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That's Amaury's News and Commentary: X-Game formatted events at Olympics draws interest By Daniel Dullum February 15, 2010 |
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The skiing is off and running at the Olympic games in Vancouver and the Americans have a gold medal and there is the skiing event similar to the X-Games event where you ski on this bumpy course where you do a jump and then you do a flip, then it's counted and judged and it doesn't look easy. I'll give those athletes credit and speaking about those kind of events in general terms were going to see the day when the X-Games started up a lot of us older guys looked at it like, "what is this?" But within the next ten years or so you're going to see more X-Game type of events adopted by the Olympics for summer and winter games. The skiing that took place over the weekend kind of falls under that category and just wait until Olympic hockey gets underway and you have to realize that the players aren't there yet. They will be arriving in Vancouver Tuesday other than the fact that the weather has got a little bit warmer in Vancouver and there was that situation with the Georgia luger driver who lost his life in the practice run and I'm certainly sorry to see something like that. Other than that the games seem to be rolling along. In hockey Team Canada put a fine team together and listening to Wayne Gretzky's comments this could be one of the strongest teams in years. It's going to be very interesting to see how it all plays out. The Great One didn't exactly go into detail why it would be most important for hockey and North America to hook up but my best guess would be to generate TV ratings and to generate interest here because we tend to be very provincial when we watch the Olympics and if it's the U.S. versus Canada to the casual fan who watches hockey once every four years it has a lot more appeal than Canada versus the Ukraine or something. Olympic break for the NHL: The Eastern conference has a nice little race going, you have Montreal kind of sneaking in the rear. The New Jersey Devils are holding onto first place in front Pittsburgh. You don't hear a lot about New Jersey but they’re a solid hockey club. They just roll on and continue to play solid hockey and of course Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur he's rolling along. Then you have the Bruins and the Penguins with Syd the Kid and as good as Syd Crosby is he can't do it alone the Devils are a formidable team and the Washington Capitals with Alex Ovechkin what a show that the Capitals and Penguins put on a couple weekends back on the game of the week. Ovechkin getting a hat trick within eight minutes of the third period it just kind of let the country know just how good he is and as good as the east race. Is what’s going on in the west is really something and because you have some dark horses. I was at the Arena on Saturday watching the Coyotes hosting the Dallas Stars. The Coyotes are in the number four spot as we speak the Stars are knocking on the door with Detroit and you want to know how intense hockey is getting right now. These two teams had three fights in first period alone. This Olympic break who it benefits the most are teams like Detroit and they’re going to help other teams that are really beat up because it gives you that extra couple weeks to get your main guys healed. The break helps the Red Wings more than any other team. The Red Wings are missing Tomas Holmstrom and a couple others, the team needs time to heal up. This Olympic break will give them that and so when we come out of the break they'll be able to finish up the regular season and they'll be ready to go. If you’re in San Jose this isn't what you want you have the Blackhawks 1-2 in the west and the idea of finishing 1-2 in the west is easier if you get a first round opponent at least for one round or maybe two. We'll the Hawks are staring at the possibility of getting the Red Wings and that goes for the Sharks the Sharks have a shot at getting the Red Wings as well. That's not what you’re hoping for. Daniel Dullum is filling in for Amaury Pi Gonzalez who took President's day off |
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