By Rob Ficiur

Olympics Week 2
Week 2 of the Vancouver Olympics found me watching sports I have rarely if ever watched before.   I wasn’t just watching, I was on the edge of my seat…hoping for more medals.
Curling - The Canadian Women earned a Silver medal.  A month ago I would have said “That is a good showing, good work.”  However, having watched the team play all week, it was heartbreaking to see them come so close to gold only to loose in extra ends.   So many athletic events come down to one play. The drama is great when you win, but heartbreaking when you don’t win.  A silver medal will still look good a month from now once the emotion of the last game defeat fades a bit.
Canadian Men Gold Medal; After going undefeated through the round robin, what would happen to Kevin Martin’s team?  In 2002, he came within one shot of winning an Olympic Gold Medal, would history be cruel and take away another gold from him when he dominated the tournament?  The answer was Gold…a 6-3 win in the final game gave Martin the color he missed six years ago.
Figure Skating – I haven’t watched figure skating since the last Olympics.  This year, the compelling story of Joannie Rochette.  Canada’s top female figure skater faced the trial of a life time.  Last Friday her parents flew out to be with her in Vancouver for to share her Olympic dream.  Saturday morning, Joannie’s world fell apart as she found out that her mother died over night from a sudden heart attack.
When Rochette’s people announced that she would still skate Tuesday it was no surprise.  She had trained all these years for the Olympics, going home would not take away her pain.  The amazing part of Joannie’s two skates was the quality of her performance.  WOW!   Before Joannie came on to do her final skate I watched about a dozen other world class skaters do their best.  The pressure of the situation took their toll on other athletes.  Some missed simple moves; others slipped (or almost slipped).  Seeing so many errors in this pressure picture packed sitiation, Joannie deserved a medal for performing with her heart so broken.
Joannie Rochette earned the Bronze medal that she won.  Somehow she had the mental toughness to think past her internal grief and do the performance of her life.  Only five other Canadian women have won Olympic figure skating medals; the last one was Elizabeth Manley in 1988.  Rochette’s accomplishment would be memorable under ideal conditions; under the trials she faced this week she will be remembered as the hero of the Hero of the Vancouver Olympics.  In recognition of her achievement, Joannie was one of two athletes to be awarded the first ever Terry Fox award.
Hockey - The Canadian Women won their third straight gold medal.  While we applaud them for this great achievement, one has to wonder about the future of Olympic Women’s hockey.  In the last four Olympics the USA and Canadian teams were so far above the other teams, there really was no competition for Canada until the final game against the Americans.  In 2006, the Swiss did upset the Americans and go to the Gold Medal game.   However one upset game in four Olympics does not create the drama we see in other sports.   How quickly can other countries bring their women’s team to a calibre closer to the North Americans?
Men’s Hockey - The 2010 Men’s Olympic hockey has been the best tournament ever.  In contrast to the Women’s games, upsets occurred on a regular basis.  Canada found that out early when the Swiss team forced Canada to a shoot out.  The high power Russian offense lost to the no-name team from Slovakia.
When Canada lost 5-3 to the United States on Sunday the 21st, many fear the men’s team was headed for another seventh place finish like they had in the 2006 Olympics.  That game, the most watched sporting event in Canadian history, was the best thing that could have happened to Canada.  On paper, the Canadian team should have beaten the Americans.  Even looking at the stats of the game, Canada out shot and out chanced the Americans by a two to one margin.  However, lead by an elite goalie, the Unites States won that game and every other game taking them to Sunday’s Gold Medal Final.
The Canadian team took a rougher road to reach the Gold Medal.  After loosing to the USA, the team rallied and regrouped.  They played with the emotion and focus they needed to defeat Germany in the Elimination Round.  While that win was no surprise, the quality of play made fans hopeful.  Wednesday the Canadians, showed there was another level of play as they trounced the Russians 7-3.  The 7-3 score makes the Russians sound better than they were.  The Canadians out hit and out raced the Russians to ever loose puck in the first 30 minutes.  That is how they could play.
Surprise surprise!  Another upset as Slovakia elimianted the 2006 Gold Medal from Sweeden.  As Canada out played the Slovaks and took a 3-0 lead, the game seemed so in hand, it was ho – hum boring.  Wait…what?  The Slovaks scored two goals in the third period….Don’t let them back in the game…Then the powerful Canadian team whimpered as the Slovaks came within inches of tying the game with six seconds left.
This column is being written before the Gold Medal game.  Whether Gold or Silver, Team Canada has entertained their fans (aggrivated their fans) and thrilled their fans….
All that with one more game to go…What kind of an encore will they give us?
 

