would've won silver wednesday but lost balance and flew 60m meters(!), decided to ski again yesterday although she was bruised and got the bronze


Canada - Switzerland was a great game last night too (swizz goalie, holy fuck, never seen him play before), didn't see russia - slovakia though but read bout it, sweden vs belarus tonight, i fucking hope my friends want to see it but i think not

Great work by Torah Bright, Gold for Australia,  Showing the world how it's done...    :beer:

(http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/05/22/torah_narrowweb__200x320.jpg)  :drool:

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26744440-5002332,00.html (http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26744440-5002332,00.html)

Seeing Shaun White win the Olympic gold medal for snowboarding was so amazing! He makes me want to learn to snowboard. His clothes and height and playing air guitar remind me alot of Buckethead. Truth is, Shaun looks like a cross between Axl Rose and Buckethead with his flaming red hair, bandana, sparkling green eyes and undeniable charisma.

Teemu Sel?nne broke the Olympic record for career hockey points!


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/vancouver/hockey/2010-02-20-selanne-scoring-record_N.htm

Norway-Switzerland, what an entertaining game this has been! Listening to GN'R and watching an online stream of the game.

Tomorrow's game between USA and Canada should be very good too.

Yeah, can't wait to see Canada wipe the floor with those damn yanks! ;D

Yeah, that's the first "real game" in these Olympics. And after that one is Finland-Sweden! That's some sweet fucking hockey :beer: Glad I'm having my holidays this week so I don't have any problems watching it (starts 7am here)..

Now this is great hockey!

You were gonna wipe the floor with who? Looks like its the other way around!  ;D

*sigh* US wins we Canadians lose. You guys have a really good goalie!

Yeah we do. Ryan Miller stood on his head tonight.

Whoops!  Spoke too soon I guess.

The US got some outstanding goaltending from Miller and took advantage of the few scoring chances they had.  Brodeur played a pretty sloppy game in goal for Canada too.  Certainly didn't look like one of the greatest goalies of all time tonight.  Canada is still a major threat, but they face a much tougher road now.  Hopefully the US can keep this going into the medal round.  It's not going to be easy.  Lots of good teams. 

Bode Miller won his first gold medal today.  Good for him!

Yep just a bit too soon indeed.

Miller was fantastic. What a great hockey game overall this was. I hope everyone watched this game. It showed just how great this game is. It was a great game to promote the sport. Brodeur definitely did not look like the future hall of famer he is. He let in shots he rarely ever does. Not that i'm complaining about that mind you. Canada definitely has a tough road ahead of them now. They could very likely face Russia in the quarterfinals now. That will be a very tough game for them. Coming in everyone thought Canada and Russia were the top two teams. We proved we can beat one of those teams. If we can continue to play at the level we did tonight i really like our chances going into the medal round.

As for Bode Miller. He is having an incredible olympics. A bronze, silver and now gold medal. He still has two more events to try and medal two more times. No US skier has ever won 4 medals in one olympics. Very impressive what he is doing. I hope he medals in his last two events. I'm also rooting for Vonn in her last two as well.

(http://www.forumammo.com/cpg/albums/userpics/10071/normal_2375912106_e68c192bd9_o.jpg)

Your goalie did an amazing job at winning that game last night indeed.

Now if we could only get rid of that ass hat crosby and get someone else in his place, we would have a perfect team.

Why he scored a goal last night.... Well for the USA :hihi:

Funny eh..the 2nd game he was Canadas hero and golden boy for winning the shootout and because Canada dosent win last night, even though he scores a huge goal to bring them within one...hes now the problem with the Canadian team? some people

The states had alot to play for last night...30 years since the Miracle On Ice and last time Canada/USA played Canada beat them in 2002 for the gold medal in Salt Lake City, there turf...and the US has a very very solid team thanks to Brian Burke

Actually I just can't stand crosby period! The guy is not nearly as good as people make him out to be and on top of that when things dont go his way he starts to act like a cry baby.

He IS a crybaby. I've always thought that and have never liked him. Canada's biggest problem last night was Brodeur. He had one of the worst games i've ever witnessed by him. He couldn't have stopped a beach ball last night.

I agree! I would so angry with him! Oh hai i'm just gonna lay here on the ice and not even attempt to move kthxbai

i'm really happy for the gold Sweden just won, Northug is the best but he's such pretty much the biggest ass of the olympics :P

Thank god Canadas got this game over Russia..I thought theyd give them alot harder time...Canada seems to have got there line combinations worked out and feeling more combfurtable

One more win for Canada and  the US and the olympics get the dream matchup they want. Hopefully just as exciting as the first matchup if it happens.

the dream match-up is as always Sweden - Finland ;D

Haha gotta get past the czechs first tonight.

