Say it anit so!

First off, let me say that gold medal hockey game was incredible! Even though it started out slow for both teams it finished with a bang. It seemed as though both teams were tentative and didn’t want to make a mistake. There weren’t a lot of shots in the first period Team Canada had 10 while Team USA only had 8. But once the second period started the teams started playing like there were suppose to be in the gold medal game. There were some hard hits, some great defensive plays and some incredible saves by both goalies. With a minute and a half to go in the game, USA pulled Ryan Miller out of the goal for an extra attacker and it paid off with a goal with only 25 seconds left to tie the game. At that point you could actually feel the Canadians stop breathing!


As the overtime period started I felt like if we could survive the first 10 minutes of OT, then we would win. But the game didn’t make it that far. The face of Canadian hockey (and I am sure the soon to be face of some form of Canadian money) Sidney Crosby got a shot past US goalie Ryan Miller. It was an incredible play by Sid the kid and Miller didn’t have much of a chance. The goal gave the home country a 3-2 win and probably saved a majority of the country from going into a deep depression. I am predicting a huge climb in Canadian kids with the name of Sidney soon. Both boys and girls!

I guess it is only fitting that the Canadians won since if they would have lost the entire country would have been sulking and the closing ceremonies would not have been the same. The Canadian performers would have been moping around in their dance sequences, the Canadian singers would have been off key and their timing off and the Mayor of Vancouver would have not waived the Olympic flag with as much vigor as he was. So I guess it is best for the entire world that the Canadians won the hockey gold on their home soil. I think USA hockey gained a lot of respect with the way they played in the tournament and no country is going to overlook them in the future.

That being said, I feel like it was an extremely successful Olympics for the Americans and now the Canadians. The Canadians wanted to “Own the Podium” and they closed strong but the winner of the overall medal count was the great old USA! The US Olympic team set a record for the most medals won in one games with 37 and greatly exceeded the expectations of the US Olympic Committee. I think that total could have been a lot higher if the weren’t a few hooked skis by Bode Miller and Lindsey Vohn and if short track skating and figure skating weren’t so political. That being said, I couldn't be happier for the US Olympic team and couldn’t be prouder to be an American.
Now moving on to the Closing ceremonies, I will say from my view from here in Atlanta, that the Canadian’s did a good job with the entire games. Too bad the weather didn’t cooperate better but they were able to move the snow to where it needed to be. But the closing ceremonies were a little hooky! I did like the way the opened the night with the mime fixing the 4th arm of the Olympic Cauldron that failed in the Opening ceremonies. Also the dancing snowboarders were pretty cool. Even though I loved seeing Neil Young singing his classic song “Long May you Run” I didn’t like the way the cauldron just went out. There should have been a little more fanfare in the extinguishing of the flame. Also, I think it might have been a poor judgment to have falling snow extinguish the flame considering the lack of snow for most of the games.

Then it really took a bad turn. I think the Sochi segment went to long and they will have their chance to show us what they got in 2014. But I guess that is part of the deal. After that long, slow segment, out came the cheese. I predicted Michael Bubble would be a part of the opening ceremonies and I was wrong with that predication but he was part of the closing ceremonies. Where he came out dressed as a Mountie singing the Canadian standard “The Maple Leaf Forever”. That didn’t bother me, it was later on when the table top hockey players were pushed out along with large floating moose, lumberjacks pushing inflatable beavers, dancing canoes and female flying maple leafs. That seemed to go on forever! I did like the William Shatner/Catherine O’Hare/Michael J Fox segments. To bad the medal counter thing that Fox was suppose pulled didn’t work. But that is minor compared to the 4th arm incident in the Opening Ceremonies.

Overall I thought the 2010 Winter Games were good. They were entertaining and riveting. I loved all of the coverage and I will be going through Olympic withdrawals this week. As I have said before, I know most people are Olympic junkies like me, I just hope that these Olympics have opened some people’s minds and let them know that there is more to US sports than the big three (football, basketball, & baseball). Also, I hope it has made others as proud to be an American as I am!

Great Job USA Olympic Team! Also, great Job Vancouver Olympic Committee!

Now I can’t wait for the next Olympics in London 2012!