Amazing women’s hockey final, ending in a shootout. Team USA was every so slightly the better team in the last 40 minutes of the game and deserved their gold medal.
Also, of all women’s team sports, I think women’s ice hockey is by far the most entertaining product. It’s a slightly different game without body-checking, but that gives the players more ability to do some very slick stick-handling and leveraging on the puck that you don’t get to see with the men’s game. I would absolutely watch a 7-game world championship series between the Canadian and US teams.
And 38 years to the day the Americans stopped the Russians from winning five straight golds.
Perhaps my favorite moment of the games so far is the US women earning a gold in the cross country team sprint, and probably influenced by the call (still rooting for Norway though to break the medal record.)
No doubt. I’m too old to stay awake that late but watched the full replay this morning. Canada was a lot better in the first two periods, IMHO, constantly faster to the puck and not making nearly as many mistakes. But that changed partway through the third, and Canada looked to be on the defensive most of the rest of the way. The fact that they made it through the 3rd and overtime was largely due to the great play of Shannon Szabados. Of course, it could have gone either way once it got to the shootout. That move by Jocelyne Lamoureux was nuts, and how about Maddie Rooney with the nerves of steel in the American goal on that final shot?
Probably going to be some gnashing of teeth up north over the officiating, after Canada took the lion’s share of penalties early on. But they ended the overtime period on the power play, so I’m not sure how much they’ll want to complain about it.
I’m honestly not sure what was going on in the 20-minute overtime period. Perhaps the Canadians were gassed and short-shifting it, but I lost track of how many times a Canadian skater crossed the red line and sent the puck into the US zone…and then nothing. No pressure. No forecheck. Canadians went for a line change. And so the Americans held the puck, went for their own line change, and attacked again.
It looked that way to me from about the middle of the third period onward. Before that, it seemed like there were always two or three Canadians around the puck, constantly pushing on the forecheck, and it showed in the Americans making a lot of turnovers. That ended partway through the third. Sure looks like they just ran out of steam and couldn’t keep up the pace…although of course you never really know, maybe it was a tactical decision. In any event, it almost worked - the Canadians couldn’t have asked for a much better chance to win it at the end of overtime.
Yeah, in the first half of the third period, it looked like the Canadian tactic was basically a neutral zone trap, and it worked really well. The Americans saw less pressure in their zone, but they couldn’t get anything of value into the Canadian zone.
And then Canada had that sloppy line change and Kelly Pannek hit that amazing pass to Monique Lamoureux for the break-in on that tying goal, and Canada seemed to be all “Now what?”
As a Canadian, I am disappointed in the outcome of the Women’s Hockey final. But the American team clearly outplayed the Canadian team for the last half of regulation time and overtime… I am surprised it went to a shootout. I really thought the American team was going to wrap it up in regulation time with how well they were forechecking and controlling the play in the Canadian end of the ice.
My favorite from day before yesterday’s broadcast was when Lindsey Vonn has finished her last downhill, and most of the top racers had come down, and she was in Bronze position, and she was sad that she had just completed her last Olympic downhill, but then she said she was pretty sure her Bronze position should hold because today there only had skiers left, there were no snowboarders scheduled to come down the mountain today.
Heehee!
It was great to see Diggins and Randall do that perfect cross country rally for the gold medal. NBC’s flavor commentator was perfect with his excitement too.
Man, these figure skater girls are impressive. Beautiful, graceful, clearly athletic. I like the death spiral things even more than the jumping. By death spiral I mean they spin in place like a top and whip around somehow with leg and arm movements and their skates make tiny little circles in the ice, and they start standing but tuck in at the end and are spinning inches from the ice.
There’s actually something in pairs skating that they call a “death spiral” where the man swings the woman around him in circles. I believe what you’re talking about is called a “sit spin”. I like the spins a lot too, especially since I’m not afraid they’re going to fall.
Well that was pretty epic. I can’t imagine what it’s like to spend a decade training for something that you’re extremely talented at, execute flawlessly, and still not win. I guess the lesson is: Don’t ever try. Someone can do it better than you anyway.
Yes. And she likes k-pop too! It always amazes me to see interviews with these girls where you see how sweet and ordinary they are, like they could be your own sister.
