lordstanley

The big prize up for grabs is the #1 overall seed. The #2 seed overall seed almost certainly will face Sweden in the quarter-finals, due to Sweden slipping to the #7 overall seed today. Canada has a +2 goal difference over USA. Canada plays France, which is an easier matchup than Germany is for the Americans, but USA has the advantage of playing after the Canada-France game has already finished. All USA needs to do to win its group - and thus be either the #1 overall or #2 overall seed - is beat Germany or at least get the game to overtime. A German win in regulation would open the door for the Germans and more remotely Latvia to finish ahead of USA in the group.

Team USA keeping it close, only losing 2–1 after 1. The Americans can still make a game of it if they have a strong two periods.

Team USA was putting up a good fight against Denmark, holding the Danes to a 1-1 tie midway through the 1st. But a long shot goal has given the Denmark the lead, was just a matter of time.

Slovakia celebrates after the loss as they will win the group, Finland second, Sweden third if Finland beats Italy in regulation as expected. All three would finish tied at 2W 1L. Decided by goal differential among the games played between Slovakia, Sweden and Finland (so excludes the goal differential in those three teams' games against Italy). If Italy takes Finland to OT, it will be a 2-way tie for 1st between Sweden and Slovakia and Sweden would win the group on head to head, Slovakia 2nd, Finland 3rd. https://x.com/daniel_amoia/status/2022669951073456235?s=61&t=don8lQTnTq5FKXq14p2GMw Meanwhile the Kings’ Kevin Fiala had season-injury surgery after suffering an injury yesterday playing for Switzerland. https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/switzerlands-fiala-stretchered-off-against-canada/

Lucas Raymond with an Olympic goal. 5-3 Sweden with 39 seconds. A last minute goal by Slovakia looks to be huge due to goal differential.

Hahaha, I had read the description of it online but this is the first clip I've seen.

Especially on that powerplay when it was still 4-1. It's now how you start these tournaments it's how you finish, but I can't remember Canada ever looking so good in preliminary games of NHL Olympics.

Holy moley, during the 2nd intermission, this is the most shocking figure skating moment I can remember. Poor guy.

I believe all four lines had a goal scorer in the 5-0 win over Czechia.

Nice save by Logan Thompson on an early 3 on 1 by the Swiss.

Roy Face died yesterday, age 97. Pitched 2 games in September for the ‘68 Tigers, but was signed after September 1 and wasn’t eligible for the World Series https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/sports/2012/08/23/elroy-face-last-tiger-fridays/45292413007/

Ironically, the dimensions seem to be the IIHF's impression of what is a standard or acceptable NHL-sized rink, not the NHL's. This article may be paywalled but here's the gist: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/article-get-used-to-it-hockey-fans-the-weird-rink-in-milan-may-not-be-going/ For hockey fans who thought the weird rink size at the Milan Cortina Olympics, which is slightly smaller than NHL dimensions, was a one-off – a mistake that won’t be repeated at future Olympics – don’t count on it. The head of the International Ice Hockey Federation indicated Thursday that even though National Hockey League players have returned to the Olympics, the standard NHL rink may not be coming with them to forthcoming Winter Games. IIHF president Luc Tardif said he likes the rink in Milan, and shrugged off the fact that the federation uses measurements that are about three feet shorter and a few inches wider than an NHL rink. Just to recap: An NHL rink is 200 feet long by 85 feet wide. The rink in Milan is 60 metres long by 26 metres wide, or about 196.85 feet long by 85.3 feet wide. The reason? The International Ice Hockey Federation has a standard footprint, in metric measurements, for what it deems to be a North American-size rink, which is not exactly NHL size. It’s a close proximity to the imperial measurements used by the NHL, but not exact. And for Tardif, this is close enough. The wider rink, known for decades in hockey circles as “Olympic ice” or “The Big Ice” measures 60 metres long by 30 metres wide, or 196.85 feet by 98.4 feet. It is about 13 feet wider than an NHL rink and makes for a much different game. Sometime after 2018, the IIHF decided to drop the wider ice surface for the Olympics and move to its version of a North American-style footprint, which is used in some arenas in Europe.

Ha, Czech scores on a 3 on 0 shorthanded breakaway to take a 4-3 lead into the 2nd intermission.

Italy put up another good fight to Slovakia (only judging by the score, I didn't see it), losing 3-2. Sweden with another weak effort (only judging by the score, I didn't see it), losing 4-1 to Finland. Now France has scored 3 straight goals in first 6 minutes of 2nd period to take 3-2 lead over Czechia.

Not one but two disallowed goals. US-Latvia still tied 1-1, 8 minutes left in 1st.

All positive except this little bit of negative news.

That was beauty team effort, scored by Bo Horvat. 3-0 Team Canada.

😡😱☠️

Nice pass by Marner to Stone for a 2-0 Canada lead six minutes into the 2nd. Team Canada looking pretty good so far, not sure how good Czechia is though.

Growing up and until recently in Canada hockey league divisions went up from novice-atom-pee wee - bantam - midget. Some of those names - especially midget - were considered derogatory so a few years ago switched to age classifiers like U9, U18. One small step for regular-sized man, one giant leap for short-limbed people. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/youth-hockey-name-categories-1.4924229 Midget a derogatory slur? Athletics Canada recently said it would pursue dropping the term "midget" as an age category descriptor, a move that came a few days after the Ontario Basketball Association stated its plans to do the same. The term has been used for decades in a variety of sports but many consider it to be a derogatory slur. Allan Redford, the director of the Dwarf Athletic Association of Canada, applauded the recent developments and hopes others may follow suit. "I'm actually wonderfully encouraged that they're taking this approach and that it's getting this much traction," Redford said Wednesday. "I'm very, very pleased."

Probably, but I know that Olson is DEFINITELY better than Charlie Morton. So a great what if is what if the Tigers had acquired JV not Morton at least year’s deadline. I get why they didn’t, JV looked done at the All Star break, but the division race and the playoff series were close enough to imagine JV possibly having made a difference.

Darn, just realized there was a watch party at Vancouver’s Italian Cultural Centre not too far from me, put on by the family of Petan. Could have been fun.