Competition

Despite everything else that's going on in Vancouver/Whistler, it's men's ice hockey that is attracting the most attention here. If you saw any of the Canada/Slovakia game Friday night, you shouldn't have any trouble understanding why.

Here's an interesting article by Jeff Paterson in Thursday's Georgia Straight: Olympics make a case for NHL contraction. I would add that reducing the NHL's regular season by ten games or so would be a good idea.

A couple of other topics:

Sweden's loss to Slovakia in the quarterfinals shouldn't have come as a surprise. Talented younger Swedish players such as Mikael Samuelsson of the Vancouver Canucks were passed over in favour of several players in their late 30's by Swedish coach Bengt-Aake Gustafsson. Can you say "old boys network?" Story from Brad Ziemer in the Vancouver Sun: Mikael Samuelsson seething over Swedish Olympic snub.

While Canada's quarterfinal win wasn't a suprise, the lop-sided 7-3 score and the way Canada dominated the game was. The big loser in this was actually Russia's Kontinental Hockey League, which supplied nine of the 23 players on Russia's roster. These nine players collected two points during the Olympics, and were -9 when they were on the ice. OK, the KHL also supplied the Czechs with Jaromir Jagr, and much of Belarus' team. The KHL is spending serious money hiring players, but the league isn't at the level of the NHL yet.

First, a brickbat to the managers of www.vancouver2010.com for a job badly done. Want to find out what the matchups are for the men's quarterfinal ice hockey round on February 24? Especially if you hold an expensive ticket to one of these games? Well, you won't find it on their site; all they have is a bunch of "TBD"'s. Instead, I found the information on NESN.com: Olympic Hockey Bracket Could Set Up Canada-Russia Quarterfinal Matchup .

To save you the trouble of clicking the link, it's

• United States vs. Switzerland/Belarus winner at noon (I've converted the times to PST)
• Finland vs. Czech Republic/Latvia winner at 4:30 PM
• Sweden vs. Slovakia/Norway winner at 7 PM (this game is at Thunderbird Arena, another piece of information that's difficult to find on the official site)
• Russia vs. Canada/Germany winner at 9 PM

Now, to the main event. One of the most quoted people here among the hard-core ice hockey fans is Alex Ovechkin, the Russian/Washington Capitals superstar. He said he would play in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, even if the NHL refuses permission: "I'll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me you can't play, see ya."

Good for him, and let's hope more players follow his example. The NHL has long had their priorities backwards; they shouldn't be so concerned about keeping a franchise in Phoenix when Winnipeg, Hamilton, ON and Quebec City don't currently have teams.

Olympic ice hockey should return to the way it was before the NHL was involved. Ask players who want to be Olympians to commit to a year. Have training camps and pre-Olympic warmup games. We'll have a better hockey tournament. This is what Real Ice Hockey Fans want; having NHL players matters only to the TV people.

Good article on the same subject by Joe Lapointe at the Huffington Post: Olympic Hockey Heaven

I started Sunday afternoon at the Richmond Olympic Oval, in an attempt to get one ticket for the women's 3,000 m. speed skating race.

This was not a success. The asking prices for tickets ranged from $250 to $400. After giving up and walking back to the Lansdowne Skytrain station, there was a guy there trying to sell a ticket for $300, despite the fact that the event was already underway, and whoever ended up buying this ticket would have had a good 15 minute walk to the venue.

I also, unfortunately, have to report that the same professional scalpers that I saw at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer have shown up here.

I then went to Thunderbird Arena on the U. of British Columbia campus, where a women's ice hockey game between Finland and Russia was taking place. I had to hang around for about an hour, but my patience was rewarded; I bought a ticket with a face value of $50 (that's $45 plus a $5 "fee") for $40.

After the game started, there were at least 500 empty seats at a supposedly sold out event.

So, the lessons you can learn from this are:

• It's possible to get tickets here, if you're willing to pay about 20% over face value, and have some patience. Problem is, some of the events have very high face values.
• Don't even waste your time talking to professional scalpers, especially ones with thick English accents. Their sole objective is to cheat you.
• The empty seats prove what I've suspected all along, that there are significant numbers of corporate tickets out there, held by people who, at the very least, care nothing about women's ice hockey. If there's somebody you know at the Royal Bank, The Bay, or Bombardier that owes you a favour, make the phone call.

Want to know which athletes have shown up in Vancouver, and who is competing in what? Yahoo has provided the best resource available so far: click here.

However, this only identifies athletes by sport: speed skating, biathlon, etc. It doesn't tell you which specific events they are entered in, such as 5,000 metres.

It's official, and here: 2010 Daily Competition Schedule.

The success of 2006's World Baseball Classic was all-encompassing; crowds showed up, money was made, the Americans got their hides booted (by Canada, no less!), and the event was deemed a total success. In fact, it did so well that the organizers were able to give a $1.2m donation to Habitats For Humanity from the proceeds.

Yet, baseball leaves the Olympic games after 2008, along with women's softball. Trampolining will stay, synchronized swimming is forever, but baseball and softball are gone. Why?

When curling became an Olympic sport a few years ago, there was snickering from both fans and non-fans of this sport. (Substitute "game" for "sport" if you're one of those people who doesn't consider golf a sport, either.) Let's put it this way: when all the Olympic participants get together in the Olympic Village, nobody is going to mistake a curler for a figure skater or cross-country skier.

As things have turned out, however, this is a case where the International Olympic Committee did the right thing. Curling is an activity which has far more competitors than ski jumping, bobsledding, and freestyle skiing (just to name a few) and the competition starts at the grassroots level. It's a small-town friends and neighbours thing, and most competition is amateur. I'm arguing here that having curling in the Olympics is good because it makes them accessible to middle-age beer-drinking types.

I'm mostly neutral on the subject of Todd Bertuzzi, but I do believe that wearing an ice hockey sweater and a pair of skates does not give anyone any sort of immunity from the laws and rules that govern human behaviour.

I feel compelled to say that the people who raised objections to Bertuzzi's participation in the 2006 Winter Games now have a right to say, "I told you so." This group of people includes the Canadian Olympic Committee; the ice hockey team was chosen by Hockey Canada, as in Wayne Gretsky and Pat Quinn.

In the mens ice hockey quarterfinal game, Canada and Russia were scoreless after two periods. Early in the third period, Bertuzzi took an interference penalty. While he was sitting in the penalty box, Alexander Ovechkin scored what turned out to be the winning goal.