Topical Island

The top stories of the week:

• Joannie Rochette: The Canadian Figure skater had the best skate of her life after losing her mother. Her dedication and bravery will be remembered for a long time.
• The Haiti Earthquake: It continues to be a huge topic as the Island nation hopes to rebuild itself after the incredible tragedy.
• Shutter Island: The Lionardo Di Caprio movie has taken off since hitting theatres, ahead of even Valentines Day so far.
• Tsunami?: We could have another scare as a earthquake of the coast of Chile (killing 73) Could turn into a Tsunami.

Loss against USA? It set us up well.

A nation was devastated after Team Canada's Men's Ice Hockey Team lost to its American brothers in the last game of the round robin. The 5-3 loss just sunk a Canadian ship that was already battered from a close call against the Swiss. After the loss it seemed like most of Canada thought we would have no chance at a gold medal, our mission from the start going into the Olympic Games. But Canada quickly proved the critics wrong, they are still in the hunt. A 8-2 victory over the Germans was just the start, helping Canada to gain momentum and get a team that worked as a unit. The game had its fair share of interesting moments, including when Shea Weber shot the puck through the net for a second Canadian goal. So what to think of that game? It was a great team builder, and helped Canada gain confidence going into a date with destiny against the Russians. It was set to be the greatest hockey battle of the century.... what happened? Canada was much stronger right from the start and blew passed the Russians 7-3. The team had its strongest game of the tournament, and looked very much like the blueprint of the team was supposed to look like. Everyone on the team looked good and our passing and defense was at an all time high. And when goalie Roberto Luongo was needed, he was good. The Russians never really looked in the game after Ryan Gezlaf made it 1-0, and Canada fed off that goal to score 3 more before the period was over. The game would set them up for one against Sweden in the semi-finals... or would it? Sweden met up with Jaroslav Halak and the Slovaks. The Swedish team came into the Olympics defending champions from the 2006 Turin games. But that could be the place in which this campaign would end for the Swedes. Going into this game the Slovaks were underrated going into this tournament. But a team that has names such as Marian and Marcel Hossa Zdeno Chara and Zigmund Palffy are a force to be reckoned with. And as Canada started its game against the upstart Slovaks, it looked again like the Big Red Machine was unstoppable. Canada quickly made it 2-0, on goals from Patrick Marleau and Brenden Morrow. And made it 3-0 on a Gezlaf goal going into the third period. That is when the game started to pick up. A lucky bounce saw a lot of wind taken out of Canada's sails as they went into the final couple of minutes, and then after a poor defensive play, the Slovaks made it 3-2. And it was a hockey game. It got pretty scary too as Luongo had to make an incredible save to keep Canada in the lead going into the finals seconds. And it wasn't until the final buzzer that anyone felt Canada had won. Hopefully, Canada will learn from this lesson going into a game of revenge against the Americans, who we have waited a week to get back in our sights. The game will be interesting, as it will be a rematch of the 2002 gold medal game in Salt Lake City. And Canada will look to repeat that history and again take the gold in Men's Ice Hockey. But the Americans are looking to beat us again. But make no mistake this is not the same Team Canada that they saw in the round robin. We have a much more lethal offense as the Gezlaf-Perry-Morrow line look almost as dangerous as the one that has Sidney Crosby. And our defense is much more solid then it was in our first start against the Americans. And i think that we can even count more on the Goal tending in this one, as Luongo has looked pretty good in all of his four starts so far this tournament. But whatever happens, it will be a great game.

Germany-Canada: The Preview

Tonight Hockey Canada will hold its breath as Canada enters the knockout rounds of the Winter Olympic hockey tournament, coming off a tough loss to arch rivals the USA. And its certainly going to have to be a solid win for the Canadians, as they will have fans to please after the disappointment. Brodeur will be out of goal in favour of Vancouver Canuck's goalie Roberto Luongo. And quite frankly Canada is looking for a new dawn in it's Men's Hockey play so far in Vancouver. Brodeur played a poor game against the Americans, taking bad risks at crucial points in the game. While many of the American goals got in the net because of lucky bounces, most of those bounces would not have happened if Brodeur had been better positionally. But Canada is looking to but that result behind them, and have switched its lineup going into this game. Keeping with the Shark's line but adding Staal to the Crosby-Iggy line and dropping Nash to the Duck's line with Corey Perry and Ryan Gezlaf. But Perry and Gezlaf have been noted for poor play so far this tournament. Particularly Perry who missed a chance against the Swiss that could have won Canada the game. He also played poor on the last American goal in the 5-3 loss on Sunday. The addition of Nash to the line? Poor genius. Canada will need a better distributed offense and Heatley-Marleau-Thorton have been the bulk of the Canadian goals at this point in the tournament. And entering into the game against the Germans Canada is looking to get some other players rolling. But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Germany could still beat us and are a very solid team, not unlike the Swiss. But one comparable difference between the Germans and the Swiss is that longtime German goalie Olaf Kolzig is not in net meaning German doesn't have a NHL goalie, the way Switzerland had Hillier. But almost everyone in the media is looking ahead to what could be one of the best hockey games in the history of the sport in the Olympic Games. It could feature Crosby against Oveckin. The Kid against The Great. And two of the NHL's top players head to head in a battle in which the loser will be sent home. It will amount to a lot of drama. But if Canada thinks ahead the Germans could easily burn them, leaving us to only wish we had been able to see the game against Russia. So as Hockey Canada prepares for a new dawn, the must be sure to not look ahead to the future and focus on the present. This game will be for confidence, if this one goes into Overtime like the one against the Swiss it would lose Canada a lot of respect and confidence going into a game against one of hockey most dynamic forces, something that i don't think they can recover from.

