Did anyone see that hockey game?

Michael Drew

Michael Drew is a Wisconsinite currently residing in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He enjoys thinking and writing about politics, history, and philosophy, listening to music and podcasts of all kinds, watching and occasionally playing sports, and playing the cello.

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33 Responses

  1. Michael Drew says:

    I’m changing the title of this right now.Report

  2. Michael Drew says:

    …Sorry if the initial title stayed up long enough to spoil anyone. I meant not to, but blanked on the title. Ridiculous.Report

  3. North says:

    Unless Canada won I don’t wanna hear about it. *grumps*Report

  4. Kolohe says:

    It was a helluva game. The inanimate carbon-fiber rod was in contention for the MVP.Report

  5. James Hanley says:

    No, I was at work, dammit. But I am watching the women’s curling gold medal match, and Canada and Sweden are tied 3-3 after 7 ends. This is tense.Report

    • James Hanley in reply to James Hanley says:

      Oh, Canada missed with the hammer and only got one in the eighth, with a measurement. Not good.Report

      • Mike Schilling in reply to James Hanley says:

        I have no clue whether that’s real curling terminology or whether you’re messing with us.Report

      • James Hanley in reply to James Hanley says:

        Totally real, and Canada stole two in the ninth to extend their lead to 3 and they went to handshakes in the final end when Sweden ran out of rocks.

        I had thought about writing a curling primer, but…didn’t. So here’s a brief.

        – Each round of sliding rocks (stones) down the ice is an end. It’s like an inning.

        – The big target on the ice is the house.

        -The bullseye is the button. You score by getting your rock(s) closest to the button. Only one team can score each round, and however many rocks you have that are closer to the button than the other team’s closest stone is the number of points you score. The max is 8, but 1-3 is more common.

        – The hammer is the last stone thrown in each end. This does not alternate–the team that doesn’t score gets the hammer in the next end. Because having the last stone is a great advantage, if a team with the hammer is only poised to get one point, they’ll often try to blank the end (make sure neither they nor the other team score) so they can retain the hammer for the next end and try to get at least 2 (instead of just getting 1, and giving up the hammer and possibly 2 points to the other team).

        -To steal means to get points when the other team has the hammer. Canada’s steal of 2 in the penultimate end was huge–normally a steal only gets you 1 rock closest to the button, and came about because of a missed throw by Sweden.

        I won’t bore you with more lingo. There’s lots more. Curling is slow, but it’s a very strategic game. A lot of the throws are to set up guards, rocks not sent all the way to the house, to make it harder to knock out other stones. Sometimes a team tries to get multiple stones in the house but none near the button, so it’s impossible to knock them all out of the way, and any rock they try to get closer to the button is easier to target for a takeout (knocking a rock out of play)

        Unlike hockey, the ice is rough, to help the rock curl (arc in its trajectory). The direction and force of spin the thrower puts on the rock determines what direction and how much it curls. Scrubbing the ice melts it slightly, making a smoother path that keeps the rock going straight until the point at which you want to make the curl take over, then you can scrub in the direction of the curl to help direct its course.

        When you hit the other team’s rocks you can scrub in front of them to help draw them all the way out of the house, and when you stop scrubbing for your own stones in the house the other team can jump in and start scrubbing to try to draw them past the point you intended your stone to stop.

        OK, there’s the brief primer. Now you’re ready to watch Canada and Great Britain battle it out for the men’s gold tomorrow (Friday).Report

      • James Hanley in reply to James Hanley says:

        Addendum:

        Out of rocks means you don’t have enough rocks left to tie, even if all of your remaining ones were closest to the button.

        Handshakes means a team concedes it can’t win, so the skip–team captain–shakes hands with the other team’s skip to signal concession.Report

      • As much as I was (naturally) rooting for Canada, it was unfortunate to see Sweden lose on a couple of bad shots and some bad luck in picking up some debris. That was a damn fine game.

        On the flip side, it was great seeing Lawes throw some fishing gems at the end after having her worst game of the Olympics for the first seven ends or so.Report

  6. Stillwater says:

    Yeah, it was amazing. Unreal. One of the best games I’ve ever seen, really. Those women aren’t just great female hockey players, they’re just great hockey players. I’ve been talking it up to anyone who’ll listen. Plus, I love the bigger European rinks – more skating, playmaking, speed. I haven’t had that much fun watching a game for a long time. I haven’t had my nerves wracked like that in a long time either.Report

  7. It certainly was a great game (but what the hell was that linesman doing!?!?!).

    One thing, however, that really pisses me off about women’s hockey is that the IIHF (or whomever) has decided that the penalty for bodychecking (which is illegal) is to be called “Women Bodychecking”. Seriously, why the eff do they need to throw “Women” on the front. It’s just f-ing bodychecking.Report

  8. Stillwater says:

    I’m watching the US/Canada game right now. Great game. I’m starting to think all the things I dislike about the NHL could be rectified by making the rink bigger. Even Hanley’s Bane: the neutral zone trap.Report

  9. KatherineMW says:

    That was the best hockey game I’ve ever watched! Even several hours after the game it was still hard to believe that we’d won! Our women’s team is amazing!

    And now we win again today!Report

  10. Kolohe says:

    Well, it looks like after the dual losses to Canada, Team USA Hockey

    *sunglasses*

    was completely Finnished.

    YEEEEEAAHHHHHH!!!Report