2014 Winter Olympics Thread- Sochi (spoiler tags for events that haven't aired)

[sterlingice]

It's on tv right now so I'm going without the spoiler

I woke up to see the last two minutes of regulation. I wish I had woken up about 10 minutes earlier so I could have experienced the waived off goal

SI

[sterlingice]

And now OT is not enough to settle it so on to shootout

SI

[sterlingice]

Holy crap it sounds loud in the arena

SI

[Ryan S]

What is the deal with the shootout rules?

[Coffee Warlord]

Best of 3, if it's still tied, first score not matched wins.

[bhlloy]

And after the first 3 you can repeat shooters as much as you want, which you can't in the NHL

[sterlingice]

I'm thinking you do anything you can to avoid a shootout against USA, the way TJ Oshie was shooting.

SI

[Coffee Warlord]

Surprised Kane wasn't part of the first 3 shooters for USA.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Best of 3, if it's still tied, first score not matched wins.

I knew that, it was the player selection in sudden death that was confusing me.

Olympic rules - "If the game remains tied after the first three shooters, any player can be chosen to shoot any number of times."

NHL Rules - "After each team has taken three shots, if the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a "sudden death" format. No player may shoot twice until everyone who is eligible has shot."

[Comey]

Wow.

[JonInMiddleGA]

National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association
Retweeted Gregg Lerner (@GreggLerner):

NBC announces T.J. Oshie just cured Costas' eye infection

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

I knew that, it was the player selection in sudden death that was confusing me.

Olympic rules - "If the game remains tied after the first three shooters, any player can be chosen to shoot any number of times."

NHL Rules - "After each team has taken three shots, if the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a "sudden death" format. No player may shoot twice until everyone who is eligible has shot."

Well be more god damn specific!

[sterlingice]

They did mention that on the broadcast (because otherwise, I wouldn't know the difference)

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

from @Lou Brutus
USA SAYS: Oshie!
RUS SAYS: Oshit!

[BYU 14]

Might be the best Hockey game I have ever watched, Oshie is cold as ice. I was getting my oil changed at the Car dealership and the place literally stopped working during the shootout. Mechanics, salesmen, customers, everyone was in the waiting room going nuts. It was a pretty cool moment of spontaneity.

[sterlingice]

We're about an hour behind on the DVR but the men's skeleton is looking to have just as much drama as the women's. There's a 1-2 battle for gold and silver and then about 4 guys right there for bronze.

SI

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Reportedly team USA is reverting to the pre-Olympics suits.

Spoiler

Well, that didn't help either. Hansen (7th) and Kuck (19th) finished where they belong, but Davis (11th) and Mantia (22nd) were disappointing.

[sterlingice]

The skeleton was really awesome. I'm not sure if they're going to replay it, so I won't give many spoilers and I'll tag them. All sorts of great storylines:

There are 5 guys in the race for bronze and a 2 man race for the bronze

• 2 home town Russians with the extremely loud crowd
• The older of the Latvian Dukurs brother. Their dad runs the sliding center in Latvia
• Two American friends (Antoine, Daly) kept trading off 3rd and 4th on each run- literally. Not only did they keep trading off 3rd and 4th but on all 3 runs, one was 3rd and one was 4th.

Then there are 2 for gold:

• The younger Dukurs brother, Martin, is chasing the whole time, down 0.5 going into the final run but he got silver in Vancouver and gold-gold-silver in the world championships since
• The hometown Russian (Alexandr Tretiyakov) from the town where the sliding course is and bronze medalist from Vancouver has the lead and an extremely loud crowd

Spoiler

• TDukurs, Chudinov, and Tregubov finish within 0.04 of each other at with Dukurs in the lead
• Daly slips out of the gate and misses the grooves; because he's too slow going all the way down and falls down to 10th-ish; you just feel awful for him and they stick the mic in his face at the end.
• Antoine goes right after and kills it, ensuring his spot on the podium
• MDukurs has a good but not great run so he's still 0.4 behind.
• But then Tretyikov, with a giant shout of the crowd, has a great run, and actually adds about 0.3 to his lead, winning the home gold.

