Friday, February 19, 2010

Sports Chowdah Recap for Febuary 17-18- Men's Hockey Favorites Face Shootouts While USA 2-0; Hot Blonde & Flying Tomato Golden; Cs Down Kobe-Less LA

First of all, happy pitcher's & catchers report, everybody!

Secondly, I missed Tiger Wood's much ballyhooed press conference/apology-palooza mostly due to lack of interest on my part, so I couldn't give you an informed opinion regarding that. As skeevy as his conduct off the course might've been, I'm not sure how that boils over into affecting the whole PGA. Also, when all is said and done, it's not really going to matter how phony or sincere we thought Tiger's apologies were- that will be between him and his family. It's not as though Woods is an elected official like Elliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford or John Edwards.


2010 WINTER OLYMPICS: Wow- I managed to tune in for that Russia/Slovakia men's hockey game right after the Celtics/Lakers game last night. The Slovaks were playing Russia very well, but I had little idea I was tuned in to see the first major upset of the tournament. The game was tied at 1-1 on goals by Marian Hossa for Slovakia and Alexei Morozov for Russia. After a scoreless tie, the game went to a shootout. Slovakia's Josef Stumpel got one past Russian netminder Ilya Bryzgalov on Slovakia's first attempt of the shootout while Alexander Ovechkin managed to beat Slovak netminder Jaroslav Halak on Russia's second attempt. As it turned out, it would be the only time Ovechkin would get one past Halak, as both teams could use the same shooter if the shootout went beyond 3 rounds. Pavol Demitra managed to beat Bryzgalov in the 7th round of the shootout, giving Slovakia the upset win.

Elsewhere, Team USA handled the Norwegian team pretty easily with a pair of goals less than 2 minutes apart for Brian Rafalski as well as goals from Chris Drury, Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane and Ryan Malone to win 6-1. USA Goalie Ryan Miller faced only 11 shots for the whole game.

Canada needed overtime and a shootout to get by a resurgent Swiss team earlier in the day. Team Canada got out to an early 2-0 lead with goals by Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatly, but the Swiss came right back with goals from Ivo Ruthermann and Patrick von Gunten starting in the 2nd. A scoreless overtime brought on the first shootout of Thursday, in which Sidney Crosby got one past Switzerland's Jonas Hiller for the only goal of the shootout. Canada's Martin Brodeur faced 23 shots while Hiller faced more than double that with 47.

This sets up a showdown between undefeated USA and undefeated Canada on Sunday afternoon.

Women's Hockey Scoreboard:

USA 6- Finland 0

China 1- Russia 2

Other Events:



(AP)

OK.....is it just me, or do the medals being awarded in Vancouver look like giant coins that somebody set on the railroad track and had a train run them over? Then maybe added the Olympic rings on them afterwards....

So far, Lindsey Vonn is off to a good start, bruised shin and all. The injured Vonn finished with a time of 1:44:19, which was good enough for gold in the Ladies' Downhill on Thursday. Teammate Julia Mancuso finished 0.56 seconds behind Vonn for the silver and Austria's Elisabeth Georgl's 1:45:65 finish was good enough for the bronze Wednesday.

Snowboarder Shaun White was basically showing off and biding his time in the men's half-pipe until stepping up on the medal podium. White has become the first competitor to win back-to-back gold medals in the event and according to the Wall Street Journal...

"....performed his much-hyped, signature move called the "Double McTwist 1260," which involves two off-axis backflips while doing 3.5 full rotations, all in one jump. The trick is so advanced (no other competitor in the event even attempted it) that merely landing it was enough to ensure Mr. White victory. Turns out, however, he never even needed to do it, only performing it on his last run, because it would have been a waste not to."

As of Friday, the Top 10 in the Medal Count is as follows:

USA- 20 (6 gold; 6 silver; 8 Bronze)

Germany- 13 (4 gold; 5 Silver; 4 Bronze)

Norway- 10 (5 Gold; 3 Silver; 2 Bronze)

Canada- 8 (4 Gold; 3 Silver; 1 Bronze)

France- 7 (2 Gold; 1 Silver; 4 Bronze)

South Korea- 5 (3 Gold; 2 Silver)

Austria- 5 (1 Gold; 2 Silver; 2 Bronze)

Russia- 5 (1 Gold; 2 Silver; 2 Bronze)

Switzerland-4 (3 Gold; 1 Bronze)

China- 4 (2 gold; 1 Silver; 1 Bronze)

Sweden- 4 (2 Gold; 1 Silver; 1 Bronze)

NBA: The Celtics had to come from behind after the Lakers went on a 13-0 tear in the 4th quarter Thursady night at the Staples Center, but the home team was held to 2 points in the last 7:14 and the C's held off a Kobe-less Lakers for the 87-86 win. Boston will travel to Portland, OR tonight to take on the Trailblazers. Ray Allen led scoring for Boston with 24 points in the first 3 quarters while had 11 assists and 14 points.

Also this week, the Celtics traded Guards Eddie House and JR Giddens as well as Forward Bill Walker to the NY Knicks for Nate Robinson and Marcus Landry. Although passing a physical, Robinson is reportedly suffering from flu-like symptoms and is unlikely to join the team on Friday.

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