Silver Medal healing

Nothing to be ashamed of after losing to Team Canada in OT. It hurts... therefore Julia Mancuso offers you her healing. USA !!!

Hockey Gold Medal Open Thread

The new RED threat

Now that the Soviet Union is a distant memory, there really isn't any other country for us to loath during the Winter Olympics. The natural choices just don't work out. Cuba doesn't have winter sports and North Korea, despite the correct climate conditions, has only ever won two medals (a silver in 1964 and a bronze in 1992). Essentially, they just suck.

As much as we don't want to face it, our biggest rival when it comes to Winter Olympics is yawn, Canada. In the spirit of "know your foe" I wanted to share this clip. If the Gold medal hockey game ends up being USA vs Canada, I will produce a full fledged "know your foe" post dedicated to the new red menace.

More Hardware: Meryl Davis and Charlie White, SILVER MEDAL

The Daily tells all.
But, for those of you early risers, the pair made an appearance on the Today Show where Matt Lauer nicely pointed out that the two are juniors at Michigan. Then he asked which would they rather have....a Big Ten Champsionship and a trip to the Rose Bowl or their silver medals......
douche.

Today's excitement???? Men's elimination round begins for hockey
Hold on for Thursday's Gold Medal Game in Women's Hockey vs. Caaanada!!

Still a Miracle 30 years later

30 years ago today something miraculous happened. A bunch of college hockey players beat the vaunted Soviet Union Hockey team in an improbable upset that still shocks the world. It seems incredible in today's instant information world, but the game was played in Lake Placid during the afternoon - and broadcasted via tape delay on ABC in prime time. No one knew the result. I was in 8th grade attending a high school basketball game, and remember the announcer reporting the score as if it were happening live. Where were you?

I apologize for the poor quality of this video clip, I need to find a better quality version. Even today, watching the last minute of that game, I still am worried the Soviets are going to score and end the dream.

GREAT

Awesome day of watching olympic hockey today.

The Russia v Czech game this afternoon was chippy and hard hitting for an olympics. Alex Ovechkin is so much fun to watch it is silly. That devastating open-ice hit he put on on Jaromir Jagr is something we will see over and over for many years. Tonight Team USA upsets Canada 5-3. Great night by former Sparty goalie Ryan Miller. The last 4 minutes of that game was about the most exciting hockey you will ever see.

Sweden against Finland tonight. I don't know if I will ever get to sleep tonight.

Olympic Sports Science Friday: CURLING

oh yes sports fans. you know you like it.
as a girl growing up in Detroit, one could always find curling on CBC.
what a great sport...yelling at a rock, sweeping with a broom---it's like being a wife, no!?

Andy and the guys with fancy pants gave you the overview in the previous post. Here is a pretty cool website that explains all sorts of things like what's the sheet, the stone, the delivery and strategic rock placement.

The key though, is the turn of the rock and the sweeping.
SO, recall that the stone has a handle on it. By turning the handle prior to releasing it you can control if the rock in-turns or out-turns. If you are a righty, you turn the handle clockwise to get it to travel to the right of the sheet. A counter-clockwise turn will send the stone toward the left of the sheet.
Now, here's the fun part. As the rock slides across the ice, the front of the rock creates friction on the surface of the ice. That friction causes a slight melting of the ice leaving a small film of liquid which alters the contact of the stone on the ice.


For the curious---here are some references:

[1] "The Motion of a Culing Rock", Shegelski, Niebergall, and Walton,
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, volume 74, pages 663-670, 1996.
[2] "The Motion of Rapidly Rotating Culing Rocks", Shegelski and
Niebergall, AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, volume 52, pages 1025-1028, 1999.
[3] "The Motion of Rotating Cylinders Sliding on Pebbled Ice",
Shegelski, Niebergall, and Reid, CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, volume
77, pages 847-862, 1999.
[4] "The Motion of a Culing Rock: Inertial vs. Noninertial Reference
Frames", Shegelski and Reid, CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICS, volume 77,
pages 903-922, 1999.

