The 2006 Winter Olympics

No one reads blogs on weekends. None of you are actually seeing this until Monday at work. Well anyway, the Olympics started today.

The opening ceremony was yesterday and boy what a ceremony it was. Some cheeseball sang Imagine and Yoko Ono pleaded for world peace. There were cows on skis, people crawling up ropes, strange Italian alphabetizing ... and all to a relentless soundtrack of 80's tunes.

Why they chose a repertoire of nothing but English language 80's songs I have no idea. It was bizarre, though I did find it funny that this huge international sporting event was inaugurated to The Village People.

I'm watching the USA/Switzerland women's hockey game right now. We look alot better. Canada is still the best, as it should be I suppose, but we'll give them a run for their money. I predict US vs. Canada in the gold medal match.

Our men's hockey team usually doesn't do as well because most of the good NHL players are from Canada and Russia. The Czechs are always good (they won the gold 8 years ago, but with the best goalie in the world it was hardly fair) and the nordic countries have good showings.

I think our best year ever was 1998 in Japan when our team got eliminated in the first round and then trashed their hotels (the same year the underdog Czechs took gold). Keepin' it classy, America. Keepin' it classy.

I always like to see the Czechs do well because they have a unique style of hockey (the fact that I went to Prague and loved it doesn't hurt). They rely on finesse rather than brutality. Of course we all love the violent nature of hockey, but it's admirable to see an entire team devoted to finesse. They're like the Wayne Gretzky of international hockey, ... except without all the glory and winning... oooor his smokin' hot wife who has just been indicted for gambling.

I, for one, am devastated by this tragedy. Impugning The Great One's honor is unacceptable. This is a disgrace. IS THERE NO JUSTICE?

But anyway, if you want to see finesse-style play in the NHL, it's the Pittsburgh Penguins. Maybe not so much anymore, but they used to get alot of their players from the Czech Rep. Of course there's a reason why the mostly Russian team, the Detroit Redwings, wins all the time and is known for being thugs (Vlad the Impaler has got to be the coolest nickname ever given to any sports figure ever).

Interesting tidbit, Mexico did not field a team at all.