Canadian Women Kick Ass

Canada has three medals so far. All women. Go Canadian women!

I ended up watching some Olympics on Saturday, and saw the women's moguls event. Holy crap is that a scary event. I respect anybody who would even try it. Jennifer Heil's gold-medal run was just incredible. Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-...pause... hanging upside down in mid-air... Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-pause... hanging upside down in mid-air... Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go- She so deserved to win.

Know what else was neat? At the bottom of the hill, the competitors gave eachother hugs and high fives. I don't watch enough sports to know whether that says something about the Olympics, something about women's sports, or whether that's just the way things normally are, but I was touched.

And then on to women's hockey. I saw some of the drubbing Canada gave Italy (16-0) and it was ugly. Ow.

But then you see the comments it got when they also beat the Russians 12-0. Angela Ruggiero, who plays defense for Team USA, said: "I'm upset that Canada has been running up the score, especially against the host nation. There was no need for that. They're trying to pad their stats ... Canada is running up the score for whatever reasons – personal, short-term."

My first thought was, Would they ever, ever dare to say that about men's hockey? I mean OMGWTFBBQ these uppity women are kicking too much ass what are we going to do?

But it turns out the mighty Don Cherry has previously come out against NHL teams trouncing eachother too hard, on the grounds that winning so big that you humiliate the other team is poor sportsmanship. Kick their butts but don't rub their faces in it.

So I don't get to have a feminist snit-fit afterall.

Turns out the problem is with the rules of Olympic hockey. In this tournament, tiebreakers are decided first by the deadlocked teams' record against each other and then by goal differential. That differential can determine which team has home-ice advantage.

Interesting note: Canada has outscored its competitors 28-0 so far, and USA has outscored its competitors 11-0. Kindof shines some light on why Ruggiero might not like it.