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Sochi 2014: What to watch, Day 5 (February 12)
Much like I did with the London Olympics, I was thinking I'd dispense with the whole "Day 1," "Day 2," kind of thing and just go ahead with labeling each day of the Sochi Olympics with something more pedestrian like, I dunno, the date.
However, I'm a little stymied in that effort since - for instance - "Day February 12th" actually begins on February 11th in a place like Vancouver.
In order to avoid international dateline confusion, I am compelled to call Wednesday "Day 5." Good Lord. What's next? Will I be forced to employ the over-used and silly sounding "on the ground" phrase that television reporters so love to use? "Our so-and-so is on the ground in Sochi," they like to say, as though the media incursion was as impressive and urgent as a ramped up military action. Really? Your reporter is "on the ground"? As opposed to where, exactly? A dirigible circling the luge track? Hang gliding over the downhill run? Now that would be impressive.
Top of the list for Day 5 is a highly-anticipated clash between two of the top powers in women's hockey. Okay, the only two powers in women's hockey: Canada and the United States. Always been a bit of bad blood between these two and that has been in evidence over the last few months. Twice during tune-up matches (in October and December) the ladies got into on-ice brawls. Not likely to happen here as no one needs to risk being tossed out of the Olympics before the gold medal game. Perhaps after that one all hell will break loose. Let's have soccer star Christine Sinclair near the boards and ready to hop over if that comes to pass. This preliminary round game gets underway at 7:30 am ET and can be sen on CBC.
In contrast to the women's hockey tournament, the men's is wide open and filled with gold medal contenders. The U.S. fancies itself a contender. Sweden, too. The home ice Russians are powerful enough to get it done and of course, so is Canada. While Canada doesn't get into action until Day 6 (when it would be great if their first opponent, Norway, gathered at the blueline beforehand to bellow out "Take On Me"), you can get a gander at some of the competition as the Czech Republic squares off against Sweden. Petr Nedved is on the Czech roster. Petr Nedved? Say, does anyone know if he'll break Ian Millar's record for oldest Olympian ever? 12pm ET, on Sportsnet One.
Great Britain's Eve Muirhead meets Canada's Jennifer Jones in a big early round-robin game of curling. Jones is off to a fast start in this event, turning in a 100% shooting game in a win over Sweden. For those hockey fans who don't know curling, you can't do better than 100% in curling. Whereas - as we all know by now - it's possible to reach the 110% level in hockey. Muirhead just set an Olympic record in her 12-3 win over the U.S. when she scored 7 points in one end. I predicted these two would meet in the gold medal game and I'm sticking with that, so here you go... a gold medal game preview. 5 am ET, on TSN.
American Shani Davis is looking to win his third straight Olympic gold in the 1,000 metre speed skating event. He holds the world record in this and is expected to be a strong contender to top the podium again. Canadians Denny Morrison, Vincent de Haitine, William Dutton and Muncef Ouardi might have something to say about that. 8:55 am ET, on TSN.
There was double disappointment for me in the team figure skating event. First there was that whole Canada finishing second thing, but beyond that I was also disappointed that they didn't have everyone on the ice at the same time, spinning and crashing into one another, like that great old kids' game, "Battling Tops." Note to Olympic executives: "Figure skating cross" would be way, way awesome. We're now into the more traditional figure skating events and Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford stand fifth in the pairs' competition, heading to the free skate. You can see that at 10:45 am ET, on TSN.