Car Farce

Last night i turned on my TV to watch the evening News. And once again it talked about the failures and problems of a certain Car Company. Many of you would be quick to say Chrysler or GM. But I'm talking about Toyota. Every time you turn on the TV you find out that Toyota has recalled, or is about to recall yet another car. This time for me it happened to be speculation that they would recall the Camry. The Camry is Toyota's poster boy car, the way Fusion is to Ford or Rondo is to KIA. And with the problems to the poster boy come a lot of problem's in the system. Some people say it is overblown, but one thing is for certain, its pretty poor when it comes to quality. Even GM who required countless government bailouts to try and make it out of the year alive still held on long enough to not have to make any recalls. Although Car Companies always seem to be having recalls... nobody has had this many recalls, ever. And while problems are still with the auto industry in North America they will be able to shadow behind this story for a while before somebody finally realizes that they are still as bad as usual. And it may even give them time to recover from the economy problems that seem so far in the passed now that the story has moved on to another auto dealership. The thing is Toyota will probably never be the same after these events. And a lot of people are losing trust in the dealership that once had an almost perfect reputation. And the competition aren't helping much either as a recent Chevrolet commercial showed that its cars were more green then Toyota. Toyota has claimed to be the greenest car company in the world with all its hybrid projects in development. But to some end this will be a hole in the auto maker that they could never recover from.

Canada's Shame Game

When Canada was awarded the Olympic Winter Games it was welcomed by celebration across Canada. But as we got closer and closer to those Olympic Games, many got nervous that they would be an embarrassment to our nation. Canada was hosting the games in a time that had many problem economically and the H1N1 pandemic had not fully blown over, as talk is always about another wave of the virus. They would be a challenging games to host. And many believed that the fact that these games would be hosted in Canada would qualify them to be poor, and the games did not start out in a perfect form. The games started with a torch relay that would make it the longest ever across a country. And the torch relay was expected to be a very hard one to carry out, considering all the protesters across Canada. But the games seemed to start out well as the torch relay was virtually untouched, although minor problems would highlight its march across this great land. If protested did show up they usually just stepped around them. Which we can credit to a great on site response staff. So just the fact that Canada was able to get the torch all the way across the nation with very few security problems was already an impressive thing. And in the lead up to the opening ceremony's the town looked better than it ever had, mountains in full beauty, a city that looked polished and incredible. And inside BC place, which had just underwent millions of dollars in renovations, the opening ceremonies began. It was a ceremony full of Canadian culture. And one that was perfectly executed. The brilliance of the graphics and the patriotism behind the opening ceremonies was one that had me in shock. Canada had certainly come together for these games to try and make a name for ourselves. And then it happened, and it had to be on the biggest part of the ceremony. After a brilliant finish to the torch relay, one which underlined everything Canada stood for, the game changed. The Olympic cauldron had four pillars which should have come up. Only three did. The staff did a great job in making it look believable, but right away you knew that it would draw criticism. The torch bearers quickly lit the cauldron before sending Wayne Gretzky running out the stadium to light the external cauldron. And like expected Canada look a lot of heat for the failed arm in the torch. But that was only the start of problems to come. They all started on the ski hills, when it just wouldn't snow. Men's downhill had to be cancelled and bad conditions at the Women's mogul event spelled trouble for Olympic organizers, but this is all beyond human control. We took a lot of stick for our problems with the events from American and British papers, but i think Britain is just worried about the London games in 2012, because they are going to have several weather problems. And i think everyone is just kind of worried because Canada is actually competitive at these games and with 9 medals already they are doing a very good job, although the Americans are the obvious best at this point in the games. But if the problems had ended at that point it would have been easier to move forward. The problems that i must admit i am very concerned about come in the speed skating oval. The problems with the Olympia ice machines have caused major delays in the competition, prompting organizers to get Zamboni machines to do the job as well. And timing problems didn't help either. Meanwhile 20,000 tickets to the Snowboarding cancelled left organizers in an even worse situation. And as it seems like Canada's "own the podium" dream is over, some say nothing has gone right at these Olympic Games. That is not true at all. The spirit of the Olympic Games are still true, displayed by incredible athletics including a Slovenian skier winning a medal with a collapsed lung. And the story of Alexander Biladeau, Canada's first goal medal on home soil just added to the great feeling that has come out of these Olympics. It may not be the position that everyone hoped when Vancouver was awarded the Olympics, but they are not the worst one's yet. And going into the final couple of days at the Olympic Winter Games spirit and incredible talent will still be on the rise.

Anything About Everything

This is a blog about everything. It will have opinionated discussions on everything from Sports and Politics. Like the title of the post says it covers anything about everything. Mostly it will be revolved around hockey and soccer but other topics will likely climb in as well. So if you are looking for a interesting read on just about anything hop over to this blog and stay for a while.