Day 5 (Feb 18, 2010)

Another great day in Vancouver!

Again I started out early this morning at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.  But this time it was Men's Curling featuring Kevin Martin and his Canadian rink vs. Sweden.







It was a fantastic match and very typical of Martin's style.  He played well and made some incredible key shots when they were needed.  But it definitely wasn't a very close game.  Martin took the reigns quite early and never let up.

They shook hands after the 9th as Martin won his 3rd in a row 7-3.









Then it was another great afternoon of walking around downtown Vancouver.  If you're in the Vancouver area, I would, again, HIGHLY recommend just wandering around and seeing what's out there.  Sometimes you find something cool, sometimes you don't, but you always see some interesting people.

As the afternoon wore on, you could FEEL the excitement growing.  It's a fairly simple formula: Canada + Hockey = Party.

I got into Canada Hockey Place to a very pleasant surprise: my seat was upper deck, 4th row, almost exactly on centre ice.  I couldn't have asked for a better seat to a better game.

Finally the big game was under way!








I'm sure by now everyone knows the results, so I won't dwell on them.  Here are my few thoughts:

• Canada played well.  But not good enough to beat the likes of Russia or Sweden...possibly not even the USA if we're not careful.
• The top two lines are doing OK.  By top two I mean Nash/Crosby/Iginla and Thornton/Heatley/Marleau.  And by OK, I mean good enough to beat Switzerland...barely.
• The Sharks line is taking the bulk of the work.  That won't win the gold.
• The other two lines are nearly invisible.  We need 4 lines producing to win.
• Sidney Crosby needs to CALM THE HELL DOWN.  He's so itchy to put the puck in the net that he's forgetting to actually play the game.  Hopefully putting away the shootout winner will get him back to being one of the most dynamic players in the world.

I honestly think that this team has the potential to win the gold.  But potential doesn't put pucks in the net.  Also, hitting a hot goalie doesn't help.  We put 48 shots on Hiller and he only let in 2.  That is going to happen.  We just need to be able to put that 49th shot on net and make it count.

Then I was off to BC Place.  I would like to make a slight retraction here.  On Tuesday I complained severely about accessing BC Place from Canada Hockey Place.  Either they retooled the access or I completely missed the short route because there is now a direct walk from Canada Hockey Place to BC Place.  You don't even have to go through security again.  So my 35 minute walk from Tuesday is now a 5 minute walk like it should be.

Anyway, back to interesting things!

First, I got to see Marianne St-Gelais get the silver medal for Women's 500m Short Track Speed Skating.

Then it was time to see Christine Nesbitt get the gold medal for Women's 1000m Long Track Speed Skating!

Yet another great Canadian moment at the Olympics!

So it was yet another fantastic day at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  Every day seems to somehow top the previous day.

Up Tomorrow:

Women's Curling: Germany/Great Britain, Russia/USA, China/Denmark

Men's Hockey: Czech Republic/LATVIA!