Great hockey game, I had money on Canada winning this one, which makes the win all the better.

GO CANADA! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You seriously bet money on Olympic sports? That is a sure sign of a gambling problem.

Depends on how much he bet versus how much discretionary funds he has.

$20 is nothing, it was just a fun wager with an American friend of mine. The victor really gains more from bragging rights then the money.

Canada who? Is about right. ;-)

Oh okay as long as it's not with a bookie or something.

Sports betting isn't illegal in Canada. Why would who he chose to make his bet with matter?

My point isn't about whether it's legal or illegal. My point is about diagnosing a potential gambling problem. If you are making bets with bookies, you have a gambling problem. If you are making friendly wagers with friends, that's not an indicator of a gambling problem.

@ Mapu

Are bookies something different where you live? Where else would you bet (aside from online, which I would say was far more an indication of a gambling problem than the occasional flutter at the local bookies)?

No I am sure they are the same bookies that you have except I am pretty sure bookies are illegal (I live in Boston). So if you are seeking out some illegal low level mobster so you can make bets on women's Olympic sports, then yes you would have a gambling problem.

Your bookies are very different to ours.

I make a regular trips to the two nearby casinos to play poker and blackjack. Do I have a gambling problem?

And I know of several legal sports betting "bookies" that operate via postal and phone out of Vegas. No shady underworld characters, just a legit business. I don't sports gamble, so don't do business with them (you gotta know sports to be successful gambling on it), but they are a legit business.

Legit businesses sell cigarettes and alcohol too. Just because something is legal doesn't mean you can't end up on Intervention over it.

That wasn't your implication. Just because you take advantage of the goods or service provided on occasion doesn't mean you need an intervention. You made the assertion that betting on sports was somehow a sign of a gambling problem. Lots of people go down to the track on the weekend and have fun putting small bets on the horses while eating lunch and having drinks and chatting with their friends. This was your assertion I am simply countering by pointing out that not all bookmakers are slimy underworld figures in the back alleys of New York. Some of them are perfectly upstanding businesses run out of Las Vegas or Atlantic City.

All the more incentive going into tomorrow...

Gotta avenge that OT loss in Vancouver, and now we have to avenge this OT loss on the ladies' side here in Sochi...

USA! USA! USA! ;)

(Though congrats to both squads, and a special shout out to the Swiss team as well, again, winning their first medal in hockey since 1948 with the ladies overcoming a 2-0 deficit to beat Sweden 4-3 in a GREAT 3rd period early this morning...I've been really impressed with some of the hockey I've seen on the women's side of things, hopefully those programs get more funding!) :)

Canadian women also took the gold in Curling today. But the Russians took ladies figureskating.

They need a "Women of Curling" calendar. There is at least one hot chick on every team.

Russia's entire team was pretty damned hot, especially that platinum blond former figure skater of theirs. Yowsa!

I liked the black haired one on Russia. Maybe we can double date. lol

"Yes -- hello... we are two middle aged nerds prominent on the webdiplomacy.net website. Would you and your blonde friend be interested in going out with us?"

Any of you Americans feel like taking me up on my wager? obi, Draug.....

Yeah, I saw the tail end of that figure skating, and I have to say...

I agree with Ashley "BEST DISAPPOINTED FACE EVER" Wagner:

There needs to be a change in the judging process in figure skating...that was crap.

Now, TO BE CLEAR:

I'm not, at all, burying the Russian victor, Adelina Sotnikova.

She did fine.

I WILL say, however, having seen Yuma Kim skate in the lead...
And do nothing wrong...
And have what looked like a flawless program...
And going in WITH THE LEAD...

I don't buy her losing. I don't.

This is part of why I'm not a fan of figure skating. Those women are INCREDIBLY ATHLETIC, I mean, they're more athletic than a ton of guys in the Big Four Major North American Sports, that's just amazing what they do! But I'm sorry...

I just can't stand a sport where the scoring is subjective like that.

In hockey, the puck is in...or it isn't in (unless you're Russia vs. the US, lol!) :p

But you still know what I mean, the score is 3-2 or 2-1 or 4-3, and there's no question or debate as to how that score was arrived at.

You can argue--as plenty have--whether a call was fair or not, but still, I think we can agree that most (keyword being *MOST*) of the time, in most games, it's clear who the victor is, and it's objectively clear at that.

That's not the case in figure skating, and from that notorious scandal a few years back where it was questionable whether a French judge was being bribed or not to previous issues, it's always bogged down by these questions of favoritism and subjectivity in the scoring.

And I'm sorry, again, to take nothing away from Sotnikova--

You CANNOT dethrone the reigning Gold Medal champ when said champ skates a flawless program, hits all her jumps, and does absolutely nothing to give up the lead.

To put it another way:

It'd be like the 49ers/Seahawks/Patriots/Whoever running out the clock while ahead 24-20 in a close game and somehow still being declared the winner.

I think that's crap, these women--these men AND women, it goes for both sides--deserve better...and to answer the potential follow-up, yes, I think it's a bit fishy how the US doubles team won this year too (though frankly I think Canada should've just paid that coach off to only coach their players and not even allow him to split time with the US team too, but that's another story)...it's just bad.

It's a crap scoring system, and the sport and its participants deserve better.

You CAN'T be the reigning champ, perform flawlessly while ahead, and be dethroned just because a group of judges liked someone else a little bit more...albeit someone who skated incredibly well of her own accord and deserved a silver through and through.

Just saying--when you're ahead, and you don't do anything to lose the lead, you shouldn't lose the medal on what comes across as home-ice favoritism and a popularity contest.

Yuma Kim got robbed...
Sotnikova skated great, but I don't see how she could've honestly caught Kim...
Gracie Gold might've nabbed a bronze if she hadn't fallen, but she'll be back...
She and Yulia Lipnitskaya look like they may be poised for a nice rivalry...
I think it's ABSURD (and borderline cruel) to let a 15 year old skate in the Olympics...
I can't imagine that having that kind of pressure is good on a kid that young...
Or a 12-year old girl (or boy) when she (he) starts training to GET to the Olympics...
That just seems like another element of cruel insanity in this sport...

I STILL love the amazingly-meme-worthy expressions of Ashley Wagner...

And so I'll let her say what everyone else here is already thinking--

http://bustedcoverage.com/2014/02/09/ashley-wagner-bullshit-gif/

And done! ;)

The american penalty killers are calling their families and telling them not to worry. Then they are crying and making doo-doo in their pantaloons.

Shae Weber put a puck THROUGH the net last Olympics.

Poor american penalty killers.

I have to ask did anyone read Obis last post? Does it have any merit?

Obi - I had a friend watch figure skating with me, and she happened to have done figure skating through high school, with the regional competitions and all that. And from watching it with her I've learned that I can't judge shit about figure skating because I am not and never was a figure skater. If they didn't fall or wobble, I thought they did great, but she was tearing (certain ones) apart which I thought did fantastic. So, don't make too much of a fuss about it.

obi has been reduced to blathering on about FIGURE SKATING in his Olympic hockey thread on the EVE of Canada/U.S.

Very telling indeed. obi knows that poor Johnny Quick will be looking at a LOT or 3 on 1s. Pooooooor Johnny.

Wagner needs to shut up. She didn't belong on the olympic team to begin with, Mirai Nagasu did. But since the US olympic team knew Wagner would run her mouth off about the Russian olympics from the word go they chose her instead. She is the beneficiary of dubious subjective decision-making and yet here she is whining about it. And Obi, the person who had no problem with the disallowed goal that allowed the USA to win in hockey, is complaining.

#a LOT of#