Jets and their fans benefit from NHL skipping Games
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2018 (2229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Steve Lyons: Good morning. Or I guess it’s evening for you. We had our first long weekend of 2018 here — that means the cold and dark are just days away from being over. Perhaps by the time you get home, it will be spring. Ha!
You were going to take a day away from the Games on Saturday and clear your head. Did you find somewhere nice to visit outside the Olys?
So, it’s the stretch run here now. I see Canada won a couple more gold medals while we were asleep. Where does that put us in the quest to have the best Games ever?
Paul Wiecek: It’s been an incredible 24 hours over here for Canada. The gold in two-man bobsled here Monday night Korea time got things going and since then there has been golds for Virtue and Moir in ice dance and Cassie Sharpe in half-pipe. Add it all up and Canada suddenly has 19 medals overall, including eight gold.
That’s got us in third place, both overall and in gold medals, behind only Germany and a freakishly good Norwegian team. No one is going to catch that Norwegian team here, so all that loose talk out of the Own the Podium people prior to these Games about Canada maybe taking down first place here is not going to happen.
But unless all the snow and ice suddenly melts, Canada is almost certainly going to break the country’s record of 26 medals, set in Vancouver.
Now, some of that success, I think, you can attribute to a lot of cheating Russians who aren’t here. This isn’t the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, where Canada won all kinds of medals we had no business winning simply because of the boycott by the Soviet bloc that year. But make no mistake, we have definitely benefited by the absence of a lot of Russians in Korea who would otherwise have been challenging us for some of our podium finishes.
I’m not saying those Russians should be here — they’re a bunch of dopers and they should be banned. But before we all dislocate our shoulders as Canadians patting ourselves on the back for this record-setting performance, let’s remember these are a kind of unique Games we’re watching here.
As for me, I went to the beach on my day off at the Winter Olympics. Weird, eh? I’m staying in Gangneung, a coastal city on the East Sea, where all the ice events like hockey and curling and speed skating are located — as opposed to Pyeongchang, which is in the mountains and where all the alpine, sliding and snowboarding events are located. It just makes sense for a guy from the prairies to be at sea level with the athletes that matter most to Manitobans.
I needed directions at one point during my trip to the beach. So I asked at an Olympic information booth. which are all over the place here and (over)staffed by some of the most eager volunteers I’ve ever met.
A committee of five was quickly struck, the four Korean women all agreed the Korean man, who actually knew the most English of any of them, was an idiot, and it ended with one of the woman taking me by the hand, literally, and walking me to a bus stop five blocks away. It was the wrong bus.
The moral of the story — never ask for directions.
Steve: Yeah yeah — and fix your own boiler; shovel your own snow; and never ever hire a guide.
What’s with the Russian doping scandal in curling? You’re the expert on those sheets of ice — how does juicing help you in mixed doubles curling? Although watching a bit of curling over the last few years, there seems to be a biceps in tight fitting shirts competition among the men. I suppose it helps you sweep?
The local NHL team got its offence on track over the weekend, whacking the Avs 6-1 and then throttling the Panthers 7-2. That third-period comeback and OT win over the Caps last week seemed to really put a jump back into the team. They had still been winning more than losing, but the last two games have been more like the first 35 games of the season where they were relentless on the puck and dominating teams on the forecheck. They wrap up this crazy 10-game home stand tonight vs the Kings.
Lots of hand-wringing over the NHL players not being over there at the Olys, but I would suggest at least two teams this season — the Jets and Vegas — are benefitting from not having a two-week break in the NHL schedule. Wonder if we polled Jets fans today if they’d say they wish their team was off for two weeks so they could watch a few of them playing at the Games?
Paul: I think that’s a great point — for all the gnashing of teeth that went on among NHL fans about the stars skipping these Olympics, I think it’s the best thing that could have happened to the Jets.
That team has something special going on right now — both on the ice and off of it. The last thing they needed was to bust that up for a couple of weeks and send a bunch of guys over here to bash each other’s heads in.
The Jets would have had a pile of players here — Buff, Hellebuyck and Wheeler for the Americans (plus Trouba if he’d been healthy); Laine for the Finns; Scheifele for the Canadians; maybe Enstrom for the Swedes. That’s a lot of guys risking life, limb and injury for their country, to no discernible benefit for the Jets as a franchise, who after all these years seem to have finally gotten it right.
Plus, you think Buff would have passed on a chance to plant Laine if the Americans had been playing the Finns in the medal round? The kid would still be looking for his helmet.
