Monday, February 15, 2010

Your Daily Platter of Curious Olympic News

- From Dmitry Chesnokov's Twitter feed:

Kovalchuk, Afinogenov, Gonchar and Malkin are flying to Vancouver on a private jet. All 4 will keep credential center open 4 late arrival.

The jet probably has "Золотая медаль or bust!" painted on the windows.

- So far, Ron Wilson has revealed two of the lines for Team USA. Expected, but exciting:

Zach Parise - Paul Stastny - Patrick Kane

AND

Dustin Brown - Ryan Kesler - Jamie Langenbrunner

There is talk of a Ryan Malone - Joe Pavelski - Phil Kessel line, but it seems to be unconfirmed, even though it's the only logical conclusion given the other two lines. Sounds like a fine Top 9, does it not?

- Then again, where does that leave Bobby Ryan? Answers, I want ANSWERS, Ron Wilson!

- So the English and the French are the two official languages of the Olympic Games. English is the global lingua franca (haw), so it's not hard for any host country to make the games' official signage and speeches as Anglophone as possible. Making them French as well can be a trickier proposition in countries like, say, China, where French isn't that big a deal. Canada, you would think, would have zero problem making the games bi-lingual. MAIS NON!

...now Canada’s government ministers are irritated that there wasn’t enough French at the Opening Ceremony for the Games.

...Quebec Premier Jean Charest remarking he was actually led to believe there was more of it.

For their part, the organizing committee says there was enough French. They point to the fact a French song was played at the “penultimate” moment of the Opening Ceremony, just before the flame was lit.

Why does Canada hate one of its two official languages?

- Okay, fellow U.S. Americans. Ryan Miller is obviously our starting goalie, which is Awesome. Wilson and Burke have confirmed to all kinds of publications that the official back-up is Tim Thomas. Do you agree with this choice? Even granting Thomas his steadiness and talent, would it be a better idea to go with Jonathan Quick as the back-up, given his recent brilliance in net? Do discuss.

- And most importantly:

Semyon Varlamov told SovSport he is unhappy w/food the Olympic Village has to offer, and ate at McDonalds today.

4 comments:

GoPuckYourself said...

According to the schedule on Sports Illustrated's website, the US's first game is against the Swiss tomorrow at 3:00.

Just a heads up for you kids who didn't look up the schedule already...and if that's the case, you're un-American and I despise you.

GoPuckYourself said...

OH, and if you've got a case of the Mondays, here's a little something to cheer you up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocqbcKvo31c

I should be better than laughing at other people's pain, but when I saw this live I LMAO for a solid minute and a half. Whatever. Don't judge me.

Big Shooter said...

That is correct. We also play at 3:00 on Thursday against Norway. Then the big game Sunday night against Canada.

Sunday will be epic: Russa/Czech at 3:00. US Americans/Canada at 7:40 and Sweden/Finland at 12:00 AM.

The Falconer said...

Kari wishes he could eat out with Varlamov!