Been there done that. Finland won 2-0

Yeah! Woke up at 5am to watch the game. I really miss J. Jokinen, scoring is just too hard for this team and JJ would have been great in just that. Luckily we have a great goalie so some of our defenders didn't look that bad today.. as they did against Sweden.

PS. Slovakia just scored 0-2 ;D

They'll have to play great against USA. They shoot relentlessly. I think that had almost 50 shots against Switzerland. It should be a good game.

Sweden's out! :beer:

unfortuneatly, but i understand your excitement, you fins have a bigger chance winning the gold now  ;) People often forget Finland when they're talking about the finest medal, this year it was all about Canada vs. Russia, Sid vs. Ovie (at least in Sweden). I'd be happy if Sel?nne would win the gold since he's one of my favorite players

USA have a good team that have surprised me a lot, don't really knew of their younger players before the olympics but they're fun to watch, great goalie too!

Canada finally showed their A-game, not much to say

4 great teams left and the best team will win

I may sound insane for saying this but i want Canada in the finals. I want the chance to beat them again. USA's young team has really been fun to watch. I agree. When they play the way they are capable they will be tough to beat.

I am shocked Sweden is out. Lundqvist did not bring his A game tonight. Being a Ranger fan i see him a lot and he rarely has games where he allows more then 3 goals.

USA has a good team, but I'm pretty glad we're not playing against Canada at this point. Out of the best teams (Canada, Russia, Sweden, USA) I think USA is the best choice to play against.. for Finland at least :hihi:

Russia sucked against Canada, and even though Canada did play a fantastic game, I don't think this means Canadas victory from Slovakia. If Canadians have the wrong attitude and they think it will be an easy game, it's a big mistake which opens every door for the Slovaks who are hungry and who have already shown what they're capable of.

So I think everything's possible now..

Oaaaah, can't wait for tonight's big game!

It's going to be great, two best goalies of the tournament and the young USA against the older Finland. The biggest problem with Finland is powerplay, whether it's 5v4 or 5v3 doesn't even matter.. they just need to score more or they'll be in trouble tonight. And one big difference between these two teams is that USA shoots more even when the spot isn't all that perfect, whereas Finland moves the puck to "a better spot" searching for the best opportunity to shoot.. and when they finally do shoot, the puck hits the closest defender and the situation is over. You can't score if you don't even try to.

I think we're going to see some major hits and unfortunately some over-the-top-shit too. Maybe we'll finally see J. Ruutu provoke the other side and getting some of them (Backes? Malone?) pissed off.. Ruutu has been great in this tournament so far, but maybe we'll need this other side of him tonight.

Luckily Kukkonen is the 7th defender tonight and Pitk?nen comes back.

Fuck this shit, forget everything I wrote earlier ;D 6-0 after 17min what the fuck!

 :peace: :peace: :peace: :peace: :peace: : ok: : ok: : ok: : ok: : ok:

Finland is biting the big one.

But it's not because USA is that good, it's because Finland is just so fucking bad :hihi:

It doesn't change the fact that Finland is getting their shit pushed in by a bunch of Americans who don't even care about hockey.  We can't even find Finland on a map.

But still, Canada is going to embarrass the United States in the gold medal round, so this win today is my personal gold medal.

yea we're undefeated because finland sucks   :P

No, I'm not saying that USA sucks.. that comment was meant to be a joke really. USA is the best team in this tournament in my opinion. But yeah, the first goal was the turning point of the game and it had nothing to do with the greatness of the young Americans.. Kipper lost his confidence after that and there was couple more easy goals. USA used the chance Finland gave them. We had this game under control before the big mistake, but.. yeah.

Here's to USA's victory in the final  :beer:

Like they did in the prelinary round? Oops wait..

Damn that game was some kind of epic fail  :no: Everyone's facebook statuses were hilarious though  :hihi:

Yeah i sure wasn't expecting a 6-1 demolishing of Finland.

Was anyone really expecting Canada to destroy Russia the other night like they did either? This whole tournament so far has gone in some strange directions, especially Slovakia beating Sweden. No way did I see that one turning out the way it did in a million years.

