12/21/24
February 22, 2002
The Russians are playing, not boycotting.: Post your comments as you're watching what is clearly the most important match/event/non-scandal of this olympics. How beautiful is the big ice? Isn't the NHL crazy for not adopting the olympic style?
It's just me in here? Given I'm only a casual fan, but I'm surprised I've never heard of this Geurin. 1-0.
posted by djacobs at 05:47 PM on February 22, 2002
I like the big ice, and the NHL should adopt the Olympic size and rules.
posted by kirkaracha at 06:00 PM on February 22, 2002
Bill Guerin is a feisty power forward who played for New Jersey and now Boston. He's also a bit of a whiner when it comes to ice time, money and respect. The reason that the NHL doesn't adopt the Olympic sized ice is that it would cost them two to three rows of seats along the boards. That's an AWFUL lot of money to be losing for an upgrade in rink size. I could go for the quick face-offs, but there is no way that the NHL/networks would sacrifice all of that commercial time. While watching the Canada/Belarus game, I had to turn to my friend and ask him there had been any commercials during the entire 3rd period. We couldn't think of one. The one rule I could go for is the elimination of the two-line-pass rule. However, it would lead to a LOT more icings as the skill level in the NHL is lower than it is at the Olympics, and not everyone can make that 100 ft pass onto the stick of a teammate. By the way, the best game will be on Sunday between Canada and [insert other team here]. There is a lot of animosity between Canada and [insert other team here]. Either way it would be a good game, but I'm cheering for Canada to whip [insert other team here]'s butt. Go Canada go!
posted by grum@work at 06:29 PM on February 22, 2002
USA Canada would be great, but consider all th (YES! 3-0!!!) the US/Russian animosity over skating, this is best.
posted by djacobs at 06:34 PM on February 22, 2002
You like the periods in ice hockey without commercials? Move to Europe and watch football - 45 minutes a time without commercials. Sweet.
posted by salmacis at 06:57 PM on February 22, 2002
Malakhov scores? The fix is in! haha
posted by djacobs at 06:59 PM on February 22, 2002
Good game. Would have been better had the Russians bothered to wake up before the third period. So it's Canada/USA, the match-up that the NHL would have wanted the most (ratings). I was kind of hoping for a Russian/Canadian final (to avenge the World Juniors) but this is just as good. Should be a good game. Bettman said that he'd like to institute quick-faceoffs, but there's no way that they'll remove TV Timeouts. Commercial breaks are just too important to lose. And the red line should stay for all the reasons that grum mentioned... though I do like the touch-back icings.
posted by mkn at 08:10 PM on February 22, 2002
The irony of the evening: for 40 minutes, the Russians thought they were figure-skating out there.
posted by riviera at 11:44 PM on February 22, 2002
I'm glad NBC doesn't have the rights to NHL hockey. I can't recall seeing a game in which more of the play was not shown in favor of commercials. They didn't even try to explain how Hull got sent to the penalty box for one of the power plays in the third period, and it could've been the deciding moment of the game if Richter didn't stand on his head and stop some great shots. Guerin also played in Edmonton for several years after New Jersey. Since Dallas played the Oilers every year in the playoffs, I got to see a lot of him.
posted by rcade at 07:31 AM on February 23, 2002
Turns out crosscountryskiers Lazutina and Danilova were doped... Russia lose the gold in today´s women´s 30k .
posted by magnusbe at 05:05 PM on February 24, 2002
Russia gets the first power play, hopefully that will settle those frisky ruskies down a bit. I wonder how many goals we can get on the Bulin wall - I'm not sure how many power plays Richter can stop.