Buckeye Fan 19

It was a great Olympics for Team USA. Only complete self-destruction was Malinin (and even he still won a gold in team) and pretty much everybody else either performed as expected or overachieved.

One final thing I would also add (and I put this in a different thread on the MSB, but probably more fitting here): A goalie being on fire is part of the game of hockey and sometimes fluky… But Hellebuyck has been the best goalie in the world for 5+ years now and was literally the NHL MVP last year (EXTREMELY rare for a goalie to win it. Like a non-QB winning NFL MVP. It almost always just goes to the guy with the most points).

Going into the tournament, goaltending and defensive pairings was considered an American strength, compared to the Canadian advantage at forward. It’d be a bit different if Hellebuyck was just an above average NHL goalie (like Binnington is) and stood on his head.

No baseball fan would call it a miracle/fluke if in a game 7, Team A’s Cy Young winner outdueled Team B’s above average ace to beat Team B’s better lineup. Goaltending is part of the equation, and the U.S.’s was well-known to be superior. It’s not a fluke Hellebuyck outplayed Binnington (who was pretty good today, too).

Do I think Canada generally outplayed the U.S. today? Yes. (Which does NOT mean I think the U.S. didn’t deserve the gold.) But I always find it funny that goalies “steal” games, no matter how good they are. If Connor McDavid had 2G, 2A today and Canada won, no one would say he “stole” the game or it was a fluke. If Tom Wilson did? Sure, maybe fair. But Hellebuyck is elite. He’s the McDavid of goalies.

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It was a miracle we won bc Canada honestly dominated. Hellebuyck stood on his proverbial head

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If you replicate 100 times how today’s game was played “exactly” how it was played today, yeah, Canada probably wins 85% of them. I think the U.S. played slightly below its typical standard and the Canadians played to about their normal standard today. But if you have these two teams play 100 times generally, Canada would probably only win about 55-60%.

If you have the U.S. in 1980 play the Soviets 100 times, they probably lose 97-98 of them.

ETA: I’m not sure if the downvote thinks I’m saying the U.S. didn’t deserve to win or that I’m angry about it or something. I’m thrilled the U.S. won and they put more pucks in the net today and deserved the gold. That’s not the point of my post haha.

It’s a lot of fun in short doses as a golden goal situation, but it would not be as enjoyable to watch for 60 minutes for multiple reasons (would both be too many total goals and the players would become exhausted).

I do think that, in hindsight, 4-on-4 would be a bit more entertaining than 5-on-5, but I wouldn’t want them to change it now due to the tradition/history of the sport (more like, when they were inventing hockey from scratch 100+ years ago, I’d prefer if they had picked 4-on-4 instead of 5-on-5 haha).

What a play by Z in OT! #USA #CBJ

A little bit surprised they went to the locker rooms / are zaboning (I made up that word) the ice given it’s 3-on-3.

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Respectfully, have you not seen what the bears ownership wants? They are trying to create an entertainment ‘district’ where they own the rights to parking, entertainment, restaurants, etc.

There’s 52 weeks in a year, it wouldn’t be that difficult to do something weekly. Bears play on Sundays, you could easily host a concert Friday and a Saturday college football game.

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Yes, I’ve said that throughout this thread. Which is why cheap land / financial concessions from the government is more important than location/accessibility for NFL organizations (as long as you’re reasonably close to the hub city, like within 45 miles), so you can develop that land/infrastructure. And Indiana is providing a better financial option for the Bears than Illinois.

All these different events you’re referring to are going to be having different people interested/showing up each week/weekend to watch a different event/concert/product and utilizing said entertainment district. Different clientele, different demographics, etc. It’ll constantly be in use by the 10 million ppl in the Chicagoland region who have a wide range of interests, no problem; you’re not relying on the same people constantly coming back for each event. Each concert/event is essentially a different product - other than the Bears games, and there’s only 8/9 of those, mostly on Sundays.

This is a different consideration than the Cubs/Blackhawks/Bulls (and Braves), who are essentially putting out the same product/event 81 or 41 times a year, often on weeknights. In that case, you want to make it easy/convenient for people to get to, either by putting it downtown for ease after work or in an affluent part of the city/burbs where a lot of fans live. For MLB/NHL/NBA, you’re frequently relying on many of the same people continuously coming back to numerous games throughout the season.

MLB and NFL are way different in that the former has 80+ home games all throughout the week, while the latter has 8 or 9 home games, with the majority on Sunday afternoons.

Location / accessibility is a much bigger deal for NHL/NBA/MLB stadiums to generate ticket revenue than it is for the NFL, where cheap land and/or area development is a much higher consideration. The Bears will sell out every game at any location in Chicagoland, even if it’s an inconvenience to the rich northsiders / north burbs part of the fanbase.

Marino should be a few spots higher, but otherwise a pretty accurate top-10. Mahomes still has the opportunity to move up, but I think if he retired today that #4 would be fair.

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I doubt we see Swayman start another game this Olympics

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He wasn’t going to anyway. Hellebuyck is the #1 and will be the goalie every game in the knockout round. I think they were just giving Swayman the start today because it’s “only” the preliminary round and it’s a back-to-back, and Germany is the tougher team than Denmark.

But I won’t be surprised if he’s no longer even dressed as the backup moving forward and it’s Oettinger instead.

ETA: Yeah, basically what you said in your next post. :lol: