DEVELOPING: Pat Quinn Passes At 71

((HT: Sportsnet))

The HQ really wanted Pat Quinn to come back to Atlanta and be coach and GM of the Thrashers at some point considering the amount of work he was able to do in turning around the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.

But, alas, it was not to be...

The man who turned around those two squads has passed away and will be remembered for his toughness on the ice and relentless pursuit of perfection in constructing teams off it.

Here's how Sportsnet told Quinn's tale...

Tough dude who demanded results- and, most of the time, he got them...

Shannon Szabados Starts In Columbus

((HT: SPHL))

And it was pretty rocky...

One goal in the first and three more in the second as the Knoxville Ice Bears beat Szabados' Columbus Cottonmouths 4-3 in SPHL action Saturday night...

Szabados made 27 saves, but still had a blast...

From Kathy Gierer's piece in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:

“I’ve been here two days,” Szabados said. “It would have been nice to have had a week to get used to it. But I felt as good as I usually do.”

Szabados appreciated the warm welcome during introductions.

“It was fun,” Szabados said. “I saw a few Szabados shirts out there. It was definitely a great moment.”

Here's her introduction


Head coach Jerome Bechard was pleased with his new goalie and the Snakes now prepare for the SPHL playoffs.

Shannon Szabados Debuts Saturday

((HT: WTVM-TV))

Shannon Szabados has her date squared away for her Columbus Cottonmouths debut...

Saturday night against Knoxville..
FOSG Dave Platta was all over the story...
WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather

The goalie that led Team Canada to their gold in Sochi had been recruited for almost a year by some of her teammates wh were already in Columbus playing for Jerome Bechard...

Now, all we need is the gear...

Team Canada Goalie Playing For SPHL Franchise

And, no, the HQ isn't talking about Carey Price...

Shannon Szabados, it appears, is going to be spending the rest of the season as a goalie for the Columbus (GA) Cottonmouths in the SPHL- a good goalie gets a chance in the US minor leagues...

She broke the news in an interview with Sportsnet 590 The Fan's "Sportsnet Tonight" program with Jeff Sammut and George Rusic.

Catch the interview hyah...

The gold medal-winning goalie is adding the SPHL to her Western Hockey League resume and practiced with the Edmonton Oilers earlier this week.

Team USA fans would like to forget Szabados even exists after her gold-medal game performance. But the HQ will tip their hat to her as she heads south...

Here's her tour with the Oil...
((HT: The National))

Tim And Sid See Team Canada Win Live...

((HT: Sportsnet))

Okay, we get that Team Canada won...

Tim and Sid celebrate accordingly...

Harumph...

Garth Snow Hot Over Tavares Injury...And He Has A Good Reason...

((HT: NHL))

And the HQ is in his corner on this one...

The Islanders GM, Garth Snow, is livid over the season-ending injury to star forward John Tavares at the hands of Latvian defenseman Arturs Kulda- even wondering if the IIHF and IOC wold pay his season ticket holders back since Tavares is done for the year...

“It’s a joke. They want all the benefits from NHL players in Olympics and don’t want to pay when our best player gets hurt,” Snow told Arthur Staple of Newsday. “It wouldn’t matter if we were 10 points up on a playoff spot or 10 points out. We lost our best player and he wasn’t playing for us.”

Snow now joins a small chorus of folks who aren't fans of the renewal of the agreement between the NHL and IIHF for the 2018 games in Korea. But that answer will come in the next six months or so...

Here's reaction from morning skate for the Islanders...


It's a meniscus tear and an MCL tear for Tavares' left knee and, separately, the chorus for the return of the World Cup of Hockey is returning...

Team Canada Takes Gold In Overtime

((HT: Sportsnet))

Yes, the HQ is full of dammit, dammit, dammit right now...

After hitting a post on what could have been an empty-netter that could have sealed the gold medal for Team USA...

It still smarts when the top two countries in the world when it comes to women's hockey trade blows into sudden death overtime...

And Team USA doesn't come out on top...

Daren Millard and John Shannon discuss what it means to Team Canada...
This is what Millard is referring to... ((HT: NBC/IOC))
Clever... and jingoistically unfunny...

What's The 411 On Canada's Lack Of Offense...???

((HT: Sportsnet))

It showed in the barrage against Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis- who stopped 53 of 55 shots against Team Canada...

And the HQ has seen, like the rest of the world, that the Canadian defense has more points in the Sochi tournament than the front lines... and THAT is the cause of concern as they head into the semi-finals against Team USA

Tim and Sid discuss...
Steve Yzerman chose wisely when he drafted him for the Lightning's depth in the position...

Ice Dancing Results Spark Controversy... World Shocked...

((HT: Sportsnet))

Charlie and Meryl beat Tessa and Scott...

Scoreboard... and all that...

But there are those, mostly north of the border, who feel THE DANCE VOTING WAS RIGGED!!!

Wait...what...???

Judging rigged...???

Tin and Sid discuss...

Understand something...

Davis and White's scoring difference actually increased from short program to long program...
If Virtue and Moir were supposed to repeat, then why didn't the scores end up closer from one program to the other...???

Do we need to discuss the whole Sale-Pelletier situation where the world REALLY agree about Canadians getting jobbed...???

Just asking...

Is Team Canada Already Gripping...???

((HT: Sportsnet))

Although, at first glance, the HQ would wonder why in the hockey preliminaries...

But...

By failing to win in regulation and having to take the Finland match to overtime, Canada did not clinch the top seed and a favourable matchup in the quarter-finals. It means the Canadians are the tournament’s third seed and could face Switzerland in their next game.

Sixth-seeded Switzerland and 11th-seeded Latvia play Tuesday in the qualification round.
The winner meets Canada in the quarter-finals Wednesday.

So... is there cause for alarm...???
The Hockey Central team discusses...

Jay And Dan Unlock Canada's Biggest Sochi Secret...

((HT: Fox Sports Live))

THE BEER FRIDGE!!!

It confounds the rest of the civilized world who cannot open it unless they have a Canadian passport...

Two of our faves do...

The Olympic Spirit Found In Canadian Speedskating

((HT: Sportsnet))

The HQ, pretty much, knows the 15-year-old figure skater from Russia will be their flag bearer for the Closing Ceremonies. We think we found the Canadians bearer as well. If it's not Gilmore Junio, then there's a problem...

Here's why...

Junio's family emigrated from the Philippines and because he was only 5-8, his sport eventually became speed skating. Junio qualified in the 1000M since Denny Morrison tripped and Junio didn't...

Morrison is a higher-rated skater internationally than Junio and, knowing Morrison would give his home country a better chance to medal, he turned his spot over to Morrison- and he won the silver in the event...

Tim and Sid discuss with Junio...


Junio wanted to race in memory of those who suffered during the typhoon of last year- remembering his Filipino heritage.

The HQ thinks that Junio will be remembered by two countries now...

Hard To Win When It's 8 on 5

((HT: Sportsnet))

That is the jingoistic part of the HQ speaking here...

With a ref crew that didn't call two previous penalties for "too many men" and getting in the way for the breakaway goal, the larger issue today in the Team Canada-Team USA game in Sochi was the goal that made it 2-1.

Sure, it was a goal for Hayley Wickenheiser putting her on top in the history of the event for goal scoring over Cammi Granato. But the dynamic is the issue- the puck was lost under USA goalie Jessie Vetter, a whistle sounded, the puck went in to the net...

In that order...

The play was reviewed and the blindness by all the officials- on ice and off- screwed it up for Team USA in an eventual 3-2 loss.

The new approach for the medal distribution is different than most sports- qualifiers were put in the semifinals already. And both of these teams are in the final four of the event. So, now the stars and stripes have to play a tough Finnish squad in another bracket entirely to, hopefully, get a rematch against the Canadians for the gold...

Here's analysis of Round One...

So, Now's The Time For Revenge In Ice Hockey With USA and Canada

((HT: Sportsnet))

For the sake of remembering, here's the end of the Vancouver tournament...
((HT: OBS/IOC))


So, now with all the wild cards hanging around in multiple nations, the focus on this side of the world is on a gold-medal rematch between the two... leaving the home team out of it...

Here's Dan Bylsma discussing...
And on the women's side, the HQ thinks that it will be a rematch between the Teams USA and Canada- but we know that, when the two hook up tomorrow- a lot of us will be thinking about what happened in Grand Forks a month ago... ((HT: NBCSN))
The HQ admits that we're not a fan of the accelerated seeding process since we think it takes the fun out of the round-robin...

But, as supporters of Megan Bozek, we're ready to go...

Something Of A Hockey Preview

((HT: Sportsnet))

There is an amazing amount of pressure put on the home team to win a gold medal...

And the Russians will have an interesting chemistry issue to deal with. The KHL players on the squad all practiced together before the NHL players even arrived in Sochi, so there is almost two factions at play here...

The Kovalchuk/KHL faction and the Ovechkin/NHL faction and how they will interact will be an interesting subplot to the whole thing...

