The Olympics are a great time except for the fact that the NHL disappears for two weeks! Not being able to watch the Bruins play for two weeks is torture. Luckily, this year the Bruins have six Olympians in Vancouver which slightly eases the pain of no NHL. With the Bruins being scattered on different teams, it is hard to choose who to cheer for.
Hands down, USA is on the top of my list but even that team is hard to cheer for sometimes. USA is my country and that is the main reason why I am cheering for them. The only wrinkle with Team USA is someone by the name of Phil Kessel. Ring a bell for anyone? No? Me neither. Okay, you’re right. No matter how hard I try to ignore Kessel, he is still on the team so I am simply rooting for Team USA minus Kessel. Problem solved.
Kessel being on the team also makes me wonder if he and Tim Thomas have spoken any words since the Olympics started. I have a feeling Kessel is running away from Thomas whenever he can and Kessel is good at avoiding confrontation. What is Thomas doing? He could probably care less about Kessel and is probably just soaking in his first Olympic experience. At age 35, he doesn’t have time to deal with kids like Kessel.
Okay, let’s go back to something I want to talk about, enough about that Maple Leaf. So far in these Olympics, my favorite moment has been USA beating Canada 5 to 3 in Canada in front of their own (and rather rude) fans. I read somewhere that the fans where cheering not so nice words near the end of the game. In no way does that victory even compare to the 1980 Miracle on Ice but it was still a great game. The best part of the game was seeing Thomas on the bench even if his primary duty was to open the door for players coming off the ice. He was still there!
The hardest player for me to cheer for is Patrice Bergeron. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bergeron but Canada? How can I possibly cheer for Canada? I don’t really have anything against Canada as a country but Sidney Crosby? Yuck! Sorry Bergeron, I just cannot cheer for a team that Crosby plays on. I hope Bergeron plays well and scores but Canada can lose as a team.
The Bruin having the best Olympics thus far is definitely David Krejci. Krejci is playing on both the power play and the penalty kill for the Czech Republic. That’s pretty crazy considering he’s 23 and playing in his first Olympics. Krejci made his Olympic experience a little sweeter by scoring the game-winning goal in OT to advance the Czech Republic to the quarterfinals!! Way to go David!!
Chara and Satan are both representing Slovakia and most of their games have been on after midnight and thus I don’t have much to add on them! Sorry guys! I do know that Satan scored the game-winning goal to send Slovakia into the quarterfinals. In the game against Norway, someone was trying to go after Chara. Not a bad idea since fighting results in a suspension but I still wouldn’t want to make the big man angry!
And Sturm is the last Bruin Olympian. He received a great honor by being the German team captain but that’s about all he got. The Germans were not a strong team and lost to Canada in the first playoff round 8-2. Unfortunately, the Olympics are over for Sturm but we still have 5 Bruins going strong. I have a strong feeling that at least one Bruin is going to come back with a gold medal and most likely another is going to be on the other side of that game with a silver medal. Win-win for us fans!
Can’t wait to get back to NHL games though! First one for the Bruins is next Tuesday against the Canadiens! Should be a good one! Oh, and I’ll be there! So excited!
Kristin Carbone,
Pierce Arrow Blogger
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