Pre-Olympic musings

Gold medal prediction

Canada 5 Czech 2, (Hasek gets pulled)

Bertuzzi
Who is the Villain: Bertuzzi or the man that selected him, Gretzky. Rumour has it that Gretzky is the ultimate team guy but he should have known better. He did go to Sir James Dunn C&VS for a year. Going with Bertuzzi on international ice on the international stage is a mistake. He just isn't good enough to justify this moment for his "2nd" chance.

On the other hand, Bertuzzi is going to score a big goal for Canada and his rep will recover.

Who is going to take a bad penalty first? Bertuzzi or McCabe?

CBC

This network looks like PBS with a heavy dose of nationalism (see maple sport -- ie. The national CBC news at nightime -- with Petuh Mahnsbridge -- had the Gretzky saga as its lead story). It is time for the sport of hockey, a sport for more of the globe to enjoy, to be severed from the monopolistic bodies of Canadianness like the CBC, Petro-Canada and now, apparently, Rona (fuck u Home Depot) who use it to sell their product. Seems to me that Canadianness has been institutionalized so much that that I can(‘t) out live with.

NHL

Rumour of the day: The hockey lockout of 04-05 was a battle between Republican-leaning New York lawyers representing patriotic American owners and the Democrat-leaning New York Lawyers representing unionized Canadian labour.

Oilers Fan

Hard-core Oil fan is suggesting the Tocchet/Janet betting ring is an American attempt to sully the Great One prior to Canada’s defense of Salt Lake gold. They don't like to see Wayne’s name get dragged into the mud.

New Jersey State Police
All I know is that Flyers fan (shouts go out to Juhsey and that place where Rocky ran up the stairs) loves Team USA. Even those without some distant relative connection to the mob. How many pieces of flare were there on the New Jersey State Trooper delivering the news conference of Betzky-gate? I be down with OPP.

Corporate Nationalism
See the Bombardier Ads: “That’s my bombardier.” What the f$%k does that mean? The suggestion that that company in some way represents a product of my collective identity is a slap to this sel(ef)f-ace. If my nationalism has to be that corporate, I'm gonna need some time to reconsider…