By sweeping in front of the rock, you can generate more or less friction. The amount of heat generated by the sweeping depends on the amount of pressure applied and the vigour with which the sweeping motions occur. The faster and harder the sweeping....the more the friction...the more the heat...the more the melt....the longer the slide

I can't do any better than this:





TOO FREAKIN' COOL

Gold Medal Fashion

Once every four years the world gets the opportunity to watch curling. If you have never taken them time to watch, you are missing something. It may lack the speed and explosiveness of football, but it more than makes up for it with a laid back attitude, precision and intense strategy. For my money, there is no better sport in the world to sit down, relax and drink a lot of beer.

Quick lesson: Two teams of four players take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stone down a perfectly prepared sheet of ice towards a circular target (called the house). The goal is to complete each end (16 stones) closer to the center of the house. Two sweepers with brooms or brushes accompany each stone helping direct the stones to their resting place.

Typically you will see the curling teams uniformed in conservative attire. However, during these games the team from Norway decided to make a fashion statement. Instead of the normal black pants and patriotic shirt, they went with something a little louder. These pants from LoudMouthGolf.com have become one of the more interesting stories of the Vancouver Olympics and has been picked up from MSNBC to NPR.

All this buzz about these pants led me to check out the other available patterns and colors.

Warning, the LoudMouth web site is getting crushed right now because there was a feature story on the Today Show about the Norwegian Curling Team and their wacky pants -- but I got lucky and was able to locate a scarlet and grey pattern that I thought would look wonderful on the football fashion icon of the B11.

How awesome would it be to have Chesty McSweaterVest jog out onto the sidelines on September 2nd for the Bucks game against Marshall wearing these beauties ?

Wallpaper Wednesday: Jack Johnson

In keeping with our Winter Olympics theme. Jack Johnson was so excited to be part of the Olympics he went through A LOT to make it to the opening ceremonies.

He was the 3rd overall pick in the 2005 NHL draft. before he played two seasons in Michigan. During his first year, he set the school record for single-season penalty minutes (149) and points (32) by a freshman defenseman. The next year, he set the school record for the most goals (16) by a sophomore defenseman and was named the CCHA Offensive Defenseman of the Year.

Hail !

Jack Johnson Wants YOU

... to watch some hockey in the afternoon. Team USA (and Jack Johnson) take on Switzerland today in their first Olympic Hockey game. This is a dangerous game. The Swiss upset both Canada and the Czechs in the last Olympic games.

You can watch the game on the USA network starting in about 20 minutes.

Edit #1: USA leads 1-0 after the first period. Late goal by Bobby Ryan (Ducks) after a sloppy opening. For a country that loves hockey, there sure are a lot of Canadians dressed as empty seats in the arena. The Americans look like a bunch of NHL players thrown together rather than a olympic hockey team.

Edit #2: USA leads 3-0 after the second period. Controlled that period from start to finish. Former Sparty goalie Ryan Miller has really only had to make 3 or 4 saves. Team looks to be gaining confidence and this one looks to be well in hand.

Edit #3: USA wins 3-1. The Swiss played with a little more intensity in the 3rd period. It didn't matter. We didn't look bad for a team that has had exactly zero practices. Norway on Thursday and Canada on Sunday.

Olympic Smorgasbord

First, a moment of silence for Nodar Kumaritashvilia. Tragic.


Yes, just like the IOC, I too have decided that the silliness must go on:

• Like candy from a baby: USA women's hockey crushes the Chinese 12-1.
• Best dressed award goes to the team from the Nederlands
• Worst dressed? Azerbijan
• The biathlon is NOT the Nordic combined
• No, Jakov Fak's brother VatTa is not competing.....
• However, the luging Hyman brothers are...
  
• Magdalena Neuner has an unfortunate last name, even if she is a silver medal winner
• And, Ian Cockerline is sliding right thru the pipe.....
  
• MORE COWBELL!
  

Winter Olympics: Let the games begin !!!

Love the pageantry and the individual stories and drama.
Sports' own Soap Opera!? Lots to follow and poke fun at, I'm sure.
I'll be your roving reporter (from the warm confines of home) during these next few weeks.

How many days til football??????