Definitely agree. I didn't see Canada's destruction of Russia coming. I thought Russia would give them a fight. The Sweden Slovakia game shocked me especially with Lundqvist in net. Its rare he plays so bad. If Canada gets by Slovakia tonight it should be a great gold medal game. Canada will not wipe the ice with USA like they did Russia. USA is just playing too good with a hot goaltender who hasn't surrendered a goal in almost 6 periods.

If Luongo is in goal for Canada against the US it's going to be a very interesting game.

I still have no idea why they kept Brodeur in net the other night when he was clearly not playing the way he should have been and obviously he hasn't been back in net since. I hope the ladies win last night has given the men just a little bit more fire to get them through the next couple of days!

Exactly what i'm hoping for. I want a good interesting game. Assuming Canada wins tonight which i'm thinking they will. It will be the two best for the gold. The way it should and may the best team win. Of course i hope that's USA.

Why not? Kiprusoff continues to be unable to stop even a beach ball.

You clearly haven't seen his games. Or then you only remember the bad games.

I have really enjoyed this year's Winter Olympics, but I am so annoyed that Apollo was disqualified last night. The Canadian guy who won gold should have been disqualified and not Apollo. I hope the Koreans protest. There was blatant favortism and injustice there. :rant:

Here's a better thread for this....


http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/board/index.php?topic=59031.msg1237855;boardseen#new


: ok:

My bad. I was just so upset. Feel free to move this mods.

Did you really look closely to what happened? Apollo pushed the Canadian that was in 3rd place causing him to crash. No one touched Apollo so I'm not sure why you are saying he was robbed and besides even if he wasn't DQ'd he still would not have won as he was in 2nd place when he crossed the line.

I watched several slow mo replays. He barely touched that guy. He was just trying to protect himself, not push the guy. I think the Canadian guy pushed the Korean guy.

Neither of the Canadians touched any of the other guys at all, I don't know where you can say they did. The fact is Apollo pushed the 3rd place Canadian, even if it wasn't a big push it was still enough to cause the Canadian to go down thus DQing Apollo.

In watching the replays. Apollo was gracious about the DQ but I don't think he deserved it.

Well I'm not so sure about him being gracious either lol. I have seen quite a few comments attributed to him since yesterday saying he was DQ'd because the judge was Canadian and it was Canadians in the race. That to me is being a sore loser, he made a mistake and lost so he should man up to it.

Can I ask you a question. Are you a Canadian? :hihi:

Ridn' the Night Train!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Bottom's up!   :beer:  :beer:  :beer:  :beer:
Fuckin' awesome bobsleddin'!  Go Team GNR!   8)

I'm sorry but Ohno has a legit gripe. Hamelin CLEARLY pushes the Korean. If Ohno got DQ'd cause he touched a guy that went down then so should the other guy. He may have been going down on his own but Ohno just had his hand on Trombley he didn't push him. So you gotta be fair. If your gonna dq one guy for touching a guy that went down you should dq a guy that pushed another.

We got the bronze in hockey wwhuuu.. I'm actually pretty sad that Slovakia didn't get anything.. they should have, even though the third period was pretty great from Finland. But Slovakia played well throughout the tournament and it would have been great to see some of their older players celebrating an olympic medal.

You must have been watching someone different than me then. All the video I've seen Hamelin put his hand up but did not touch Bak at all.

It depends on which angle they show you. It's hard to see from the original race. It's when they show the replays from all angles. But Apollo barely touched that guy. Your profile shows that you are Canadian. :hihi: I'm a proud Apolloite. :hihi:

If the situation was reversed the same outcome would still be right. It doesn't matter which country the pusher is from, he would still be DQ'd. The fact that I'm Canadian has nothing to do with it, right is right and wrong is wrong.

4 goals in 7 shots?? Move over Tony Esposito.. ::)

It was one game you know.. if you'd know anything about hockey you'd know that these kind of things happen every now and then, no matter how good you are. Clearly almost nobody was expecting that to happen against USA, but it did.

You didn't see Kipper play against the Czechs? Thought so..

You didn't see Kipper sink the Flames only the last half decade in the NHL? He's garbage.

No, I haven't seen that happen. But it's always easy to blame the goalie when the rest of the team isn't any better.. and if it's not the goalies fault it's definitely the coach who's behind all that.

I watched the replay of the race at nbcolympics.com. Its hard to tell but a few angles you can see Hamels touch the Korean skater. I'm not saying Ohno shouldn't have been DQ'D, but if you're gonna DQ Ohno for touching/pushing you gotta do it for others for the same infraction.