By Rob Ficiur

For the last week my home has been infected with Olympicitis.  (Do you think I can phone in and tell my boss I can’t work because of this infection?).  This column isn’t about the scores, you can get those anywhere and everywhere, this is my reflections and reactions to what happened on week #1 in Vancouver.
-The death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in a training run started the games on the sourest of notes.  That Friday I made the gut wrenching mistake of watching the replay of the Olympian’s death; it made me ill.  The real surprise is that all of these lugers don’t die as they race at 140 km an hour on a piece of wood feet first.
The Olympic Committee paid dignified respect to the loss of this athlete.  During the opening ceremonies later in the day, the Georgian athletes all wore black arm bands.  After marching in to the stadium, the Georgians left out of respect (and grieving) for their team mate.  In recent days others have come forth saying that they told officials of the dangers of this track.  Hind sight it 100%; sadly a life was lost before the track was shortened to make it safer.
-Usually I find the opening ceremonies put me to sleep.  Three items in the ceremonies sparked me from boredom to interest.  This was the first Winter opening ceremonies held indoors.  Because they were indoors the committee was able to use technology to create animations such as dolphins which looked real.  The ceremonies showed a respect for the Salish Indians of the region that was not shown 300 years ago when we took their land.  When the Olympic flag was brought in, the who’s who of Canadians were the flag bearers:  Bobby Orr, Anne Murray and Terry Fox’s mother all represented different parts of Canadian society.  The last five torch bearers, Nancy Green, Steve Nash, Rick Hansen, Katrinia Lamay Done and Wayne Gretzky are among the top athletes in Canadian history.
-Cheaters Will Be Punished…later.  One story that annoyed me was that three Russian skiers, who had tested positive for drugs, were at the Olympics.  Their federation would punish them after the Olympics.  Good idea, give them a three year 11 month ban, so they can compete in the next Olympics.
-Watching Canadian Alex Bilodeau win Canada’s first gold medal on Canadian soil was exciting.  I already knew as I watched the re-run that Alex won the gold medal in the moguls, but even in the re-run there was drama.  Beating out 2006 Gold Medalist Dale Begg-Smith (who grew up near Vancouver but skied for Australia) made the win a bit sweeter.  However, the enthusiasm of Bilodeau’s older brother was contagious.  Alex said that his brother, Frederck, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy, was his inspiration.  Frederick had to work so hard to overcome obstacles, Alex gained an appreciation of hard work and perseverance.  (Watching the moguls made my knees and ankles hurt.  How can they go over so many bumps and still keep coming back for more?)
-Our TV was on whenever we were home.  Because of that I saw great figure skating I would never have watched.  The Canadian women made two last shot victories that made me realize how exciting curling can be.
-As week 1 came to an end, I visited with two families who had been in Vancouver for the first few days of the games.  They were suffering from Olympic with drawal… I want to hear their stories, as soon as I get over my jealousy.
Trivia:  Vancouver is the largest and the warmest city to ever host the Winter Olympics.
The Olympics are full of memories no matter how avid a sports fan you are (or aren’t).  Week 2 promises more excitement.  If we thought a shoot out with Switzerland made hockey dramatic, it has only begun as Canada now goes on to play much more difficult opponents. Some of the greatest drama will unfold in sports and for athletes that were not favored…which is why my TV will be on again this coming week.

