Ananas

Sucks to be American? Dude, you guys finished ahead of the Russians, the Swedes, the Czechs, the Slovaks... you guys have nothing to be ashamed of.

SID THE KID! Crosby seals Canada's record 14th Gold Medal! Believe!

Heatley. Crosby. Staal. How many fucking gimme goals are these guys gonna miss?

I think that's a bit disingenuous to say. To say they saved 1 million by moving Lee is to suggest that they were likely to give Blanton away in the first place. They tried to move him but couldn't get an offer they were comfortable with. If they'd just non-tendered him they would have let a type-A front of the rotation starter walk with no compensation whatsoever. And that would have been just to keep Cliff Lee for one year before his contract expired and they had no control over him whatsoever. Yes the Jays taking on some of Doc's salary allowed the Phillies to have been in position to hold on to Doc and Lee at just under 150 million dollars, but it's been reported numerous times that the Phils budgeted 2010 at 140 million dollars. Phils team president David Montgomery made the point that they're at the limit of their revenue potential, and at some point you can't increase payroll anymore. And then there's the obvious other reason to trade Lee - the restocking of the farm system so the Doc deal doesn't leave you completely barren. And the fact that Doc was reportedly willing to accept a much more club friendly contract. But at the end of the day the Lee trade was at the very least very much motivated by payroll.

They had to move Lee for financial reasons. Their payroll would have been close to $160 million if they'd kept both.

Team Martin was really dialed in today. You expect that with Martin and Morris, but how about how clutch Marc Kennedy was? There were a few communication issues early, but these guys played like definite world champions. Very deserving gold medal winners, and so appropriate that it should be curling that allowed Canada to tie the all-time high mark for golds and perhaps even more appropriate that it could be hockey that pushes us into the history books.

Two Canadian medal hopefuls, two Canadian golds today. Canada now has 12 golds, just one shy of the all-time winter Olympic record! Own The Podium doesn't seem so silly now!

We might not own the podium in total medals, but right now we stand on top of the gold rush. What a second week!

Klassen had only once been a part of the womens pursuit team on the world cup circuit this year and Canada had its worst showing of the year. It would have been needlessly sentimental to not go with Schussler. Klassen's had a great career, but her knees are shot. Disappointing result nonetheless. Christine Nesbitt was capable of a Klassen type Olympics, but she'll have to settle for one medal. Hope Denny Morrison can get it together and help the Canadian men medal and at least slightly improve on our disappointing 4 medals in long track so far.

What exactly about drinking beer in public violates the Olympic spirit? Why does the IOC have no problem with Heineken sponsoring the Holland House or the Molson Canadian Hockey House? Or the bar at the Irish House? Or the never ending beer sponsorship and advertisements being run? If they were just making a stink about Poulin drinking a month ahead of becoming legal then fine. But it's this moral grandstanding as if the Olympics are above an industry that amounts to major sponsorship dollars for various Olympic committees to fund the training of athletes around the world. It's as if Olympians are somehow above the spectators they're encouraging to lubricate themselves at any number of Olympic committee sponsored events. Jeeze, I always thought the allure of the Olympics was seeing these amateur athletes who don't get the publicity or larger than life hype the pro's do competing and setting an example for the nation at home cheering them on. I was unaware that consuming an entirely legal product in a licensed venue somehow violated that.

Joannie Rochette has officially locked up being the story of these Olympic games. What a storybook finish to the ladies singles figure skating. Congrats to her for incredible courage in overcoming the odds in the darkest week of her life.

I know, but without them it's just Russia and Sweden going back to 1948 and slightly less historic.

Historic night of upsets in men's hockey as the Czech Republic, Sweden and Russia are all defeated. How historic, you ask? Well, the last time neither of those three countries found their way onto the podium in hockey (including the Soviet Union) was 1936. Last time none of those countries even made it to the medal round was 4 years earlier in 1932. In fact this is only the second time in the history of Olympic hockey that this has happened. Or maybe this is just boring and I'm desperate to indulge my stats geekery at 2:30 in the morning.

Could anything have possibly gone better for Canada today? Clara Hughes puts down the outstanding run to take bronze in the womens 5000m in the final race of her storied career. Canada knocks off the Russians 7-3 to move to the semi-finals. The short track team takes silver in the ladies 3,000m relay. And the kicker? Canada takes the gold AND silver in ladies 2 woman bobsled. It's Wonderful Wednesday in Vancouver!

Clara Hughes, who basically stuck around this year just so as to compete in front of the home fans, had her final race today in the womens 5000m. She threw down the gauntlet, posting a track record of 6:55 and although it was beaten twice, managed to hold on for a bronze, her 6th Olympic medal at 37 years of age. What a storybook finish to the career of one of Canada's greatest athletes.

Holy shit, did anyone just see the hit on Lubos Bartecko? An absolutely disgusting elbow to the head from the Norwegian Tollefsen, and Bartecko smashed his head on the ground after his helmet had popped off on the way down. Blood is just pouring out. Frightening.

I'm actually kind of interested to see how Halladay does playing in Philly. He posted a HR/9 of 0.8 last year in what is undoubtedly a pitchers park. In a band box like Citizen's Bank? It'll be interesting.

If your heart didn't break for Joannie Rochette just now you don't have one. What a spectacular performance given the circumstances.

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada become the youngest and first North American gold medalists in ice dance. It didn't take an expert to know that they were awesome tonight.

There's a difference between getting a ton of shots and a ton of quality opportunities. Ryan Miller was solid; I disagree that he was sensational. If Canada had played the whole game the way they played the last 5 minutes then I agree that the Canadians win easily. But for a majority of the game the Americans were better. Better at closing down shot opportunities, better at shutting the passing lanes, better at angling Canadian forwards out, better at capitalizing on their opportunities. The US deserved 3 points, they got it. Now we have to wake up from this. Maybe the extra game will do us good.

I guess we have an answer to the question "Brodeur or Luongo?"

I liked Jack Johnson better when he was singing about banana pancakes.

They got really strong when they got the Lillehammer games and have been able to maintain that strength. Similar to us when you consider the effect that Own the Podium had on Torino (an increase over Salt Lake City's 17 to 24 medals) and the very real possibility that we'll match or increase that total this week.

The best part about that is Basha linking to something from a Leafs blog.

I don't know about a turn around, but mens hockey is just a round robin game. Tomorrow we're tipped to take two medals in womens 1500m. Never mind what happened, let's just take the medals we're tipped to win and wait for a bit of luck to come our way. We're not "Chokeanada". In terms of gold medal favorites: Jennifer Heil, Christine Nesbitt, Maelle Ricker. Two golds and a silver from them. We've had our disappointments, sure. But then again we've had our pleasant surprises. Mike Robertson wasn't supposed to factor in on the podium. Neither was Marianne St Gelais. And while Jon Montgomery was seen as a fringe medal candidate, Alexandre Bilodeau's Olympics were supposed to play out in predictable fashion: good, but not as good as Dale Begg Smith. Let's not let one bad day sour what has this far been a really exciting Olympics, the type that would make one proud to be Canadian.