Heroes of Hockeytown

It's airing on MSNBC live, if you guys are worried.

Certainly can't deny that he's having a tremendous Olympics so far. I don't like listening to Pierre most of the time but I agree they ought to stick their best winger with their top center in Plekanec and see what happens.

It's going to be a great day for hockey.

Between Donte Stallworth and Miguel Cabrera I'd say most sports have to deal with alcohol related troubles, not just hockey.

I saw the highlights of the shootout, what were the Russian coaches thinking not putting Pavel out there to shoot again? It was nice and all that Ovechkin scored, but Pavel is the shootout ace. Yeah, he got pokechecked once, put him out there again and he'll use that experience to his advantage. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Nice win for the Slovaks, though, Hossa looked awesome in this game.

Right, and the punishment fits the crime. You have a better chance of scoring on a penalty shot than a power play. A penalty shot plus power play if you don't score is just overkill.

This year shooters are at 28% on penalty shots, which is slightly higher than any power play. Anyways, you don't get a penalty shot if you fail to score on the power play, so I don't see why the reverse would be true. Either is a bonafide chance to score, but neither is a gimme. Perhaps there should be an option to take the power play instead of a penalty shot if one is awarded, in case one of the team's poorer shooters happens to be the one fouled, but even then I doubt that choice would be exercised often if at all.

That guy's got a fearsome beard. Refs really seem to be handing it to Sweden right now.

Swedes really dodged the bullet there.

This game is slower and more boring than baseball.

Well, Keith Olbermann has displaced hockey on the reserve channel, and SUDDEN DEATH CURLING has displaced it on its main channel. Great job NBC.

Haha, nice shove by Flip.

Flip with the pressure to force the turnover, then cleans up, beauty.

I'll hand it to Belarus, they survived the first period onslaught and are doing their best to make a game of it, but I'd be surprised if Finland doesn't score again (or likely a couple more times) so that even if Belarus does score again it's moot. EDIT: On cue... Brilliant goal by Hagman.

Kukkonen is building up a lot of goodwill for himself here.

Shots 15-1, chances and obviously the score also weighted heavily in Finland's favor, and this game is over just like the others. The opening games of these prelims are just dreadful mismatches. I wish they had sprinkled some of Sunday's real games throughout the schedule instead of stacking them all at the end.

Awfully strong proclamation to make after just one game. Certainly USA isn't as good as Canada or Russia (or Sweden even though they've yet to be seen), but also consider that Switzerland is better than Norway or Latvia.

Maybe a better question is, what's he doing on the bottom line with the weakest offensive players on the team, instead of, say, with his linemate in Detroit?

Canada and USA are the only two teams in women's hockey.

I've seen enough, then. Cancel the rest of the games, this tournament is over.

Yeah, I don't know what all that's about. That's two or three times done their best to serve up a goal to the Swiss.

Well, this game is over.

Beauty from Backes.

Boy oh boy, just what I was hoping to see, more Crosby. It's like I'm really watching the NHL on NBC or Versus.

You guys need to relax, it's been one whole period of the entire Olympic tournament. EDIT: Suddenly!