SI

[sterlingice]

Latvia a very scrappy game against Sweden (NBCSN) but they're now down 2 in the 3rd and just don't look like they have any legs left because they're not very deep. Over to Swiss-Czech, which is 1-0 with 2 mins to go (USA).

SI

[JPhillips]

There's a Swiss hockey player named Cunti.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Spoiler

Great time watching the US-Russia game. A few local places opened extra early to broadcast, including "almost famous" Primanti's. Anyone who's been to Pittsburgh has probably tried a Primanti's

Best part of all of it...it was my son's idea. No hockey practice this morning, so he asked if we could go when I joked about them opening early with my wife last night.

So we were up at 6:00, out the door by 6:30. Little bit of snow here, roads weren't great, but made it just before puck drop.

He was a little mad, he wanted Malkin to score (see jersey) but was smiling the whole time.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Suburban Rhythm

Spoiler

Great time watching the US-Russia game. A few local places opened extra early to broadcast, including "almost famous" Primanti's. Anyone who's been to Pittsburgh has probably tried a Primanti's

Best part of all of it...it was my son's idea. No hockey practice this morning, so he asked if we could go when I joked about them opening early with my wife last night.

So we were up at 6:00, out the door by 6:30. Little bit of snow here, roads weren't great, but made it just before puck drop.

He was a little mad, he wanted Malkin to score (see jersey) but was smiling the whole time.

What kind of beer is that your son is drinking

Seriously, that's cool though, little things like this make great memories.

[EagleFan]

Taped that game this morning, thankfully I decided at the last minute when setting it to add an extra half hour or it would have stopped midway though OT and I would have been pissed at myself.

Great game.

[sterlingice]

Our women's curling team just isn't that good. Infinitely better than me. But Ryan Leaf was an infinitely better QB than me but still awful by NFL stanards.

I kindof wonder how they qualified as I would have thought there were better teams wandering around Minnesota or Wisconsin. I know it's much harder than it looks but I'm comparing it to other teams there.

SI

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Our women's curling team just isn't that good. Infinitely better than me. But Ryan Leaf was an infinitely better QB than me but still awful. I kindof wonder how they qualified as I would have thought there were better teams wandering around Minnesota or Wisconsin.

SI

yeah I agree-that last shot by the US when they had the lead was a big choke. 2 or 3 of the women and some of the men were there for the last Olympics and did not do well-hard to believe that they couldn't develop someone better in the four years since Vancouver.

[Glengoyne]

Man I botched the recording of the hockey this AM. Have they said anything about an encore?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Man I botched the recording of the hockey this AM. Have they said anything about an encore?

Not that I know about but OT, etc are on the evening program right now

SI

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Not that I know about but OT, etc are on the evening program right now

SI

Finally got to see this in realtime. Wow that was clutch.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Not that I know about but OT, etc are on the evening program right now

SI

On the regular broadcast on NBC?

I'm a west coaster here and have to set the dvr again

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

On the regular broadcast on NBC?

Yeah, it was the first 30 minutes of prime time.

SI

[sterlingice]

Even watching it a second time, the skeleton was really fun. This was one of the best events I've seen this week in terms of drama and excitement

SI

[cartman]

I've got to wonder how drunk the first guys were that came up with skeleton.

[sterlingice]

Losing by thousandths of a second? How awful would that be?

SI

[PilotMan]

Well I think we can rule out the suits as being a major factor and now look at the training regimen prior as the culprit.

[sterlingice]

I really like half pipe and slopestyle but tomorrow's snowboard cross, I'm not really a fan. I guess 2 out of 3 sports for snowboard isn't a bad count.

SI

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Our women's curling team just isn't that good. Infinitely better than me. But Ryan Leaf was an infinitely better QB than me but still awful by NFL stanards.