By Rob Ficiur

Up until this week I have shied away from making a prediction of who would win the Men’s Hockey Medals at the Vancouver Olympics.  (I predicted the 2006 team would win and they came in seventh).  I didn’t want my bad luck or bias to affect the prediction.
Instead of predicting with my heart; or using a dart board to guess, I turned to the hockey numbers for the last five years.  In these numbers are the answers.  I made a five page list of all the NHL leaders in goals, assists, shutouts, plus / minus and whatever other stat there was.  I added to the list the players who were on the first and second all star teams; players how won the Stanley Cup (and those who lost in the final) and those who won medals at the 2006 Winter Olympics.  With all those stats tallied, I looked at the rosters of the eight main contenders in the 2010 tournament.
On my chart Russia got five points because Evgehni Malkin won the Art Ross Trophy in 2009; Canada got three points because Sidney Crosby was third in league scoring and the USA got one point because Zach Parise was fifth in league scoring.  Sweden got five points for every player on the 2010 roster who helped win the 2006 Gold Medal.   So with the charts in place I began to see who the numbers said would win the Olympic Hockey Medals.  These are the results:
Slovakia 7th place (eight points) -  Though the Slovaks won five games in a row in 2006, their 2010 team has only one NHL star, Zdeno Chara. Though 15 of their 23 players are in the NHL, only Chara has emerged as a league leader.
Czech Republic sixth place (34 points).  The Czechs won the gold medal in 1998 primarily because of the goaltending of Dominec Hasek.  At that time Hasek was the elite goalie in the league.  Six players are returning from the 2006 Czech team that won the Bronze medal. However, most of the points the Czech team earned under my system were earned in 2006 and 2007 by Jarimor Jagr.  Jagr is four years older and no longer an NHL player.
Finland fifth place (64 points).  Many people talk about the 2006 Silver Medal winning Swedes as the team to beat because of their elite goaltending.  However, once we get past Kprasauff and Backstrom the line up consists of second line NHL players such as Oli Jokinen, Jere Lehtinen and the aging Teemu Selane.
United States fourth Place (71 points).  The American team won the Gold Medal at the World Junior Tournament last month, but that does not translate into help for the Olympic team.  The American leaders chose to go with a more youthful team; leaving behind aging veterans like Mike Modano and Chris Chelios (he still plays in the minors).  Patrick Kane, Zach Parise and Bobby Ryan are first line players in the NHL.  Tim Thomas was the leagues’ top goalie last year.  Only five Americans have Olympic experience.  Though they have elite players as forwards and in goal (Ryan Miller could win a medal by himself) their defense is thin.  Two of their seven picks have had to be replaced, so they are entering a two week tournament with their eighth and ninth defensemen.
Sweden third place (183 points) – The Swedes have 14 players returning from the 2006 Gold Medal winning team.  Nicklas Linstrom is playing in his third Olympic Games, which is a way of saying he is getting older.  The Sedin Twins lead a group of top line NHL players.  However, Lindstrom is the only one of their seven defensemen who would be a number one D man on any NHL team.
Russia second place (219 points)  With forwards such as Malkin, Kavalchuk, Ovechkin and Datsyuk, the Russians should be able to score 10 goals in each game.  The problem is if the team doesn’t score 10 goals, their thin defense and average goal tending will make it hard to win it all.  If their goalie gets hot or even lukewarm, the scoring on this team is enough to win the Gold Medal.
Canada first place (297 points).  I was surprised when my scoring system put Canada so far ahead of any other team in the tournament.  However, the team has three #1 goalies. all of whom could win a Gold Medal.  There is a balance of veteran defensemen and new blood – all of whom are the elite D men on their team.  Unlike the USA, if Canada had to call in two new defensemen as replacements, those brought in would be #1 D men from another team.  The Canadian team has 13 forwards who are top line players on their NHL teams.
The numbers don’t lie.  On paper Canada should win the Gold Medal because of the overall depth of the team.  However, in a one game playoff, an elite Russian scorer or an outstanding American Goalie can make all these predictions invalid.
Hold your breath and hang on the next two weeks as we see if Canada can play hockey as good on the ice as they do on the paper.