Hockey, uh, Tuesday

We normally save our hockey-themed posts for Friday when it's time to blow off a little steam, but OMG that US-Canada hockey game! And Susan was live and in-person at the Sweden-Finland game!

First, the US-Canada game. The US was clearly outplayed - Ryan Miller deserves so much credit for his goaltending. If it weren't for someone of his caliber having a good day, the US would have been toast. On the other side of the coin, Brodeur? He's been amazing and has some seriously good goaltending history, but a 0.818 save percentage for that game? I'll be shocked if Luongo isn't in net for Canada from now on. Updated: In fact, Luongo will be starting for Canada from now on.

(Susan here)

Second, the Sweden-Finland game. We were early to the game - I think we were in our seats by 8:20 for the 9:00 start, so we got to watch warmups. I went down to the third row to watch warmups and was struck by how freaking STACKED the Olympic teams are with talent. I mean, obviously they should be, but seeing it in person really made it clear. The quality of the passes, the saves... everything was just fantastic.

The atmosphere of the game was as enjoyable as the high level of play. There were lots of Swedish and Finnish fans in attendance, with their faces painted and their flags on display and their enthusiasm at fever pitch. We were seated next to a pair of fun Swedes who'd been at the arena all day -- and who'd had probably had 1-2 beers during each period of each game. I highly recommend the experience :-)

Her jersey has Forsberg on the back, but her friend was the one shouting, "Marry me, Forsberg" at random intervals:

Here's the schedule for the rest of the Olympic Hockey games, both men's and women's.