Only a dope would dope in curling. Faster, higher, stronger doesn’t really apply in curling — it’s all about being accurate, playing smart and staying calm. Sweeping helps, for sure, and better sweeping helps more. But even that is more about technique than brute strength.
Steve: Speaking of Enstrom: Man, has he ever been good lately. I always get into this debate with folks — the value of Toby Enstrom. One thing he continues to do better than any other Jets defenceman is pinch to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
And he makes some brilliant plays in the neutral zone as well to keep the puck out of his own zone, where obviously he’s more vulnerable because of his size. But even when in his own zone, his positioning has been excellent and he’s been burned far less this year than the last couple of seasons — over the last three wins, he is plus-7.
So, I’m reading here the curling teams are 4-3 and 3-3 — Say What?! Granted, Canada’s days of being the world powerhouse in the sport have been over for while — right? — but this isn’t good.
By the way, got a call from one of our loyal print readers, who took offence to us — mostly me — gauging interest in the Games on what stories are most read on our website each day. He claimed he’s read every word you’ve written from the Olys and contended that most print readers likely share his reading habits.
Paul: Koe is 5-3 heading into Wednesday here. He’s guaranteed at least a playoff tiebreaker no matter what happens in his final game against Denmark. He’s going to be just fine. Koe’s won the Brier after limping into the playoffs through the 3 vs 4 game over the years. The lights get hotter when you’re the only game on the ice come playoff time — and that’s when Koe is always at his best.
Homan, at 3-4, has been a mess here since Day 1. She was rolling out open takeouts against China. You know Homan is in trouble when even the hitting game — which has always been her specialty, at times to a fault — has abandoned her. And as bad as Homan has been, third Emma Miskew has been worse.
Having said all that, they’re still very much alive. A Canada win over Scotland’s Eve Muirhead here Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in Winnipeg) would force at least a playoff tiebreaker, assuming Homan also goes on to beat Russia, who are awful, later Wednesday.
I would definitely not count that Homan team out just yet, but they’ll have to be better than they’ve been if they’re going to beat Muirhead.
Steve: Could there be a more Scottish name than Muirhead? Makes me think of Muirfield whenever I see it. Is it true the Scottish invented curling?
Guess you’ll be at one rink or another then for the remainder of the Games — have you been to an outdoor event since that bone-chilling Opening Ceremonies? Are you going to go the closing?
Paul: I haven’t seen snow since the opening ceremonies, other than the stuff the Zamboni scrapes up here at the rinks in Gangneung.
All the snow over here is up in Pyeongchang, but all seven Manitoba athletes competing here — nine if you include Manitoba-borns, 11 if you include Manitoba Bisons hockey player Venla Hovi on the Finnish women’s team and Brandon’s Alex Plante on the Korean men’s hockey team — are here in Gangneung, where it’s cold but I have yet to see a single snow flake.
This same thing happened when I covered the Torino Games, except in that instance I never once got up to the mountains. I literally covered that entire 2006 Winter Games without actually seeing any winter. Cindy Klassen kept me plenty busy at the oval at those Games.
And it will be plenty busy here in Gangneung the next couple days. Team Canada will play Finland in the quarterfinals of men’s hockey here Wednesday night, which will be a 6 a.m. start Wednesday back home in Winnipeg. Winner advances, loser is eliminated. Guess who has more to lose in that game? And then I will be covering Canada vs the U.S. in the gold medal final of women’s hockey on Thursday, which will be a 10:10 p.m. start back in Winnipeg on Wednesday.
As for the closing ceremonies, I will be boarding a plane bound for Thailand just as those are wrapping up Sunday night. You’ll have to tell me all about it.
Steve: Ah yes, your overnight flight to the beach for some post-Games R&R. Nice gig if you can get it.
Sounds like you have a full week ahead of you, though — should let you get to sleep; and I need to get dressed and get to the office at some point.
Btw, notice I did not bring up the Breastgate thing — there’s no way we keep our feet out of our mouths on that one.
Later.
Paul: A closing thought: How come female figure skaters have to perform half naked, but their male counterparts are all fully dressed? Does Harvey Weinstein run figure skating too?
Asking on behalf of that poor woman.
Paul Wiecek
Reporter (retired)
Paul Wiecek was born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End and delivered the Free Press -- 53 papers, Machray Avenue, between Main and Salter Streets -- long before he was first hired as a Free Press reporter in 1989.