I just don't think he pushed him. I don't think either guy should habe been disqualified, but if they were being technical, then both should have been disqualified . Personally, I don't think anybody should have been disqualified, and i agree wiht Apollo that the head ref being Canadian had something to do with it since the gold medal winner was Canadian. Just my opinion.

Watch the slo-mo frame by frame replay of Ohno... He takes his hand off of the guy before he even loses his balance...

Oh well


Canada claimed they would own the podium, but the US made sue they wouldent 

Team USA!

What a gold medal hockey game. There is no quit in this team USA. If this goes to a shootout i think it favors USA.

What an exciting game this is.

Canada with the gold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BAHHAHAHAHA WE WIN! WOOT!!!!!

Screw Cindy "crybsby" Crosby. What a wussy of a player he is. It makes me sick he scored the winner. We all know he'd be crying about something right now if Canada lost.

I'm no Crosby fan either but they had to win or the entire country would kill them. Losing at hockey is not an option for team Canada and they knew it.

Agreed. What a bullshit interview with Crosby. Disrespectful jerk. Tougher then expected? Never panicked? Bullshit. And the commentary about Crosby saying something similar to what Miller said had Canada lost? Yeah right. He would've been complaining about something. Team USA earned respect in this tournament and that little twit still isn't giving us any.

Interesting side note for the hockey though. In both women and men's the same teams won gold, silver, bronze. I wonder if that's happened before?

Nope, first time

Well that's pretty cool

My god why do they keep making out Crosby to be so good. 21'st century version of Gretzky? What an insult to the greatest ever. He's not even close to the level of Gretzky.

Good to see Ryan Miller show up to the closing ceremony to enjoy the celebration of these games and what we accomplished. You could tell how awful he felt after letting Crosby score.

Its all the media man...hes never said that and no one will ever be as great as Gretzky and its a different game...hes a helluva hockey player though

I know and its the american media too. Bob Costas and Al Michaels. What do these two idiots know about hockey? I know he personally has never said that. He'd look like an even bigger ass to even his own country if he did. :rant:

Its called trying to sell the NHL to an uninterested fanbase

same reason they hype up Lebron as the next Jordan

its all marketing.

I wouldn't say uninterested. 16 million people watched first USA/Canada game in the prelims. I still don't think Crosby is all he's made out to be. He's good but anointing him the new king of hockey. Our generations Gretzky is ridiculous. Gretzky would've wiped the ice with that wuss.

Is it just me or do all these bands on the closing ceremonies suck something awful? My god is this what music today has come to? The only one i liked was Alanis.

Ahhhh my fellow Americans who thought I was crazy for saying Canada would win.

You're all a bunch of jingoists. 

Well, there's American sportsmanship for you.  Glad to see that the American players showed more class than its fans.  At the same time, keep in mind the US is lucky to have been where they were.  They didn't have to play Russia, Sweden, the Czechs or the Slovaks.  The only "good" team they had to play was Canada.  They weren't expected to win a medal this year so be fortunate that you guys walked away with the silver.  And really, without Miller this team wouldn't have even made it to the medal rounds.

At the end of the day, like him or not, Crosby scored when it mattered.

Canada, once again, proved itself as the greatest hockey nation on the planet.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hey genius, even Gretzky himself crowned Crosby as his heir apparent.  If you want to spew ignorance, go right ahead.  But you're probably better off knowing what you're talking about to save face.

Face the fact that Canada won when it mattered, like it always does when playing the US.

The only artist I thought was great was Neil Young, he sang long before all the other bands and stuff and was awesome.

Congrats to Canada for the Win last night...  :-\

Crosby remains a Miller Killer, and that really hurts coming from not only this USA fan, but this Sabres fan...

This one stung just like the Winter Classic, especially sitting outside in that atmosphere...

Didn't the US beat Canada in the World Juniors this year?  Guess that doesn't matter though.  Maybe the US is closing the gap on Canada and that's a little tough for some of you to take?

Crosby is the greatest hockey player. and he deserves to be mentioned with Gretzky. he's scored a ton of clutch goals in his young career. he's already won 1 cup. Gretzky won 4 but he played on an all-star team.

of course canada is the greatest hockey nation on the planet. nothing that happened in yesterday's game would have changed that.

but i do find it funny that you are so quick to disrespect the USA team, in the same breath as criticizing others for their poor sportmanship. why the double standard?

being a fan of hockey, i wish i could see these 2 teams play again and again. and i'm sure the results would be about 50-50, because they are two very well- matched teams.

