Winner Gets Beer, Loser Gets Bieber

RT @CommandSign: Nothing is higher than the stakes of tomorrow’s game. pic.twitter.com/d1V2b6NVng

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 20, 2014

Team USA must win against Team Canada today or else the LAPD will have this headache on their hands for eternity.

More #SochiProblems

A woman attempting to take a picture at a hockey game in Sochi today. This may be one of my favorite pics ever. pic.twitter.com/x2X20ebCdq

— Bryan Wood (@bryanwx) February 13, 2014

Cameras still come with instructions, don't they?

USA/Russia Olympic Hockey

What follows is a collection of my comments and status updates from Facebook.  Currently the game is tied in OT:

It was only a matter of time given the way they've mostly been outskated throughout this game.

I gotta tell ya, I'm getting sick of this dump and chase game. I thought we brought a speed team because of the big ice.
I mean, the Bruins play that way (Interrupted by that goal nongoal by the Russians. We caught a big break there.that's a bad call.) Anyway, the Bruins play on smaller ice and have the skaters to outchase; but with their new young defensemen, they don't play that game nearly as much anymore.

This one in response to a friend talking about Russia's no-goal that would've given them the lead and arguably the win:  Although that's fair payback for the Russian player purposely skating into the leg of the USA player who had his back turned, tripping himself and getting a penalty.

And I gotta say I'm pissed, probably because i'm old school; but why the hell are we not only playing OT in the prelim round but then a shootout after that? How stupid. Why bother having total goals as a tie breaker when there's never any ties? sheesh

Score USA! Hard to believe we're up 2-1 in the 3rd. To me we've been outplayed. Two PP goals...opportunistic and Quick has been great in net.
 IMO a puck-control defenseman would be a great thing to have. We've hardly had any offensive zone time with this dump and chase game on big ice.

See my previous comment above as we go to a shootout.  I guess to be fair, since I still feel like the Russians were the better team and got screwed out of the game winner, that they should win; but to me there's no place for OT and especially a shootout in a preliminary round game.  What's the point of the tiebreakers?

Oshie scores on the first US attempt.  Now Malkin and Quick got a piece of it.  JVR is up for the US, who's arguably had the best game for us -- save Babrowski.  Quick just stones Datsuyk.  Pavelski with a chance to win it...wow, Babrowski holds his ground after several deeks..  Kovalchuk scores!  We're tied.  Kovalchuk goes again and Quick stones him.  Now Oshie again for the US -- Oshie had him laid out and missed an open net.  Datsuyk scores to give Russia the lead (what the hell is up with players going again?)  Oshie goes again and scores!  We're tied!  Kovalchuk beats Quick like a rented mule!  Now it's Oshie yet again...isn't he tired?  And he scores!  I gotta say I hate this though.  I want this the NHL way if we're gonna do a shootout...use your entire bench.   Quick stops Datsuyk this time.  Now Oshie again to put it away...stick check save!  Oshie had him beat bad.  Kovalchuk hits the post!  Oshie AGAIN!  SCORE!  USA, USA, USA

(Apologies for name misspellings.  I know I've got Bibrovski? wrong)

Why Didn’t Budweiser Think Of This?

Spotted! The beer fridge in Canada Olympic House in #Sochi #wearewinter pic.twitter.com/E3hMUTtQRt

— Molson Canadian (@Molson_Canadian) February 9, 2014

Free beer in Sochi? Of course! All you need is a Canadian passport. Just swipe it on the reader and the fridge opens.

So… who’s going to let me borrow their passport? I’m thirsty.

There’s Problems, And Then There’s #SochiProblems

Of all of the #SochiProblems pictures, this one is absolutely my favorite. I can't stop giggling pic.twitter.com/HwFYIIGNQF

— Ally Tucker (@AllyTuckerKSR) February 6, 2014

In a related matter, I wonder if the property management company that’s responsible for the upkeep of the Lair might be in Sochi…

5 Things That I Am Watching This Week

1.  The Penn State Fallout.  Things are going to get worse before they get better at this institution of higher learning.  The Board of Trustees, Nittany Lion Football players, students, and the surrounding community are all upset at the NCAA and Interim President are upset about the penalties.  There are threats about going into the judicial system and about how the NCAA wasn't fair to Penn State about didn't follow their own investigating guidelines about this. 

Part of me wants the furor to continue and actually have the judicial system overturn the NCAA penalties due to lack of investigation.  And when the NCAA does do their investigation and comes up with even more infractions by the Penn State footbal program, instead of throwing the book at the Nittany Lions, just bury them.  Enact that 4 year death penalty.  Fine the institution $200 Million.  Have an 8 year probation period.  Eliminate all but 10 scholarships a year for a while.  And have the citizens of "Happy Valley" endure losses of Hundreds of Millions of dollars due to the loss of Penn State football for 4 years.  Then see how "unfair" the penalties of the NCAA were when putting sanctions on that quick.

2.  The Olympics.  I won't be watching hardly at all.  I will be on vacation for part of that time.  The other part, I will be ignoring most of it.  However, the best team in the world for men's soccer, Spain, has lost their opening game.  The U.S. Women's team rallied to beat France.  I want to see the medal accumulation by Michael Phelps.  I want to see if anybody can knock off the U.S. Men's Basketball team.  There are other events that I will follow, so not all the Olymics will I be trying to avoid.

3.  The MLB Trade deadline.  Already there have been a couple of eye openers, with Ichiro going to the Yankees being the biggest one in my eyes.  For myself, my team has traded all of the players it can.  The Astros have traded all their proven players.  Of course, losing 22 out of the last 25 games does mean that the playoffs might be out of reach this season.  We should reach out to the Red Sox and try and steal Carl Crawford in a trade.  Why not?  The Red Sox have said that they are willing to trade Crawford. 

4.  The start and continuation of NFL training camps.  Already, you have Adrian Peterson upset at the Vikings.  You have the circus at Jets camp.  The Dolphins need to get Ryan Tannihill into camp to get him up to speed and the QB battle they have there.  The QB battle in Seattle, Arizona, Kansas City, and other places.  The turnover of the bottom of the depth charts in cities.  I am started to get excited for Pro Football.

5.  The Continued Escalation of the Flyers-Penguins Feud.  Claude Giroux had surgery on both of his wrists and claimed the reason he needed the surgery is that Sidney Crosby on face-offs would not go for the puck but slash his wrists in the playoffs.  These 2 teams don't like each other and they are still barking at each other during the offseason.  For some reason, I can picture a scene like out of Rollerball when there were no rules at least once during a game in the coming year featuring these two teams.