Canadian Crossing

Vancouver Olympics 1 year later; more likely to visit Vancouver?

It was one year ago on this date that the 2010 Vancouver Olympics began. The 2-week showcase of Vancouver, Whistler, and the surrounding area to Canada, the world, and quite frankly, the United States.

The Olympics serve multiple purposes — world bonding, camaraderie, sports, friendship — all that mushy stuff. But deep down, the spectacle was to convince people that Vancouver was a destination for tourism and travel.

[For a look back at the CanadianCrossing.com coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics, click on the index.]

People have focused on the luge tragedy and the mechanical problems with the lighting of the flame during the Opening Ceremonies, but neither really reflect on the beauty and international flavor of the city.

There was a reason why all those celebrities came together to do the ad inviting people to come to British Columbia. Kim Cattrall, Steve Nash, Michael J. Fox, Sarah McLachlan, Ryan Reynolds, and more did their part.

Having been to Vancouver before the Olympics, I'd be excited to ride the new train line from the airport, and spot the new housing built for the Olympic Games. To see the flame structure near the water downtown.

But I also know other cool places to visit in Vancouver and the surrounding area. People who have never been to Vancouver will discover those on their own.

And budgets for travel are smaller these days, given the recession. For numerous reasons, flying into Canada from the United States is more expensive than it should be. (You can always fly into Seattle and take the train to Vancouver.)

But people are more aware of Vancouver. Getting on the radar is crucial. And Olympics isn't a bad word to have next to your city.

And Vancouver is more of a destination than the last Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics, Calgary in 1988.

So has the Olympics changed your view of Vancouver? Will it make you more likely to go to Vancouver? Let us know in the comments below.

Canadian poutine gets international spotlight

Poutine is proudly Canadian, specifically Quebecois: French fries, squeaky cheese curds, and brown gravy.

But as we see these days, poutine is getting more looks from outside Canada's borders. A Chicago area man won a competitive eating contest, downing 13 pounds of poutine in 10 minutes. And restaurants in the United States are jumping on the poutine bandwagon.

The "Today" show even gave poutine a shout-out during its stay in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics.

For more on the latest on poutine, we invite you to read this blog entry from yesterday on the sister blog, BalanceofFood.com.

Paralympics wrap up in style in Vancouver

Canada finished tied for third in overall medals on home soil in the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver. Team Canada had 19 overall medals, tied with Ukraine, 10 gold. Russian Federation won the overall medal count with 38 medals; Germany took second with 24 medals. The United States took fifth with 13 medals. The Paralympics were held in Vancouver from March 12-21.

Lauren Woolstencroft was the gold medal star for Canada. Woolstencroft's five gold medals came in alpine skiing events: Super Combined - Standing; Super-G - Standing; Downhill - Standing; Giant Slalom - Standing; and Slalom - Standing.

Brian McKeever had three gold medals: Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 1 km Sprint Classic, Visually Impaired; Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 10 km Classic, Visually Impaired; and Cross-Country Skiing - Men's 20 km Free, Visually Impaired.

Viviane Forest also had a fine Paralympics with five medals in alpine skiing, getting gold in Downhill - Visually Impaired, silver in Super Combined - Visually Impaired; Super-G - Visually Impaired; and Slalom - Visually Impaired; and bronze in Giant Slalom - Visually Impaired.

The other gold medal went to mixed curling as Canada defeated Korea 8-7 to win gold. The winning team members are Jim Armstrong, Darryl Neighbour, Ina Forrest, Sonja Gaudet, and Bruno Yizek.

Colette Bourgonje won two cross country skiing medals, a silver in the 10 km, Sitting and a bronze in the 5 km, Sitting. Karolina Wisniewska won two bronze medals in alpine skiing, one for Super Combined - Standing and the other for Slalom - Standing.

Josh Dueck won a silver medal in alpine skiing in Men's Slalom - Sitting.

