JohnF

Back in the olden days of fan-cooled 2 strokes we routinely pulled the plugs to check colour, particularly on the hot side. Do you guys still do that with your sleds? It's great preventive medicine. JF

As long as we're playing stats - about 30% of 'em took home gold. JF

QHL? JF

A garbled John Milton. JF

Who did he play for? JF

He also serves who sits and waits? JF

The way he started I thought he was gonna get benched, but then he got with the program. However, despite reactivating his brain for part of the game, he still got away with a big crosscheck that should have put us on the PK. JF

Need he say more? JF

[quote name='Marty' date='Feb 28 2010, 01:33 PM' post='438183' Simple Fact: There ain't no simple facts once the puck drops. Exzackly. This will be all about will to win, goaltending and maybe a little bit about luck. All the "facts" go out the window now. American athletes have a scary propensity for gutting out wins at special times. Hopefully our Canuck boys show a lot of that stuff themselves this afternoon. Methinks pride will be the determinant here. Gonna be exciting. JF

Bronze in 4 man bob JF

Send it to someone with PHotoshop and have them convert it. JF

Both the Swede and the Swiss skips struggled to close out their bronze match, but in the end the Swiss pulled it out. They both had trouble with draws (w/backing). Ironically just before that the Swede skip executed a beautiful quadruple takeout, even dumping his own shooter. That had the commentators ooooing and awing. It was almost exactly the same initial setup as Bernard's last shot but the last two rocks were lined up perfec tly. All he had to do was throw a sub six second takeout. And he gives it some extra extension to boot. JF

They say that at this level the draw to the 4 (if not the button) is the skip's bread & butter shot but how many of those easy draws have we seen the top skips float through the house, or come up short? We saw it in these Olympics, in fact in this game by the ultimate winner if I remember correctly. As for flashing an easy hit, that's not exactly unheard of for these guys, so missing an angle double is not a particular surprise. I'm sure Bernard was pretty confident about the shot but either she pinched the broom, misread the ice (she later admitted to it being a bit of a guess for that line), or they missed on the sweeping. There are so many ways of screwing up on any of these shots. You know that. The ice can change during the game, the slide path gets flat, and the pebble rubbed down. My point is that even the best curlers are gonna miss some shots. No one is perfect. JF

Bernard's not the first skip to miss a big shot, and she won't be the last. The winning skip booted a few in that game as well. She was just lucky enough not to have to make a clutch shot for the win. My son used to play a lot of competitive golf. I was constantly amazed at how he and the others could stay so steady when it was all on the line. And we know that even the greatest pro golfers aren't always totally in control, even Tiger. It's what competition is all about - being consistently great and making the most clutch shots under pressure. JF

She was very gracious in defeat. I liked that. Naturally I wish she'd made one of those game ender shots in the last ends but she did her share. All through the competition she won ends after her front end or in the last game the third had missed the setup. That's what a winning skip does. I don't know if non-curlers understand how close that last shot really was to working. They knew she was inside the broom right from the release so they swept for all they were worth but they couldn't keep it on the outside. It probably needed to be about a cm straighter to make that shot. It's just like angles in billiards. If she'd been too wide though she'd have jammed on the second rock and still left Sweden counting. Contrary to resident expert opinion there were lots easier shots she could have had to wind it up. She and her rink played great for Olympic rookies. The winners are very experienced in it. JF

Betcha she'd have preferred a 12 foot draw or corner freeze to double. Just because these guys are the best doesn't mean they are guaranteed to make every shot. If this stuff was a given why have the games at all? Sorry dude. I also call 'em as I see 'em, too, so apparently you and I are seeing different hockey and curling games. JF

Would we have seen you in the Brier then? No, probably not, as all the skips who've ever competed there have missed a few "easy" takeouts. Musta been some tough league you curled in if no one ever missed. JF

This is why the free guard rule was conceived. But other than that it's a great theory. JF

Sooooooo close! She came down to that last end so many times in the tournament and pulled it out. This time she missed by a few degrees. Oh well, silver/s pretty good. JF

Am I the only one who doesn't know what that means? JF

Don't count on it. When I tried to watch the Juniors from Cleveland it was blocked. I suspect you need a Canadian IP addy. Hope I'm wrong. JF

Frankly, that game wasn't exactly stellar hockey (they practice with midget boys), but it had lots of excitement and evoked a bunch of emotion, and isn't that what competition is about? I watched a little of the Bronze medal game and it was really about the same in terms of hockey quality. Given time and incentive the women's game will get better and evolve into it's own game instead of a pale imitation of the men's version. JF

Those who don't like it can pound salt. Who can blame them for being in a celebratory mood. This is probably the biggest thing they work for, unlike our hockey men who get paid millions to chase a whole series of huge awards throughout their playing careers. As one American commentator said "Would anyone get upset if Sidney Crosby lit up a cigar and popped a beer after such a big win?" I paraphrased a bit but that's what he said, and I agree. If it had been one of my kids on the team I'd have been buying the beer and cigars. And let's not have any of that "ladies" nonsense. Ladies don't kick butt on the ice like that. And for Rogge and all the other uptight Olympic jaggoffs to use the platform of the girls' win to threaten to pull the sport from the Olympics because two teams are dominating is hypocritical crap. Look around Europe at the dominance they gloat about in certain events, but does anyone threaten to drop those events? Of course not, and the North Americans are starting to get a wedge in the door after years of perseverance, like the American who just won a cross country ski event. So, to paraphrase another columnist "Get over it. They deserve to celebrate." JF

Yup. It's okay for Euro nations to "own the podium" in their favourite sports though, like in ski jump & Nordic skiing. But some American might have messed that up this year. JF

So how's our medal count compared to California? JF