Olympics: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Because no one wants to return to real life quite yet, a gratuitous Olympics post is in order.

The Good:

• 14 Gold, 7 Silver, 5 Bronze: The Men's Hockey Team did what they had to do yesterday: win gold so that the other 13 champions wouldn't be drowned out by the nation tearing its hair out. Go Canada Go.
• Joannie Rochette: Courage, personified.
• Consortium Wall to Wall Coverage: Want to see the first qualifying run for the women's ski cross? No? We'll show it to you anyway. I don't think there was a single event they failed to cover. Choice is good.
• The Hockey Panel: Sure Bob Mackenzie occasionally looked like he wanted to punch Nick Kypreos in the face, but they provided decent insight and actually had some nice debates.
• Humour at the Closing Ceremonies: From Shatner to the giant beavers, Canadian comedy at its self deprecating best.
  

The Bad:

• 4th and 5th Place Finishes: Being fourth or fifth best in the world at something is an amazing achievement. Unfortunately, there are no medals awarded for such achievements.
• The Death on The Track: Words don't really add up here.
• The Opening Ceremonies: I didn't know something could be boring and alienate half the country at the same time.
• Canadian Pop Stars: My ears, my precious ears! No wonder NBC cut away... speaking of NBC:
• NBC's Olympic Coverage: Commentary of NBC's Olympic coverage has been taped and will be aired at some point in the future. You already know it sucked.
• Holding the Winter Games in Spring: I love Vancouver, but they don't get winter out there.

The Ugly:

• Alpine Canada and the Rest of Canada's Crumbling Medal Hopefuls: Alpine Canada came home with a giant goose egg. Only a couple of more games and they can join Jeremy Wootherspoon in Canadian Olympic lore.
• Wayne Gretzky's Pick-Up Truck Adventure: Open the door? Nah. Provide Security? Nah. Make sure this route is quick? Nah.
• Jack Layton's Camera Mugging: Truly disgusting.
• Sportsnet Play-by-Play People: Gerry Dobson is a poor play-by-play guy for soccer games, which is what he specializes in. What made them think he'd do better at Alpine? Jamie Campbell isn't good enough to call a Jays blow out in the dog days of summer, but the ideal candidate to call Canada's first gold medal at home?
  
• The Foreign Press: The less than perfect start gave much of the foreign press the idea that these games were going to be the worst ever. They started writing that narrative and continued in spite of all evidence to the contrary.