04/19/24
February 21, 2018
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I too believe that the shootout was conceived by an anti-hockey satanic being to ruin the game. It was cleverly designed as a way to avoid the dreaded tie and to save us from being forced to watch through 3 or 4 overtime periods. We true hockey believers consider that being forced to watch overtime after overtime the equivalent of listening to an inspiring and uplifting 4-hour sermon at church. It might take a while, but we will be much better for it.
Now, about last night's, or should I say this morning's proceedings. For 2 1/2 periods I was sure that Canada would take the gold. They were playing harder, were better organized, and seemed to want it more. The latter half of the 3rd period and most of the overtime was a different story. The shootout put an end to what was up to that point an exciting and skillfully played hockey game. Of course, without the shootout they might yet be playing; the two teams were that closely matched. Ending it with a shootout is like pushing Michaelangelo aside and finishing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with a box of Crayola's.
posted by Howard_T at 10:31 AM on February 22, 2018
FFFFFFFFFFFUCK THE SHOOTOUT!
Even though it worked out in favor of the good old USA yesterday, I completely agree with you. Reducing a flowing, team-oriented game to a circus act sucks, especially when a gold medal is on the line between two bitter rivals.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:15 PM on February 22, 2018
I too hate the shootout and think it's a ridiculous way to settle a game, especially a championship game (same with soccer's shootout thingie that sometimes settles World Cups). But grum, we down here *needed* this win so very badly. Please, give us this one thing.
(and can someone please end the strong tag that going on here!)
posted by NoMich at 12:50 PM on February 22, 2018
I thought grum was upset about the U.S.-Czech Republic game.
And yes, you're welcome for me taking off the bolding.
posted by holden at 12:52 PM on February 22, 2018
(how did you do that?)
posted by NoMich at 12:59 PM on February 22, 2018
Oh, and it was almost a year ago that the US women went on strike for better pay.
posted by NoMich at 01:02 PM on February 22, 2018
(he swapped the bolding for auto parentheses)
posted by beaverboard at 01:03 PM on February 22, 2018
(nice. must be a css grid thing.)
posted by NoMich at 01:07 PM on February 22, 2018
But grum, we down here *needed* this win so very badly. Please, give us this one thing.
No. No no no. No.
The women's curling team is going to go without a medal for the first time since it was introduced in 1998.
The men's curing team isn't going to the gold medal match for the first time it was re-introduced in 1998, and their first non-gold medal performance since 2002. And they got beat by ... the Americans?!
The women's hockey team didn't win a gold medal for the first time in 20 years.
Now everything rests on the men's hockey team to salvage our national pride for the two sports Canadians EXPECT to win every Olympics.
That's too much pressure on these Spengler Cup guys.
The only thing I can say positively is that the women put on a MUCH better performance in the shootout than the men have. Those two goals, by Daoust and Lamoureux, were NHL-calibre moves
posted by grum@work at 02:53 PM on February 22, 2018
(how did you do that?)
I just put a closed bold tag < / b > (but without the spaces) at the beginning of my post, thus having the courtesy to do what grum apparently could not bring himself to do in his outrage.
Whoever had money on a curler being the first 2018 Olympian being stripped of a medal for doping made a lot of money on what surely had to be really long odds (although I assume the odds were flipped the other way for anyone betting on the first medalist stripped being Russian).
posted by holden at 04:08 PM on February 22, 2018
FFFFFFFFFFFUCK THE SHOOTOUT!