The United States did win the sledge hockey men's gold medal. No, the U.S. didn't beat Canada to get the gold. The Americans shut out Japan 2-0 in the gold medal game and didn't surrender a goal in the whole tournament. Canada lost 2-1 to Norway in the bronze medal game.

While those listed above did win medals for Team Canada, hundreds and thousands participated and tried out for these teams in these countries. And because they don't get as much publicity as the other Olympians, they should have some time to shine in the sun of attention. They deserve our praise for their great efforts.

All the results for the 2010 Winter Paralympics can be found here.

Canada posts first gold medals in 2010 Vancouver Paralympics

So the coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Winter Games won't be as intense as the devotion to the traditional Winter Olympics also in Vancouver. But it should be noted that Canada has won two gold medals on its home soil.

Brian McKeever won Canada's first gold medal in the 20 km free Cross-country skiing, Visually Impaired.

Lauren Woolstencroft followed with gold in the Alpine Skiing, Women's Slalom - Standing. Woolstencroft beat out fellow countrymate Karolina Wisniewska, who won the bronze medal.

Canada currently has 6 medals. The three silver medalists are Viviane Forest for Alpine Skiing - Women's Slalom - Visually Impaired; Josh Dueck for Alpine Skiing - Men's Slalom - Sitting and Colette Bourgonje for Cross-Country Skiing - Women's 10 km, Sitting.

Russia Federation started the day with 15 medals, 6 of them gold.

"Coach's Corner" with Don Cherry this week showed highlights of a preliminary hockey game between Canada and Italy, which Canada won. For those who might doubt these athletes should see them in action.

The Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver run from March 12-21.

[A side note to the NHL Network: What was the deal with the CBC late game, Ottawa @ Vancouver, from Saturday night. The feed literally switched from HD to SD several times during the game. Maybe this is the CBC's fault, but it sure looked odd.]

Being classy about Canada's gold medal win falls short

Based on what we saw in NHL arenas in the last few days, the fans still care which country won the men's gold medal game in Vancouver in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

I joked that U.S. fans wouldn't care too many days afterward, but perhaps I underestimated the passion.

The schedule smiled with irony as Pittsburgh hosted Buffalo — Sidney Crosby against Ryan Miller once again. In Pittsburgh, a city where the fan support hasn't been as strong given the success on the ice, the fans wildly cheered Ryan Miller and booed Sidney Crosby. I don't mind the cheers for Miller, actually think that was classy. But booing Crosby?

Winnipeg, Quebec City, Hamilton along with U.S. cities such as Seattle, Milwaukee, Hartford, and Cleveland deserve a team more than Pittsburgh does.

When Chicago honored their six Olympians, they all received cheers. True, Patrick Kane received the most cheers as the only member on the U.S. team. But Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook from Team Canada all got cheers from the hometown crowd.

I saw the Friday night crowd first-hand when the Blackhawks played Vancouver and gold medal winning goalie Roberto Luongo. But the Canadian-based team and Luongo weren't booed anymore than usual. The crowd hassled Luongo with the "Luuuu" chant as the Hawks beat up on Lunogo on the ice. That's part of the game.

Yes, there was a chant or two of "U-S-A," but again, that is acceptable.

Patriotic pride is fine, but you should still be classy toward your opponents. Canada won the gold medal game; it wasn't a blowout. The game was close.

The game is over, we have a winner. Be classy about what happened.

Searching for the red Olympic mittens shouldn't be this difficult

One souvenir, besides a lot of amazing memories, from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics is a pair of red mittens. The official Vancouver Olympics mittens are quite a nice item. I personally have seen two different pairs of mittens in person.

The Olympic red mittens were promoted to help fund the Own the Podium program. The Vancouver Olympic Committee received at least $12 million, and $4 million went to Own the Podium.

So if you are inspired to buy a pair of these mittens, you would think it would be pretty easy to get a pair. But apparently, having the Olympics to inspire you to get a pair means it's just about too late. Well, at least to get them at $10.

If you were smart enough to buy them before hand, you could have bought a bunch of them, again for $10. Now, well, that is a different story.

This link is from the official site where you can buy the mittens. Except that you can't buy them anymore.

People who have been watching the Olympics, who would grab the opportunity to get them, are out of luck.

This Google search for shopping for the red mittens shows a number of them available on eBay. You can even buy used mittens for $15 or $25.

Still, it would have been nice to have them legitimately available through the whole Olympic Games.

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A few people have asked me which country I was rooting for in the men's hockey gold medal game — Canada or the United States.

Nobody asked me about the countless other sports in the Olympics, not even women's hockey where the U.S. team was expected to be in the gold medal game. Only men's hockey counted in their minds.

I noted the classic sports phrase, "There's no cheering in the press box."

You could argue that journalists root for a good story, and a 14th gold medal for Canada, and a win on its home soil in the most important sport in the country is a good story.

But figure it this way: if the United States had won, sure there would have been a celebration of some merit. The celebration might have even lasted a few days, but shortly after the winning goal was scored, most Americans would have forgotten there even was a gold medal game until 2014, and hardly even then.

As Canada won, the celebration was visible in Vancouver and not as visible across the country. This is a victory that will be remembered by most Canadians until they die.

No matter which country anyone rooted for, the game was still decided on the ice. And Sidney Crosby, who hadn't scored a point for Canada since the Germany game, had the only shootout goal against Switzerland, and the game winner in the gold medal game against the United States.

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Vancouver celebrated the end of the Olympics, and of course, the gold medal men's hockey win for Canada. But in true Canadian fashion, they handled it well. They were out en masse in the crowd, but they were reasonably well-behaved.

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There were a lot of eyeballs tuning into the men's hockey gold medal game. In the United States, the game was the most watched hockey game in 30 years, drawing 27.6 million viewers. In Canada, with 1/10th the population of the U.S., the TV audience averaged 16.6 million viewers, 26.5 million Canadians watched at least part of the game.

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NBC took a lot of criticism for its decision to dump out of the Closing Ceremony to show a new program and the local news. Paying for the right to carry the Olympics allows for certain privileges, but there should be certain responsibilities. NBC wouldn't dump out of a NFL game with a hour to go, and say we'll carry the rest of it later.

The criticism would have been lighter if the network made it clear what it was doing. All you saw were updates on the screen that a show was coming up. No major announcement, and no expectation that they were going to leave before the show was over.

My beef was that they should have covered the entire ceremony (including the Martin Short part), and not talked over parts of it, (like the Alanis Morissette song). If you have to run the whole thing in the middle of the night, so be it. If NBC can't cover the whole ceremony, then let someone do so.

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Stephen Colbert took one more look at Canada, Vancouver, and the Winter Olympics on Monday. Colbert had a brief interview with his Quebecois persona Stephane Colbert, mocked the Closing Ceremony part where they reinforced the stereotypes the world knows of Canada, e.g., giant inflatable beavers.

Then, we literally went back out to Vancouver where Colbert interviewed Vancouver native Michael Bublé. In the interview, Colbert asked Bublé about why Canada is significant.

Bublé got in some good digs defending his native country: "We're a wonderful distinct nation of people from all different cultures. We're humble, we have a great self-depreciating sense of humor, and we're sexy, as you can see (playing to the crowd)."

Colbert wanted to know why Americans need Canada. "You need our flag to tape on your suitcase when you travel."

Colbert mocked Canadian contribution to music as Men without Hats and Corey Hart, who sang "Sunglasses at Night."

Colbert and Bublé finished with a singing duet of the words to O Canada to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner.

Jon Stewart made a final joke on "The Daily Show" relating to the bets between politicians. Stewart joked that he had made a bet with Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson over the men's hockey gold medal game. The joke was that if the U.S. won, Robertson would ship a case of maple syrup to Stewart. If Canada won, Stewart would send Robertson "a hundred million dollars." But as Stewart joked, the joke was on Robertson because that would be American dollars.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart airs in Canada on the Comedy Channel at 11 pm Eastern and CTV at midnight. Colbert Report airs 30 minutes later on both outlets.

Canada sets Winter Olympic gold medal record, skating past U.S. 3-2 in men's hockey

And then there were 14 — 14 gold medals — to set an all-time record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics. Canada now has the mark, but it had to work for it in the end.

Okay, so Canada didn't win a medal in the 50K cross country skiing final, so it came down to men's hockey to win it all and set the record.

Men's hockey was going to win Canada its 26th medal; the only question was whether it would be gold or silver.

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Sidney Crosby, who hadn't scored a point for Team Canada, since the Germany game, came through when he had too — taking the pass from Jarome Iginla in overtime to drive the puck past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller at 7:40 in overtime to give Canada the heralded gold medal in men's hockey.

Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead, adding Jonathan Toews' (Chicago Blackhawks) first goal of the tournament, but Toews' 8th point of the series at 12:50 in the first period.

Corey Perry (Anaheim) added a second period goal with assists from his Anaheim teammate Ryan Getzlaf along with Duncan Keith (Chicago). And for awhile, Roberto Luongo didn't seem like he needed any more goals.

But true to drama, Luongo's Vancouver teammate Ryan Kesler scored in the second period from an assist from Patrick Kane (Chicago). Then again, if the referees had called offsides, the U.S. rally would have been thwarted.

The score stayed that way until 24 seconds left in regulation when Zach Parise scored to tie the game at 2.

Winning gold medal goalie Roberto Luongo stopped 34 shots, Ryan Miller (Buffalo), who played one tremendous series, stopped 36 shots.

Both countries should be very proud of how they played. But there is room for only one gold medal. In 2010, on home soil, that honor belongs to Canada.

Canada won its 8th gold medal in men's hockey, tying Canada with the Russia/Soviet Union unified team. But a lot of those gold medals came early on: Canada's previous two gold medals were in 1952 and 2002.

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The talk was on how great it was for Canada and the United States to meet in the gold medal game in both men's hockey and women's hockey. But doing so in Vancouver had more significant meaning for having these two countries meet.

There can't have been too many Olympics in a country where it was close to another country. The distance between Vancouver and the U.S. border is about 40 km, or 25 miles. These two gold medal games were between the two best friends, country-wise, in the world as close as you can get to the other country. Well, if the Olympics ever came to Detroit and Windsor, you might see a repeat. But that would have to be summer, not winter games.

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Canada, the United States, and Finland — finished in this order in men's hockey and women's hockey. The Finnish women got their bronze medals on the ice with the other women's teams. The Finnish men received their bronze medals after its game.

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Canada finished third in the overall medal count in Vancouver, as it did in Torino in 2006. This year, Canada had a breakdown of 14-7-5 for 26 medals. The United States (9-15-13 37) and Germany (10-13-7 30) finished ahead of Canada. Team Canada may not have owned the podium, but they did make regular visits. And no country spent more time at the top of the podium than Canada in 2010 — on its home soil.

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With Canada and the United States involved in the two hockey gold medal games, wagers were made between the two governments.

For the women's game, the bet was between Prime Minister’s spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. So now Gibbs has to wear a Team Canada jersey at his next press briefing.

For the men's game, the bet was between their bosses, Prime Minster Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama. The bet was a case — or in Canadian terms, a 2-4 — of beer with either Yuengling (U.S.) or Molson (Canada).

Obama now owes Harper a case of Molson.

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The Closing Ceremony in BC Place got off to a classy start. Catriona LeMay Doan, the one final torch bearer who didn't get to light the torch because of the mechanical failure in the Opening Ceremony, got to light the torch at the Closing Ceremony, all by herself.

Winnipeg band Inward Eye performed next with the snowboarders. Joanie Rochette ended up carrying in the flag for Canada, not Charles Hamelin as had been previously reported.

Canadian native Neil Young played out the extinguishing of the torch with "Long May You Run."

There were so nice tributes to what it means to be a Canadian from acting legends, and Canadians all, William Shatner (Montréal), Catherine O'Hara (Toronto), and Michael J. Fox (Vancouver). Martin Short also gave his tribute, but his performance was left out of the NBC telecast.

Vancouver native Michael Bublé did a magnificent job with his singing during the Closing Ceremony.

The production at the end with giant Mounties, hockey players, beavers, and moose seemed silly, but could be seen as a spectacle of images people have about Canadians. All we needed were giant replicas of maple syrup and Tim Horton donuts.

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One of the pseudo controversies from the Opening Ceremony was there wasn't enough French. The Closing Ceremony was supposed to have more French. One solution seemed to be to start off announcements in French and then have them in English. Whether that accomplished what it set out to do may depend on the beholder.

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NBC had the Closing Party, excerpts from the Closing Ceremony that it didn't want to carry live so it could show the debut of a show we won't give them the pleasure of promoting. So it ran the rest of the celebration an hour later.

This in itself wasn't so bad an idea, though the Opening Ceremony ran live, so it seemed like live made sense.

That hour featured a number of Canadian music artists: Nickleback, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Simple Plan (Montréal), Hedley (Vancouver), and Marie-Mai. Perhaps there were more, but that was all NBC showed.

And a gigantic Boo to NBC for interrupting Morissette with athlete interviews during her song. You are covering an event. This isn't a party where people are just talking during the music. If you don't want to cover the event, shuffle it off to one of your cable channels. Otherwise, show the music.

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A final reminder that even if the Vancouver Olympics are finished, the Paralympics are still to come. More sports action will take place in Vancouver from March 12-21.

Canada ties mark for most gold in Winter Olympics

Canada has tied the record for most gold medals in a Winter Olympics with 13. There is a chance at breaking the mark with men's hockey later this afternoon.

The men's curling team defeated Norway 6-3 to win gold. Norway had cut the Canadian lead to 3-2, but Canada scored 2 in the 7th end to pull away with the win.

Congratulations to Kevin Martin (Skip), John Morris, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert, and Adam Enright along with Coach Jules Owchar.

Jasey-Jay Anderson won gold in the men's parallel giant slalom. Anderson edged out Benjamin Karl of Austria in the Big Final.

Canada won gold in the Men's Team Pursuit with a time of 3:41.37, edging the U.S. team by .21 seconds. Congratulations to the team of Mathieu Giroux, Lucas Makowsky, Denny Morrison, and François-Olivier Roberge.

Team Canada won a bronze medal in Four-man Bobsleigh with a time of 3:24.85, .39 seconds from gold and .01 seconds from silver. Lyndon Rush, David Bissett, Lascelles Brown, and Chris Le Bihan comprised the bronze medal team.

Canada rests at 25 medals (13-7-5). Since there are only two more events — men's hockey and a 50-kilometer men's cross-country race — Canada clinches third place in overall medals. And Canada will have at least 26 medals. Consider that mark, given the U.S. — overall winners in the medal count — will set a record for most medals with at least 37 medals.

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Only two teams has the home country won gold in men's hockey: United States in 1960 (Squaw Valley, CA) and 1980 (Lake Placid, NY). The United States has not trailed in this Olympic tournament.

In 2002, Canada and the United States played for gold in men's and women's hockey at Salt Lake City. Canada won both gold medals.

As badly as Canada played in the preliminaries in 2010, Team Canada was worse in 2002, going 1-1-1 in the preliminaries. But Canada bounced back to win gold 5-2 over the United States.

Yes, the United States beat Canada 5-3 in the preliminaries, defeating Canada for the first time in 50 years. Can the U.S. do it twice? And doing so on Canadian home ice?

The funny part is that each team is trying to make themselves the underdog going into the game. The U.S. has a slight edge going into the game. But after Canada has run through Germany, Russia, and Slovakia to get here, the Canadians have the momentum.

And Team Canada has won without relying on Sidney Crosby. Going into the gold medal game, Crosby only has 6 points. Crosby is one six players with 6 points; two players have 7 points and four players with 5 points. Canada's balanced attack is a true threat to the U.S.

CTV and NBC carry the game live at 3:15 pm Eastern/12:15 pm in Vancouver.

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Kenny Albert did play-by-play for the Canada-Slovakia game Friday night. Apparently, this was a scheduled move, though there doesn't seem to be any reason why Doc Emrick couldn't do a second game on Friday. Once the U.S. won on Friday, Emrick wouldn't be expected (and didn't) to call the bronze medal game. But perhaps there is a reason we missed along the way.

Albert and Joe Micheletti called the bronze medal game, which Finland won 5-3 over Slovakia.

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For those who were wondering about the now infamous Marie-Philip Poulin picture of her holding a beer, here is the picture. Unlike the blog where I found this photo, I knew the drinking age in these provinces.

What I'm not sure about is what the law is in handling alcohol. To give you an example in the United States, where every state has the same drinking age of 21, in Michigan, you can handle alcohol at 18 but can't drink until 21. In Illinois, you can't handle alcohol until you're 21.

Maybe British Columbia law allows Poulin to hold the drink but not drink it.

In Canada, Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec have a drinking age of 18. Elsewhere in Canada, the drinking age is 19. There are some family-noted exceptions for slightly younger ages.

For those in the United States who think it's outrageous that different areas have variations in ages, go back a generation or two. States had the discretion to set drinking ages. That all changed in the 1980s, when President Reagan threatened states with loss of highway funds if they didn't make their drinking age a standard 21.

Canada isn't likely to go down that same path.

And if you want to see the contrast between the United States and Canada in terms of drinking age, come hang out in downtown Windsor, Ontario on a Saturday night, preferably when it's warm. The streets are filled with 19 and 20 year old Americans drinking and going in between bars.

Someday, the U.S. might factor in some sensibility into drinking age policy.

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The men's hockey gold medal game will be followed shortly after by the Closing Ceremony. Once again, the Closing Ceremony will be at BC Place — indoors. Can't speak to the layout of other Olympic settings, but it should be noted that if you attend the men's hockey gold medal game, all you have to do is walk across the way to get to the Closing Ceremony.

Olympic champion Charles Hamelin reportedly will carry the Canadian flag into the Closing Ceremony for the Vancouver Olympics. Hamelin won two gold medals in the 2010 Olympics.

Hopefully, there won't be any hydraulic issues.

Canada leads all countries in gold medals; men's hockey to play U.S. for gold

Only one country has 10 gold medals in these 2010 Winter Olympics — and that is the home country of Canada.

Canada added four new medals, two of them gold. Charles Hamelin won the 500 meters Short Track Speed Skating. That race was significant to the Americans because Apolo Ohno was disqualified for his role in a chain-reaction collision. Hamelin's time was 40.770 seconds, .051 seconds ahead of the silver medalist.

In that race, Francois-Louis Tremblay finished third with a time of 41.326to win the bronze medal.

Hameli, his brother Francois, along with Olivier Jean and Francois-Louis Tremblay won gold in the 5000 meters race with a time of 6:44.224, just .222 seconds ahead of South Korea's silver medal performance.

There easily could have been three gold for the day. The Canadian women's curling team had a 6-4 edge going into the 10th end against defending gold medal champion Sweden. And somehow gave up 2 points, forced an 11th end, and lost 7-6.

The Canadian women went 8-0 in the preliminaries.

Canada now has 21 medals (10-7-4) good for third in overall medals. The United States (34) and Germany (27) are ahead of Canada. And Canada will win at least two more medals.

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When the news came that the 2010 Winter Olympics hockey competition would be on NHL-sized ice and not the wider international ice surface, I instantly thought the Canada and United States squads would have a huge advantage as a result.

Despite this, little did anybody likely predict that the men's hockey final would be Canada and the United States. But here we are.

Canada squeaked out a victory 3-2 over Slovakia, while the United States pounded Finland with 6 first period goals to command a 6-1 win to advance to the gold medal game. Though the game is on Canadian soil, the United States will be the home team in Sunday's game.

Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks) redirected a shot from Shea Weber (Nashville Predators) to score the first goal. Marleau's goal had to be reviewed to make sure his stick wasn't higher than the crossbar (it wasn't).

Brenden Morrow (Dallas Stars) also tipped in a first period goal from Chris Pronger (Philadelphia Flyers).

Ryan Getzlaf added a power-play goal late in the second period to give Canada a 3-0 lead.

Canada outshot Slovakia 28-21. Roberto Luongo had 19 saves. Though Luongo had a rough third period at the end, Luongo and the Canadian defense played well when it counted.

Unlike the U.S. blowout, Canada's win was a nailbiter. Then again, if Sunday's game is close, think about this. The U.S. hasn't trailed in the tournament; Canada knows what to do if it's close, but the U.S. might be a bit rusty.

The two bordering countries play for gold on Sunday. CTV and NBC will have live coverage of the gold medal game; faceoff will start at 3:15 pm Eastern, 4:45 pm in Newfoundland and Labrador, 12:15 pm in Vancouver.

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While the women's curling team fell just short of gold, the Canadian men's curling team is in the gold medal match this evening against Norway.

The men went 9-0 in the preliminaries, including a 7-6 win over Norway.

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The Canadian women's hockey team apologized for its celebration on the ice after the crowds were gone. There was champagne, cigars, and beer.

One of the more amusing sidelines to the story was that Marie-Phillip Poulin, who scored both goals in the gold medal game, was photographed with a beer. Poulin, who is 18, is old enough to drink in her home province of Quebec, and in Alberta, where the team trained. But of course, Poulin was in British Columbia for the Olympics, and the drinking age in that province is 19. Poulin is a few weeks away from her 19th birthday.

You can't get around the fact that what Poulin did was technically illegal, though holding a beer isn't the same as drinking a beer. But instead of pointing out the irony of drinking laws being what they are, or noting that troops are old enough to die in Afghanistan for Canada and the United States, but aren't able to have a beer in most Canadian provinces and all of the United States, we get judgmental reporting.

Imagine if the U.S. women had won, celebrated with alcohol, and one of them was 19 years old. Not old enough to drink in the United States, but old enough for British Columbia. I guarantee you it would have been an issue in the United States, even if no laws would have been broken.

As this reporter notes, given that Poulin grew up in Quebec, chances are this isn't her first exposure to alcohol. Perhaps it's a difference between Quebec culture, Canadian culture, and the American mentality.

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One overlooked point from the NBC coverage of the women's hockey final. I thought it hilarious that Cammi Granato, in assessing the U.S. and Canadian squads before the game, actually gave the edge on defense to the U.S. team. Granato did a fine job in her commentary, and she is a 2-time Olympian. But the idea that the U.S. was the best defense team throughout the tournament wasn't true in reality. And the gold medal game only put an exclamation point on that notion.

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Though we had hoped for the best, one of the subplots when the world shined on Vancouver was that actor Andrew Koenig's body was found in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Koenig was 41.

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There were a lot of great signs among the crowd when Stephen Colbert shot some of his segments outside Science World. "Colbert for Prime MInister." "U-S-eh." "Colbert Nehtion." There were a number of Canadian flags.

There was even a sign pleading to "Bring back the Jets" as in the Winnipeg Jets to the NHL.

The setting might have seen a bit unusual for the outdoor shots, but as it turns out, you couldn't get a prettier picture. They were by the water, you could see the SkyTrain in the background. And the mountains of North Vancouver rose behind Colbert in grand style.

The crowd was incredible to watch. They had to be out there for quite awhile, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves.

And the sunshine. Rain jokes aside, the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce should use that tape to show what Vancouver could look like.