There are four teams (maybe five, if you include the Czechs) that will be fighting for the medal stand- USA, Canada, the Russians, and the Swedes...

The HQ believes in defense first when putting these squads together, so goaltending will keep teams in the medal race long before any other aspect of togetherness...

Thus, we look at Lundqvist and Miller over Fleury...

Hockey Central discusses...

Anni Slayd Rocks The Five-Ringed Circus

((HT: Annakin Slayd))

Slayd has done a lot of fantastic work from Canada- which is very nationalistic at times...

He's a fan of everything Montreal- Habs, les Expos... and has done that to song at key times of the city's sports history...

With everything going on overseas, he's broken out a lot of Vancouver footage and has knocked it out of the park...

Not that that is a surprise or anything..
Enjoy it before it gets pulled...


And the HQ hopes that he gets his songs looped with Tim Thompson for CBC's closing montage...

The only issue we have is the whole "Team USA Hockey losing" thing, but we have to live with the overtime loss down here...

Carry on...

We Have Our First Banned Sochi-Related Athlete Website

((HT: GlobalNews))

Anyone on the Sochi side of the five-ringed circus cannot access Canadian bobsled driver Justin Kripps' website...

You get this instead...

Translation is loosely this:

Dear users!

We apologize, but access to the requested resource is limited.

Possible reasons for limiting access:

Access is limited by court order or otherwise established by the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Network address, which identifies the site on the “Internet”, included in the Uniform Domain Name Registry, indexes pages sites network “Internet” and the network address for the identification of sites in the “Internet”, containing information dissemination in the Russian Federation is prohibited.

Check availability network address in the Unified Register in the section “Viewing the Registry” online http://www.zapret-info.gov.ru.

Network address, which identifies the site on the “Internet”, included in the registry of domain names, indexes pages of sites in the “Internet” and the network address for the identification of sites in the “Internet”, containing information disseminated in violation of the exclusive rights.

Check availability network address in the Register in the section “Viewing the Registry” online nap.rkn.gov.ru.

Kripps recently posted a photo on his Twitter account that showed him and teammates in their underwear that ran on Perez Hilton and Outsports

Kripps replied on his Twitter account about 12 hours ago:

Looks like my website is censored in Russia, haha classic #SochiProblems I wonder if there's a camera in my room

Here's a look at how a kid from Hawaii gets to be a bobsledder...
((HT: Shaw TV Canada))


It might be the only time we see him if he gets censored even further...

An Interesting Thought... Will NHL Players Pull Out Of Sochi...???

((HT: Sportsnet))

We all know what's happening over in Sochi...

And we all know what the US government has planned in case something gets past the Russian security service...

Phoenix Coyotes goalie Mike Smith has already said that he's keeping his family at home because of the security concerns, but what is the NHL thinking about it...???

Jeff Marek moderates the question...

Women's Hockey Fight, Women's Hockey Fight: Team USA vs Team Canada

Nothing like a little scrum to perk up an otherwise uninteresting Women's Olympic Hockey tuneup game. Right?

Team USA and Team Canada squared off Friday night in Grand Forks, North Dakota and the game, which was won 4-1 by the US squad, got a bit chippy.

Check out what happened late in the game as Canada desperately tried to solve US Goalie Molly Schaus who kept them in check the whole night….

12 Ejections and10 fighting majors were handed out and in case you were wondering, yeah, there's some bad blood here. The two squads had a big brawl in October and went at it as far back as 2010.

Anyway, here's your video:

Excessive Celebration...??? For The Canadians It Was...

((HT: Sportsnet/FAN 590))

Sydney Leroux was born in British Columbia, but now plays for the US Women's National Team...

She scored a goal late in the friendly (or not-so-friendly) at BMO Field in Toronto in a game that the Canadians called a revenge game for the incident in the five-ringed circus...

Remember...???
((HT: NBCSports/IOC))


So, Leroux scores the final goal in the 3-0 win for the U.S. team, and then celebrated by thumping the American badge on her jersey in front of Canadian fans in the south end of the stadium.

Sportsnet soccer commentator Gerry Dobson thinks so, telling Sportsnet 590 The FAN’s Brady and Lang that Leroux “threw gasoline on the fire” with that celebration.

Here was how they reacted on the tube in Canada... Gerry Dobson and Craig Forrest...


So...??? Was it excessive...???

Leroux responded on her Twitter feed:

When you chant racial slurs, taunt me and talk about my family don't be mad when I shush you and show pride in what I represent.