Home
The Daily Dose/February 22, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
USA! USA! Some of your friends my have gotten worked up over it, or maybe even you did. But as a country, our collective psyche isn't materially uplifted by last night's 5-3 victory by the Americans over the Canadians at the Olympic hockey tournament in Vancouver.
This One Hurts: Your average Canadian is probably to stoic to admit, but in Canada the loss probably hurts more than they're willing to let on. Hockey is part of the national psyche in Canada and the results of their national team are felt for a long time. We just hope they don't try to invade North Dakota, or whatever that state is that borders both Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Dry, Technical Matter: With the win, the US will be the top seed in the medal round and will face the winner of the Switzerland/Belarus qualification game in the quarterfinals. With the loss Canada is now obliged to play Germany for the right to play Russia in the quarterfinals.
More Dry, Technical Matter: This is the first time in Olympic history this specific format has been used for the hockey tournament. This is hardly a bulletin, though because international ice hockey officials have been farting around with the format for the Olympic tournament for years.
Please Pass The Dry, Technical Matter: At 2006 Turin Games 12 teams were grouped into two groups and after round-robin play the top four teams from each group advanced to the medal round.
And this differed from the 1998 and 2002 Games where 14 teams took part, but since the NHL wouldn't let its players off in time to play in the preliminary, six really good teams were given the first round off while eight scrub teams were divided into two pools with the winners of those pools given the privilege of playing in the final round, but even the final round was just posturing because all eight teams made it to the single-elimination medal round.
What The Hell's Going On Here? For a long time there wasn't even a gold medal game in Olympic hockey. We don't understand that either. How you can have any tournament, much one the calibre of the Olympics, and not have one game for the title is beyond us.
From the first Winter Games in Chamonix, France in 1924 through the 1988 Calgary Games, medals were determined by the results of a medal round round robin tournament. Even here there were differences though. From 1980-88 there were two six-team groups. In 1980 and 1984 the top two teams advanced to the medal round and in 1988 the top three teams in each group advanced, where they would play the teams they didn't play in the preliminary round.
Haves Vs. The Have Not: From 1956-76 the really good teams were obliged to play a really bad team in a qualification round game, with the winners advancing to the medal round, with the losers relegated to playing for 7th through 12 places in a frozen parking lot at 3am in front of the custodial staff.
FunFacts: In 1952 and 1948 and nine team round robin was used. In 1936 there were 15 teams and no less than three round robin rounds. In 1932 only four teams entered and they played a double round robin.
O Canada: In 1928 11 teams were divided into three groups, with the group champions advancing to the semifinals, where they joined Canada, who had been given a free pass to the semifinals. In 1924 eight teams were divided into two groups with the top two teams in each group advancing to the medal round.
O Canada II: Instead Of A Medal, Please Bend Over And Accept This Broom Handle: International hockey officials got even with the Canadians at the 1964 Innsbruck Games, though. Under the tiebreaker in place before the tournament - goal differential in the medal round - Canada was entitled to the bronze medal. But under the tiebreaker concocted by international ice hockey officials during the the last game of the tournament - goal differential in the Olympics - Czechoslovakia was awarded the bronze medal.
The One And Only: This was not the first instance of international ice hockey officials have given evidence of either being crooked, dumb or high. It's been going on since the first Olympic hockey tournament at the 1920 Summer Games in Antwerp, which featured a format that, thankfully, has not been seen since.
Groove On This: Eight teams played a single elimination tournament, which saw Canada defeating Sweden in the only gold medal game until 1992. You would think that Sweden would have been awarded the silver medal but nooooo, in order to give the Americans every possible opportunity to feel good about themselves the three teams that lost to Canada in the first round (the US, Czechoslovakia and Sweden) played a silver medal round, won by the US and since they had the bronze medals lying around the Swiss, who had lost to the Americans in the first round, joined Czechoslovakia and Sweden in a bronze medal round, won by the Czechs.
Oh Yeah: In 1948 the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) almost had to cancel the entire tournament because those zany Americans sent two teams to compete. A team of amateurs was fielded by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and sanctioned by the US Olympic Committee (USOC). A team of professionals was dispatched by the Amateur Hockey Association (AHA), which had replaced the AAU as the US representative to International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and was the team sanctioned by the IIHF. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stepped in and said neither team could compete. The IIHF said eff this noise, we'll boycott the Games and hold our world championships someplace nearby. The Swiss organizers did not like this idea at all and cut the disputed child in half, letting the AAU team march in the Opening Ceremonies while letting the AHA team play in the Games, though their results ended up not counting.
Minority Report: Meanwhile, in the intramural event known as the Women's Olympic Hockey tournament, the preliminaries of which are mainly to decide if America or Canada gets to call themselves the home team in the gold medal game, is continuing. As expected, the Americans and the Canadians won their group and have advanced to the semifinals where only the most ardent, drunk Finn or Swede thinks their country has a chance to beat them. The Canadians gave up two goals in the pool play, the Americans one.
YOU KNEW THIS WAS COMING: 30 years ago today, in what is on any short list of both the greatest upsets and greatest moments in sports history, the United States defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in hockey at the Lake Placid Olympics. Two days later the US would defeat Finland 4-2 to earn the gold medal.
FunFact: While his players, the fans in the arena that now bears his name and his country celebrated the win over the Soviets, US coach Herb Brooks ran back to the locker room, sat down in the can, and cried.
Thought For The Day: If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves...Your fucking graves. - Herb Brooks, during the second intermission of the US-Finland game, with his team trailing 2-1.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: When the Postmaster General was Cabinet-level office, he was last in the line of presidential succession.
Today's Stumper: What Olympic hockey tournaments has Canada not sent teams to? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
Home |
|