The Greatest Tournament Ever!
Written by Golfnut04240, Monday March 01 2010
Well, the Games of the 21st Winter Olympiad have closed. We witnessed some truly amazing feats such as United States men’s speed skater Apollo Ono becoming the greatest ever in his sport, women’s skier Lindsay Vonn winning a gold medal on a bum leg, and the Canadian men’s curling team capturing gold on home soil (yes, I like curling ). However, there was one event that captured the attention of most Olympic fans --- the finest display of competition in the history of the Winter Olympics.
The Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament.
From game one to the final game, I have never seen such skill, intensity, and passion in so many games. My goodness, even teams like Latvia and Norway played tremendous hockey! Switzerland had a chance to beat both the Canadians and Team USA, Slovakia gave Canada all they could handle, and of course the Gold Medal game between Canada and Team USA was perhaps the greatest game played in Olympic history.
Where else can you find a collection of great players on a sheet of ice? The National Hockey League’s very best players from Sidney Crosby to Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk to Zach Parise, are some of the most elite athletes in the world. To play in one venue simply blows the minds of not just hockey diehards but casual fans as well. If you weren’t a hockey fan before, watching this tournament would have mage you a fan for sure!
Of course, playing in Canada, the birthplace of hockey, certainly helped bring hockey to the forefront of all North Americans. The crowds were raucous, which in turn gave the Canadians extra energy to play at peak levels.
I don’t feel the need to recap any great moments during the tournament --- we watched and we marveled. We saw the very best play out of the very best players. That is cut and dried.
Send email to dlafrance2@207me.com
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4 comments
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Thanks for your comments, I love debate amongst knowledgeable sports fans! Now my responses. First to B-Dub. While you are correct in saying that the 1980 USA/Finland game was the most watched game after USA/USSR, This was still a better OVERALL tourney than 1980. I will go as far to say my bias is that NHL skill level far exceeds college and even Soviet "professionals". I'm not interested in TV ratings, I was interested in the play, although the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is always a better TV gig. MC --- I agree that the ice surface was poor as the tourney wore on, but roughly 35 to 40 games were played in 13 days on the same rink. With the starts and stops that the players make, ruts are nearly impossible to repair by just resurfacing. I realize the puck was bouncing at all times and that contributed to the speed of the games also.
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It was like watching an NBA D-League All-Star game.
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The ice they played on was a joke. I would think, in Canada especially, they'd be able to keep the ice half-way decent, even with so many games in such a condensed period of time. It was painful to watch how slow the players looked compared to an NHL game.
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NOT! This wasn't even the most-watched Olympic hockey game ever. That distinction belongs to the 1980 gold-medal game between the US and Finland after the "Miracle on Ice" game. And let's not forget this is hockey and nobody in America cares about hockey, as evidenced by the ratings that are almost negative for the NHL. I'll bet you the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament beats the ratings for this thing easily.