I kindof wonder how they qualified as I would have thought there were better teams wandering around Minnesota or Wisconsin. I know it's much harder than it looks but I'm comparing it to other teams there.

SI

It is frustrating watching the mens team as well. That skip is constantly blowing chances. From my very little knowledge of the sport it seems the skip is as important as a QB in the NFL.

I watch the Sweden skip constantly making huge shots for his team while I constantly see the US skips(mens and womens) giving points to the other team.

[SirFozzie]

Best moment of the Olympics so far:

Irish skeleton slider loses control, hits the wall, gets thrown a bit airborne and off the sled, but while CONTINUING TO SLIDE DOWN THE TRACK, wrestles the sled back underneath him and finishes the run.

Irish skeleton slider goes airborne, hits ice, but still finishes | NBC Olympics

(PS: ow)

[JPhillips]

If Russia loses to Slovakia I'd expect Putin to send the coach to the gulag.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

It is frustrating watching the mens team as well. That skip is constantly blowing chances. From my very little knowledge of the sport it seems the skip is as important as a QB in the NFL.

I watch the Sweden skip constantly making huge shots for his team while I constantly see the US skips(mens and womens) giving points to the other team.

It was the same in the last Olympics with the Canadians, Kevin Martin had ice water in his veins. It seemed like every time they needed a shot, they got it.

SI

[bhlloy]

Fun game, but what joke refereeing. Why have them out there if they aren't going to call blatant infractions (some of which were probably majors) by both sides?

[JPhillips]

I don't care what the score says, the Russian women curlers are all winners.

[jbergey22]

I think this format is strange. They play a round robin yet still no one gets eliminated?

Why not give the two teams with the most points a 1st round bye and take the top 6 teams(2 from each division) into the medal round?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Man I botched the recording of the hockey this AM. Have they said anything about an encore?

NBCSN just advertised for an encore of yesterday's game some time this afternoon, but I missed what time it was

SI

[mckerney]

Great to see Phil Kessel with a hattrick after an awful day of people praising TJ Oshie.

[sterlingice]

Why don't the snowboard cross finals run like the qualifying? They're on the open course with just one person rather than the silly crowded 4 or 6 person field we'll see tonight. This feels more like the downhill or super g where it's about doing the best on the course against everyone else's time. Instead, we'll see the silliness and crowding nonsense we see in the finals.

SI

[sterlingice]

And now 2 of the first 4 in qualifying that we've seen are hurt. Yet, again, we're going to do this with 6 people. It would be like having 6 people doing the super g at the same time.

SI

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Why don't the snowboard cross finals run like the qualifying? They're on the open course with just one person rather than the silly crowded 4 or 6 person field we'll see tonight. This feels more like the downhill or super g where it's about doing the best on the course against everyone else's time. Instead, we'll see the silliness and crowding nonsense we see in the finals.

SI

I for one actually took the time to watch the snowboard cross (even et my alarm clock to watch it live on a Sunday morning), yet there's no way I'd even consider to sit through this in a 24 individuals format. I'm just one of six billion people (as are you), of course.

[MIJB#19]

Dola, at the same time I do sit through most of the speed skating distances, so my argument is a bit flawed.

Speaking of speed skating...

Spoiler

Dang, the een-twee-drie's in men's 5 KM and 500 meters got bested by the women 1500 meters skaters with an amazing een-twee-drie-vier. 16 out of 24 speed skating medals, so far, with the three best distances still to come...

[Jas_lov]

They couldn't find a better men's curling skip? This is the same guy that botched the last Olympics. He makes awful decisions and never seems to win even when it's tied in the last end and he has the hammer.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Jas_lov

They couldn't find a better men's curling skip? This is the same guy that botched the last Olympics. He makes awful decisions and never seems to win even when it's tied in the last end and he has the hammer.

Agree. One end he messed up last night and blamed it on the ice. Hard to imagine the USA not being able to find someone better.