Olympic Recap - Top 10 Moments

#10 - Typical Canadian Weather? For all those around the world that thought that we lived in igloos and that the Olympics would be held in balmy -20 C weather, boy, were you in for a shock. These Olympics will go down as the warmest and wettest winter Olympics to date. Snow had to be flown in, fog and rain postponed many events, and temperatures reached the mid-teens during the opening week.

# 9 - Olympic Gaffs: The dignitaries were late, we wouldn't let you anywhere near our torch, and one of the flame's arms wouldn't go up, but it wouldn't be a Canadian Olympics without something going wrong. In the typical Canadian spirit, we poked fun at that and let Catrina Le May Doan finally light the cauldron.

# 8 - Snow and Ski Cross Excitement: Were these sports fun to watch or what? We saw race after race of exciting skiing and snowboarding. All the athletes pushed the limits and were thrilling to watch. Three Canadian's won medals, while a fourth just crashed short of the line trying to propel himself onto the podium.

# 7 - Charles Hamelin and Marianne St-Gelais: How fun was it to watch these speed skaters cheer for their respective partner? One of my favorite moments was watching a replay of Hamelin's first gold medal with an inset of St-Gelais reactions as the race went on. When the race ended, St-Gelais jumped the bleachers to give Hamelin a kiss. When all was said and done, the couple ended the games collecting two golds and a silver medal medal.

# 6 - Jon Montgomery's the Coolest: It seemed that the turning point of the lull in Canadian spirit at these games came with Jon Montgomery's golden performance. We watched him speed down the treacherous luge track four times with a cool swagger that made him an instant fan favorite. His celebratory beer-guzzling not only raised money for charity, but also landed him a spot on the Oprah Winfrey Show!

# 5 - The Women Party Hearty: A lot of people seemed to get their panties in a knot when pictures were leaked of the woman's gold-medal hockey team celebrating their victory with some beer and stogies on the ice. To all those who are upset by this, where were you during Jon Montgomery's beer blast? The point is that I hate the double standard here. The team fought hard to win gold and then did what any Canadian team (professional or otherwise) would do after a game: celebrate with a cold one. Nothing wrong with that.

*On a side note, if Dr. Jacques Rogge ever decides to read this blog, I hope you were joking when you said you opposed seeing woman's hockey in the Olympics because of the lack of parity. How else do you expect the game to grow if it cannot be showcased on the international stage? If you're going to remove sports because of the lack of parity, why not take a look at gymnastics, for example, which is dominated by China, the U.S., and former Soviet countries. What about the men's aerials? If you weren't Canadian, American, Chinese, or Belorussian...tough break, cause you didn't crack the top 12. Cut out the hypocrisy please.

# 4 -Curling Domination and Spontaneous Oh Canada's: As a long time curling fan, the Canadian teams did not disappoint. We were treated to phenomenal shot-making. Kevin Martin's rink proved its dominance, while Cheryl Bernard was inches away from a gold. Even better were the fans at the curling centre. While some criticized the fans for showing bad bonspiel etiquette, I was actually glad that the game was attracting new fans. The fans twice broke-out into a roaring rendition of Oh Canada, that touched the players and the rest of the country.

# 3 - Alex Bilodeau Gets the Ball Rolling: With one skier to go, the country held it's collective breath, wondering if a near-flawless performance by Bilodeau would finally get the monkey of our backs. When the results were in, Guilbaut Colas's efforts weren't enough and Canada finally won it's first gold medal on home soil! We were all swept up in the fervor of Bilodeau's victory. What made the story even more impressive was learning how he took up skiing so that he could participate in an activity with his older brother, Frederic, who has cerebral palsy. Watching Frederic cheer his brother to victory was amazing.

# 2 - Men's Hockey Gold: I spent the entire two weeks defending Sydney Crosby's play. "He doesn't have to score a dozen goals", I reminded everyone, "he's doing the little things right. He'll come through when it counts most, don't worry, he want's it (the gold) badly." Sure enough, I had just repeated this sentiment as Crosby tried to split the D in overtime, when The Kid popped in a Jerome Iginla pass to end the game, beat the Americans, and re-claimed our gold medal. The men's team may not have had a dominant tournament, but kudos goes out to each and every player who, by the end of the tournament, found their role and played to win (thus proving my hypothesis in a previous blog :p). As a Toronto resident, this is the closest thing to a Stanley Cup that I'll see this year.

# 1 - Joanie Rochette's Bronze Medal: After Rochette's short program, I was expecting Tom Hanks to jump out from behind the couch and yell at me: "there's no crying in figure skating". I will never understand how she was able to skate two excellent routines just days after unexpectedly losing her mother. Simply incredible. Kudos to the C.O.C. for recognizing her achievement and appointing her Canada's flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

Thus ends a great 17-days. Congratulations to VANOC for putting on a great show and to all the international athletes for exciting the world. Now back to reality: the Leafs and Carolina play Tuesday night in an epic eastern conference battle. No. That's a lie. But how can I go back to the Leafs after averaging 10 hours a day glued to Olympic coverage?

