Day 5 Open Thread
John Shuster and the Americans begin their medal dream today against Germany
Day 5 in Vancouver could be our best yet. The American men’s curling team begins at 11 AM as John Shuster and the #4 team in the world take on Germany, the 6th ranked team in the world. Later today Debbie McCormick and the US women, who are 6th in the world, take on 9th ranked Japan.
Women’s hockey continues later in the day with the United States taking on Russia.
On NBC, the United States has an excellent shot to take home the country’s first ever medal in biathlon with the men’s 12.5k and the women’s 10k.
But the big matchup today is the beginning of the men’s hockey tournament. Team USA takes on Switzerland live at 2pm Central time over on USA.
It should be a hell of a day. Join us, won’t you?
11:27 – Rough start by Shuster’s gang as Germany goes up a point. The US retains the hammer though.
11:30 – Sorry about the picture by the way. No idea what happened and I’m too lazy to fix it. It will be done after I get out of class.
11:35 – 1-1 after 2 ends. Really bad start for the Americans. Fortunately it’s a long tournament.
2:43 – Hell of a finish in the biathlon over on NBC. Magdalena Neuner looks to be the winner.
2:58 – David Backes, who isn’t really a goal scorer, scores a beautiful goal to make it 2-0 United States
3:03 – Ryan Malone makes it 3-0. Hell yes.
3:14 – There’s not even enough stoppage time for me to run to the bathroom. I love this.
3:30 – 3-0 after two. USA leading the shots 21-9
4:09 – The US wins 3-1. Other than some lapses in the 3rd when they frankly looked like they just wanted to get out of there it was a very comprehensive victory.
4:11 – Curling over on CNBC. In the 1st end.
4:13 – Finally an olympic sport I can talk about eloquently. The ice has been very straight so far, which is kind of odd for an Olympics. Open house so far in this first end, which I would lean towards saying is good for the American team.
4:15 – McCormick throws one through the house. This is shaping up to be a blank end.
4:17 – Nevermind, the US takes a point. Not sure if they wanted the point (probably not) or if McCormick just doesn’t have the feel.
Some quick bios for this team: McCormick is a 35 year old originally from Saskatchewan, but moved to Madison, Wisconsin at a young age. Her lead is Natalie Nicholson, a nurse practitioner who lives in Bemidji, Minnesota and got her college degree from the University of North Dakota. The second is Nicole Joraanstad, who is from Seattle but moved to Madison at a young age. And the third is Allison Pottinger, the team’s oldest member at 37 years old. She is from Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
In 2003, McCormick and Pottinger won the American’s first ever World Championship, defeating Canada in Winnipeg.
4:28 – McCormick with a great shot there. Japan could try the double takeout, but probably will be forced to draw.
4:30 – Japan could take out both US stones, but the US still has a chance to score.
4:31 – Fortunately Japan’s skip is worse than ours is, so the US goes up 3-0.
4:40 – Hell of a shot by Pottinger. Over on MSNBC the women’s hockey team is playing Russia
4:46 – And as I turn the channel, Jenny Potter scores a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 US
4:47 – Another great throw, and Japan is going to be forced to take 1
4:48 – Fairly clutch draw there, and it’s 3-1 US after 3 ends.
4:52 – Thatcher with her first goal of these Olympics to make it 3-0. If they win they advance to the medal round.
5:03 – Jenny Potter with her 2nd of the game, 5th of the Olympics.
5:19 – Sorry for the lack of updates, real life interfered for a bit. Japan could crawl back into the match with a couple poor shots in a row by the US.
5:25 – Ruggiero has a goal from Chu and Darwitz to make it 6-0 US, just 1 second into the power play
5:29 – Holy fuck Kelli Stack. That’s 2 highlight goals in 2 games for the US.
5:35 – Jocelyne Lamoureux with the goal, her 2nd in 2 games.
5:51 – And Jenny Potter has her 2nd hat trick. US up 12-0 now. 6 power play goals today.
6:01 – Uh oh, Japan just got 3 in that end to take the lead by 1 over the US
Also, it’s time for my dinner break. Back in 15 mins or so.
6:41 – So I left a little late, and now I’m back. US down by one with the hammer in the 10th
6:55 – Here’s McCormick, one shot for the game.
6:57 – The US chokes it away. Quite a somber end to the day thread. Night thread up….now
Olympic Sports Blog 
Fetch, help me out here. My DVR can only record things at a time, but the Olympics are shown on 4 channels. Since NBC shows the best events at night I’m gonna go with that, but than its a toss up between USA, CNBC or MSNBC, your thoughts?
USA. You get men’s curling and men’s hockey.
They just played the 1st period of the USA game in 31 minutes of realtime. No one can convince me that Olympic hockey isn’t the best on the planet. Wish they were playing on the international surface though.
I wish they were too, but I think the NA ice helps us so I’m not going to complain too much
It does, but I still like the larger surface to see teams like Russia play. Fun to watch as long as it’s not against the US.
Agreed for sure on the bigger international rink, though the action has been quite good so far on even the NHL rink. USA! USA! indeed. Finally some real Olympic action.
It is so laughable that the Canadians were so hung up on the piece of shit environmentally-friendly “ice resurfacing” machines in liberal-ass BC that they left a needed Zamboni all the way over in Calgary! No way that would happen in the US! C’mon it’s the Olympics damnit — you don’t go with a Chevy when you need a Rolls Royce. And for all that folly we get 4 fuckin’ hours of figure skating in prime time and no short track last night?
Note that I am one of few big fans of international hockey as opposed to the legalised thuggery of the NHL with its common goons on ice ever since at least the 1970s, with such talk considered herecy in North America amongst the declining number of NHL fans except in Canada and in a handful of US markets. I live for this action only every four years. 😦
Gary Bettman, like Bud Selig via the blind eye on PED’s and David Stern with a blind eye on rigged officiating, is hollowing out the NHL as well for sake of a few connected owners and teams.
The NHL should move some of the US teams losing money back to Canada too where they just plain have more of a base of rabid fans who no doubt will support teams more greatly than they do in too many lame-ass US cities especially in the South.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
/obligatory chant
//bored in class
Fetch, when I got up late not feeling 100% for no apparent reason other than it’s still so cold outside, I was watching the men’s curling match between the US and Germany. It was 1-1 after the second “end” I think but then I got bored and went to work on paperwork again. Ah life even when you did manage to secure some decent health insurance …and GOP types love to pretend the system is working so great …anyway how did our guys end up doing?
Are you a curler Fetch? What do you recommend for apparel?
I don’t like the resemblance in the trend of the Olympic curling apparel towards that of perhaps refined bowling attire, so what would you say Fetch so that the curlers can look a bit sharper and more like tougher real athletes instead of like now as if they just finished a beer and nachos or bratwurst at a local bowling alley?
When in doubt go with more blacks and blues with the shoes to match I say, but what say you Fetch?
Well the pants and shoes are pretty standard. You need certain types of shoes so you can have a slider on them, and they just have certain types of pants.
But yeah, some of the shirts can be pretty dumb.