Canada women's hockey wins 3rd straight gold, blanks U.S. 2-0

Joanie Rochette hung onto third place to take the bronze medal in figure skating. Rochette skated with a heavy heart after the loss of her mother. Would be beyond me to know what difference the off-ice events had on the on-ice impact.

Canada remains in fourth, now with 17 medals and 8 of them gold. Only three countries have 8 gold medals. And speaking of gold ...

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Congratulations to the Canadian women's hockey team, winning its third straight gold medal. The clincher was a 2-0 whitewash of the second-best team in the world, the United States.

The Canadian women didn't give up a single goal in the semifinals and finals. In the last two Olympics, the Canadian women's hockey team has given up 4 goals. And only one of those was a 5-on-5 goal — Switzerland in the third period this year. The Canadian women outscored their opponents in this tournament 48-2.

Marie-Philip Poulin, 18, scored both goals for Canada in the first period. Poulin went up high after the pass from Jennifer Botterill at 13:55 in the first. This came shortly after the Canadian defense stopped the U.S. on a 5-on-3 scenario.

A few minutes later, Poulin was on the face-off in the U.S. end just after Jinelle Zaugg-Siergiej got called for tripping in the other end of the ice. The face-off went off Meghan Agosta's stick back to Poulin, who fired a quick shot past U.S. goalie Jessie Vetter at 16:50 in the first period.

Meghan Agosta, who got an assist in Poulin's second goal, finished the tournament with 15 points, and was voted Most Valuable Player by journalists.

The Canadian defense was beyond spectacular. Besides the 5-on-3 they stopped in the first period, the U.S. had another 5-on-3 for 1:38 early in the second period.

And we have to mention the incredible performance by goalie Shannon Szabados, who stopped 28 shots and posted a 3-0 record in the tournament. Kim St. Pierre is the more experienced goalie, but Szabados had the hot hand and came up well when it counted.

This was a very even game: consider that Canada had 29 shots and the U.S. had 28 shots. The difference was Poulin, who may never have to buy a drink in her native Beauceville, Quebec — where the drinking age is 18.

The most memorable stat might be 16,805 — the attendance for the gold medal game. This was the biggest crowd yet in a tournament that drew a record 162,419. The five games at Canada Hockey Place drew over 16,000 fans each game. Most of the tournament was played at the much smaller UBC Thunderbird Arena, drawing crowds just under 5,500.

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The men's hockey team is suddenly the higher seed. The vision of the Canucks home ice featuring the Sedin twins shooting at Roberto Luongo in goal was crushed when Sweden lost to Slovakia 4-3 late on Wednesday.

Marian Hossa (Chicago Blackhawks) is one of the better known Slovak players, having played for Stanley Cup runners-up Pittsburgh and Detroit the last two years, along with last season's Norris Trophy winner 6'9" Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins). Montréal goalie Jaroslav Halak may be the difference if Slovakia pulls off the upset. Slovakia upset Russia in the first round in a shootout win.

The U.S. plays Finland at 3 pm Eastern; Canada at Slovakia at 9:30 pm. CTV carries both games. NBC carries the U.S. game live coast-to-coast, and CNBC carries the nightcap game.

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Stephen Colbert finishes up his coverage in Vancouver. Colbert had a "Cheer Up Canada" video after deriding them for not owning the podium. After ending the video with the U.S. beating Canada, Colbert apologized again and took "Canadian Iceholes" off the On Notice board. Colbert had place them there when the Vancouver Olympic folks were accused of preventing the U.S. team from practicing in Olympic facilities.

To start the show, Stephen said, "I've got Olympic Fever. Either that, or I ate some really bad poutine."

Snowboarding gold medal winner Seth Wescott was interviewed in the outdoors setting. Colbert came out with a snowboard with his own likeness on it.

Wescott got a cheer from the Canadian crowd when he said he refused to meet with George W. Bush after winning gold in Torino in 2006.