Why The Ladies Make Me Cry

In what will undoubtedly be one of my shortest blogs going forward, I would be negligent in my duties as an internet blogger if I didn't acknowledge the awe-inspiring performance of Joannie Rochette last night in the ladies' short program. We all know her heartbreaking story. Needless to say that I was moved by her performance. Not only did she somehow gather the strength to compete yesterday just two days after the passing of her mother, but she mustered all of her focus and energy to skate flawlessly. Whether or not she wins a medal is irrelevant at this point. What she has done embodies the spirit of the Olympics. Her skate yesterday should be the story of these games. Congratulations Joannie on being a true Olympic Champion!

Don't Count on me to Check the Medal Standings

With the Blue Jays evaluating their pitching depth, the Leafs not having dropped a game in over a week (season record), and the Raptors standing pat at the trade deadline, my concentration has shifted to the Olympics.

I have to say, I'm disappointed at all this pressure being placed on our Canadian athletes to "Own the Podium" and our desire to top the Americans in the overall medal standings.

Sure, it would be nice to beat the Americans, but what's the big deal if we don't? Doesn't it count that our athletes are preforming at the top of their games and we've been blessed with nine days of superb athleticism? Isn't it humbling to hear the stories of athletes such as Alex Biladou and Jon Montgomery make it to the top of the podium, without having to be constantly reminded that "we've lost a medal we were guaranteed at winning"?

Firstly, nothing's a guarantee; that's why the races are run. Secondly, how can we be expected to be at the top when we just don't have the numbers to do it.

Using a salary-cap-esque analysis, Canada's population is roughly 34 million compared to that of the U.S. at 330 million. Obviously, the Americans are drawing from a much larger talent pool. Secondly, the American investment in their sports is at least 10 times more than what we invest, so much so that their athletes are heavily subsidized by the government and private sponsors to make training a job. While that is to say that the Canadian government is not doing their share, proportionately, we cannot even compete with American investment.

All I'm asking is for is to be proud of our athletes achievements thus far in the Olympics without worrying about whether we medal or not. Be proud for all the athletes, athletes such as skiier Eric Guay, who "wasn't expected to do much", yet has finished 5th place in both the downhill and the Super G - personal bests for Guay at the Olympics.

Stop handicapping our chances at medals for every single event, such as today's woman's 1500 metre speed-skating event, where Canada "could win multiple medals". I'm sick of hearing the analysts open their broadcasts with "...and this event is where Canada is not expected to win a medal." How many casual viewers would just groan and change the channel so as to not waste their time watching another hopeless event.

Let's just watch the events, cheer for our athletes, and count on them to give the performance on their lives.

Why Team Canada Won't Win Gold

After watching the first two games the Canada has played in the Olympic IIHF tournament, it's clear what the glaring deficiency that will prevent them from winning gold is: too much star power. The problem so far with their play through 2 games is that they are being too cute with the puck and not doing the little things right: get the puck deep into the zone, pressure the defense, establish a good cycle, set-up plays in the slot, and get traffic in front of the net; in other words, playing the Canadian game.

The flashes of brilliance seen so far (the 2nd period of the Norway game and the 2 goals created by the San Jose line against Switzerland) came as a direct result of playing the same style of play that I mentioned above. The rest of the time, those high-quality scoring chances have just not been there and these two Tier B teams have made a star-studded cast of Canadian players look average.

A lot of fingers are being pointed at the fact that in a short tournament such as this one, the NHL stars are still adjusting to their new line-mates and systems. I think the problem is that we have too many high-skilled players playing with one another and there is confusion among the players how a play should be finished, ergo, all of the over-passing that we've seen so far that's resulted in a defensive break-up down low. How else do you explain a player like Sydney Crosby, a 41-goal scorer in the NHL, suddenly become a pass-first player and driving to the net only once (in retaliation to receiving a high stick to the face.)?

I know that Babcock is still trying to find chemistry, but we can't be successful if he continues to roll 4 1/3 forward lines and give everyone a proportionately equal amount of ice time. If Canada is to be successful moving forward, some players will have to take less ice time to allow the more pure goal scorers more time on the ice. I think that the coaches should really try giving 2 lines the majority of the ice time, while limiting the remaining seven players to roles that we would expect 3rd and 4th line NHLers to fulfill: bring a solid defensive game when on the ice and provide a few high-energy minutes.

What could be done? First (although this is a moot point), some defensive-minded forwards should have been named to team, a la Ryan Smyth and Shane Doan. Since that didn't happen Babcock should give most of the ice time to the San Jose line, by far the best offensive players through 2 games, as well as the Crosby, Nash, and Toews/Burgeron/Iginla (whoever Babcock deems the most compatible). I think that Perry and Getzlaf bring a physical presence to their game that could be suited for this 3rd-line roll. Players like Richards, Morrow , Staal, and Bergeron can kill penalties, play well defensively, and can bring a high tempo game that allows Canada to open up the forecheck and work the puck in the corners

In my heart, I'd like to think that the route Canada will take to the gold medal is similar to the path taken in Salt Lake City that saw the Canadians start slow, but get better as the tournament progressed. That being said, unless the coaching staff sets a more rigid shift-rotation and the players will start playing their game, it could be another early exit for the boys in white and red.