Er... I admit Finland didn't play that well in this tournament... but if you're saying they aren't a good team... but the Czechs and Slovaks are... I'd like to remind you that Finland did win both of them :)

dat dawgz gotz 2 have forgotten all about the finlendz, sayin finland's nt a good team wd be'z reedickQluzz!

Kiprusoff is a one-season wonder.  He got his Vezina, he's set to go back into anonymity.  Guy is the most overrated goalie in the NHL and has a huge ego along with it.  Should have taken Toskala over him.

All the Crosby haters can suck on that one for a while.  Gold medal and a Stanley Cup within a year.

Have Americans become as whiny as Russians?  I've heard fans question officiating in the final because they had 3 Canadians and a Finn in the stripes, say that Canada should be "really proud" because they "invented" the sport and "barely" won, say that based on the 5-3 win and a 3-2 loss that they're still better because of a better overall goal differential, and that Canada can't be so great if their players all come to play in the USA.  Wow... just wow.

At least no one on Team USA disrespected Canada immediately after the game. Crosby saying the game was tougher then expected is a real slap in the face. Did he expect us to just lay down and hand them the gold medal? They won by the skin of their teeth. Both teams were great neither deserved to lose and both deserved respect. Miller gave props to Canada and Crosby didn't to USA. The Canadian fans seem to think that's ok since their king scored the winner.

Looking to the future, if the NHL doesn't let these guys participate in Sochi they are insane! If we keep this young team together for the Sochi games watch out. The few older guys like Rafalski might not be back but most of the guys on that team were under 25. They will be hitting their primes come Sochi. It should be fun to watch. This was the most exciting hockey tournament i have ever seen so many great teams.

The NHL needs to let them play.  If they don't, you might see one of two things:

1: Ovechkin (and others) says, well too bad, I'm leaving and playing there anyway, leaving their NHL team high and dry for two weeks, or

2: Ovechkin (and others) bolts to a place like the KHL, SEL, DEL, SM-Liiga, etc. for a year, leaving the NHL as a whole high and dry.

I agree they need to let them play. Its just too exciting not too. I'm not sure if the players would just be allowed to bolt and go play for their countries. I would think their contracts would prevent such a thing. I think in the end the nhl clubs will again allow their players to particpate. It would be so sad if they didn't continue letting them. The reason they are still up in the air about it is the time difference. With it games would not be played in prime time in the US and Canada like they were in Vancouver.

I was just wondering how easily Finland got the bronze.. we won two weaker teams and lost to Sweden 3-0, but still we got the place in the quarters. Then we won the Czechs mostly because Kipper had a good night and we managed to score one goal in the third period (and one empy net one).. then USA beat the hell out of us. So Finland was in the top-4, but we had only won one good team (with mostly luck). Okay, this is a game and so on, but I'm just wondering if the system could be any better.. I think Finland got very lucky in this tournament and didn't deserve the medal as much as say Slovakia would have. Of course I'm happy with our team, but it's just pretty lame to think like "okay we won the Czechs and then Slovakia in the bronze game, and that's all it took". We got the easy way, we didn't have to play agains't Canada, Russia or Sweden in the quarters or didn't have to qualificate at all. We were lucky to win the Czechs and I think we won the Slovaks because of the experience we had in the team.. we were really close to loose that game too. But hey, it really is a game and luck is always there.. I'm not just too proud of our "achievement", I think the Slovaks should be really proud of their team and what they did in this tournament.

Well, there's always one team that gets it a bit easier than the others - for once it was Finland. About Finland getting to the final 4 easily... think about it for a moment: there are exactly seven top hockey nations in the world. There just isn't that many different teams to play against. Of course one option would be to only have the top 8 countries playing, and those teams would have a bit longer "regular season" before going to the playoffs.

About Slovakia; they won Russia and Sweden, lost to Czechs and Finland. I'm not sure if they "deserve" it that much more than we did, anyway. And if you wanna talk about deserve, look at the previous olympics in 2006: on the road to the final, Finland won Canada, Czechs, USA and Russia. Sweden won USA and Czechs, lost to Russia and Slovakia. How's that for fair :p

Yeah I'm totally with you. But I'm just saying that I think Slovakia did a far better job in this tournament than Finland and kinda "fought their way through". Beating Russia and Sweden is a pretty hard job for a team like Slovakia.

And yeah, Torino 2006 was great from our point of view even though we lost the final game. But nothing's "fair" when it comes to Finland vs. Sweden :hihi: