Winter Olympics

Bensell · Post by **Bensell** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:58 pm

This article from slate.com pretty much sums up my thoughts on the figure skating announcers:

Every morning for the past week, I have woken up, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down in front of the television to hang out with Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. The 29-year-old, two-time Olympian Weir, who has spent every day of this Olympic Games rubbing sequins into Putin’s anti-gay eye, and the 31-year-old gold medalist Lipinski have been pulling the early shift in Sochi, announcing figure skating live on the NBC Sports Network. At night, the same routines are rebroadcast on NBC proper, announced by Olympic stalwart Scott Hamilton. But if you have only been watching Hamilton’s reliably excitable and knowledgeable play-by-play, you have been missing out one of the Olympics’ truly transcendent pairings—not to mention its very best fashion show.

rass · Post by **rass** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:59 pm

degenerasian wrote:Rules are pretty dumb. Can't have 1 guy shoot 6 times.

**wet fart noise**

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:25 pm

Bensell wrote:This article from slate.com pretty much sums up my thoughts on the figure skating announcers: . . .

It pretty much sums up Slate, too.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:10 pm

Kori Ade,Jason Brown's coach, is hot too. Never heard of her.

I got a crush on coaches, just means I'm old.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:13 pm

save of the tournament

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:09 pm

Bensell wrote:This article from slate.com pretty much sums up my thoughts on the figure skating announcers:

Every morning for the past week, I have woken up, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down in front of the television to hang out with Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. The 29-year-old, two-time Olympian Weir, who has spent every day of this Olympic Games rubbing sequins into Putin’s anti-gay eye, and the 31-year-old gold medalist Lipinski have been pulling the early shift in Sochi, announcing figure skating live on the NBC Sports Network. At night, the same routines are rebroadcast on NBC proper, announced by Olympic stalwart Scott Hamilton. But if you have only been watching Hamilton’s reliably excitable and knowledgeable play-by-play, you have been missing out one of the Olympics’ truly transcendent pairings—not to mention its very best fashion show.

Lipinski and Weir are great. Really enjoyed their work, and have wondered why they bring on Hamilton during prime time. Also, Rebecca Lowe would have been a much better choice than Viera.

cerrano · Post by **cerrano** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:42 pm

govmentchedda wrote:
Bensell wrote:This article from slate.com pretty much sums up my thoughts on the figure skating announcers:

Every morning for the past week, I have woken up, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down in front of the television to hang out with Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. The 29-year-old, two-time Olympian Weir, who has spent every day of this Olympic Games rubbing sequins into Putin’s anti-gay eye, and the 31-year-old gold medalist Lipinski have been pulling the early shift in Sochi, announcing figure skating live on the NBC Sports Network. At night, the same routines are rebroadcast on NBC proper, announced by Olympic stalwart Scott Hamilton. But if you have only been watching Hamilton’s reliably excitable and knowledgeable play-by-play, you have been missing out one of the Olympics’ truly transcendent pairings—not to mention its very best fashion show.
Lipinski and Weir are great. Really enjoyed their work, and have wondered why they bring on Hamilton during prime time. Also, Rebecca Lowe would have been a much better choice than Viera.

hamilton is a legacy at this point. ive thought lipinski and weir have been informative without being obtrusive in terms of analysis. i've enjoyed them throughout this week.

and by the way, fred roggin has to be the basis of the shooter mcgavin character in happy gilmore. or, roggin watched the movie and said "hey..."

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:43 pm

govmentchedda wrote:Also, Rebecca Lowe would have been a much better choice than Viera.

Word. Never liked Meredith Viera, but she brings in the Today Show soccer mom crowd. Finally caught a bit of Rebecca Lowe, they have really been hiding her.

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:52 pm

Fred Rogin has been goofy like that since forever. I like the Johnny and Tara show too. I love how the X-country skiiers, as soon as they cross the finish line, just lie down on the ice, like exhausted broads. Even the guys. Even if they are carrying rifles.

kranepool · Post by **kranepool** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:08 pm

degenerasian wrote:Rules are pretty dumb. Can't have 1 guy shoot 6 times.

Gary Bettman: (furiously taking notes)

govmentchedda · Post by **govmentchedda** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:11 pm

The Sybian wrote:
govmentchedda wrote:Also, Rebecca Lowe would have been a much better choice than Viera.

Word. Never liked Meredith Viera, but she brings in the Today Show soccer mom crowd. Finally caught a bit of Rebecca Lowe, they have really been hiding her.

Late night infant feedings have allowed me a few Lowe shows. Did anyone happen to see the shot MiB posted of her receiving a signed wine bottle? Way cuter than normal.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:27 pm

What a luger

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:56 pm

Kate Hanson is awesome

And I mean that in the non-swamp creepy way. She seems like she'd be fun to hang out with.

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 8:11 pm

Brontoburglar wrote:Kate Hanson is awesome

And I mean that in the non-swamp creepy way. She seems like she'd be fun to hang out with.

I get her first!

(You can do curls with her, bronto)

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:30 am

The Sybian wrote:
govmentchedda wrote:Also, Rebecca Lowe would have been a much better choice than Viera.

Word. Never liked Meredith Viera, but she brings in the Today Show soccer mom crowd. Finally caught a bit of Rebecca Lowe, they have really been hiding her.

They are using Viera as she required the least amount of shuffling of other coverage.

Rush2112 · Post by **Rush2112** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:32 am

Brontoburglar wrote:Kate Hanson is awesome

And I mean that in the non-swamp creepy way. She seems like she'd be fun to hang out with.

Except the whole member of the Mormon cult thing.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:17 pm

-----

Scottie will agree, that Canada-China game this morning might have been the best curling game ever seen. For those who don't know the result, you should go find it.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:52 am

I like that the Russians don't speak a word of English, except when it's time to yell, "SVEEP! SVEEP! SVEEP!"

I was watching one of the Chinese games the other day and it was the same, out of nowhere, you hear "GOTTA GO!"

howard · Post by **howard** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:13 pm

All these ice dancing women are incredibly sexy.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:32 pm

degenerasian wrote:I like that the Russians don't speak a word of English, except when it's time to yell, "SVEEP! SVEEP! SVEEP!"

I was watching one of the Chinese games the other day and it was the same, out of nowhere, you hear "GOTTA GO!"

Yes, the China/Canada game looked like it was brilliant; I've only seen fragments of it but thankfully have it PVRd.

Language is habit. One repeats what one regularly hears. In the case of the Chinese curling teams, what they hear is at the Saville Ice Center in Edmonton. Funny thing, before I noticed Marcel Rocque coaching the Chinese Men, I heard Liu Rui (the skip) shouting WHOAWHOAWhoawhoawhoawhoa rapidly but tapering, and I thought "Wow that sounds exactly like Kevin Martin, that's how Martin calls off sweeping when a draw is a bit heavy." And sure enough that has to be where they got it. Another Martinism Liu picked up is breathe-muttering "Sheeeez" to himself after a miss and that is pure Kevin Martin. Liu also habitually, reflexively yells "Right off! Right off!" which is unquestionably something he picked up over here.

The Korean women are the smallest team you'll ever see. The Korean women are the loudest team you'll ever hear. Damn those girls can scream. And the chick that throws third for them looks like she's 11-years old.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:53 pm

howard wrote:All these ice dancing women are incredibly sexy.

The American girl is pretty but her makeup is a bit creepy.

/first world problems

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:44 pm

for those interested in Canada, TSN2 will show the tiebreaker tonight between Scotland and Norway at midnight ET, 9pm Scottie time.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:50 pm

degenerasian wrote:for those interested in Canada, TSN2 will show the tiebreaker tonight between Scotland and Norway at midnight ET, 9pm Scottie time.

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up. But surely it is also on those Telus (and Shaw?) "feed" channels of the CBC with no announcers and no commercials? Gotta be, eh?

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:04 pm

don't think we get those on shaw.

The announcers don't bother me, it's not Vic Rauter.
also sometimes it's on the french channel. Guy Hemmings and some chick.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:14 pm

Who are you getting for announcers? During the Canadian games it is Harris, Rainnie and McCusker (who is flat-out silly, giggle-gushing like a schoolgirl). But 90% of the curling games have no announcers or commercials. I've PVR'd at least a dozen non-Canada games.

ETA2: This is the guide, channels 12-17 showing. The CBC HD announcer-free/commercial-free block is something like channels 10-24. At any given time you have something on whether curling, hockey, skiing, skating, or going breakneck fast down a track and while it is overnight in Russia those channels have uninterrupted full-match/event replays around the clock. I'm pretty sure most of those are international pool feeds. But the coverage on those channels is amazing; you get pretty much every single moment of every single event with no chatter or ads. I haven't even looked at the actual CBC channel's feed yet. Why would I? Telus channels ordinarily start at 100 (CBC is 100) so those 10-24 channels are a special block Telus created.

SportsDoc · Post by **SportsDoc** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:22 pm

rass wrote:Profile in courage by the ref! Oh boy....

Seems the locals aren't enamored

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:37 pm

I dont get those Scottie.

I've been either watching CBC mainstream or mobile on my phone.

I've been watching biathlon on delay. Love it. The Belorussian girl has won 3 gold medals and she pretty toned.

SportsDoc · Post by **SportsDoc** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:30 pm

SportsDoc wrote:
rass wrote:Profile in courage by the ref! Oh boy....
Seems the locals aren't enamored

Upon further review ... according to the NHL Network on Sirius/XM the video review judge who made the call to disallow the goal was Russian. The call was not made by the on ice officials.

Scottie · Post by **Scottie** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:56 pm

Degen, see Murdoch's raise double for the win in the 10th last night? Best shot of the Olympics so far. Scotland goes on to the 1 -v- 4 game. Norway goes back to dropping acid and designing pants.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 3:48 pm

Scottie wrote:Degen, see Murdoch's raise double for the win in the 10th last night? Best shot of the Olympics so far. Scotland goes on to the 1 -v- 4 game. Norway goes back to dropping acid and designing pants.

Yup I saw that live before going to bed. Pretty gutsy to go for that do or die shot when a draw for 1 was available. He must have thought it was impossible to steal in this match (in the extra end) so he went for it.

Scotland are still struggling though because they should have won that a lot easier. Norway's strategy is bogus. We Canadians watching that are just shaking our heads. They don't do any of the basic things that we do.. like clearing the 4-foot area with last rock, or not going around the opponents guards without last rock etc...

Scotland's front end will have to play much better if they stand any chance against Sweden.

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:17 am

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:18 am

I wonder if Russia's poor performance against Finland will convince Germany to invade around a year from now.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:28 am

Holy crap, Teemu Selanne still plays? That is incredible.

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 10:31 am

Johnny Carwash wrote:I wonder if Russia's poor performance against Finland will convince Germany to invade around a year from now.

Wonder if Siberia needs a new coach?

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:03 pm

The Moscow News twitter feed was pretty funny.

https://twitter.com/themoscownews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

degenerasian · Post by **degenerasian** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:17 pm

The Sybian wrote:Holy crap, Teemu Selanne still plays? That is incredible.

Sandis Ozolinsh is the captain of Latvia. I'm surprised that Arturs Irbe isn't in net.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:20 pm

Anyone have a good link for the US-CZE game online?

rass · Post by **rass** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:22 pm

Jerloma wrote:Anyone have a good link for the US-CZE game online?

Depending on your TV service provider, try nbcolympics dot com.

howard · Post by **howard** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:33 pm

degenerasian wrote:The Moscow News twitter feed was pretty funny.

https://twitter.com/themoscownews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I need to mix in a few more 'well, la de dah's.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 12:34 pm

rass wrote:
Jerloma wrote:Anyone have a good link for the US-CZE game online?
Depending on your TV service provider, try nbcolympics dot com.

Thanks. Firewalled but was able to download the phone app.