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By Budd Foxx

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 2010, XXI, Winter Olympic games are here. The last time Canada hosted a Winter Olympics was back in 1988 in Calgary. Ironically, the Calgary Flames were the Stanley Cup Champions for the 1988 season. Well, 1988-89. Back when Terry Crisp was the head coach. 1988 was also the year Patrick Kane was born, the star forward for the Chicago Blackhawks, and a recent addition to this year’s USA Olympic hockey squad.

The 1988 USA squad had some notable players on the team, Brian Leetch, Tony Granato, Mike Richter, and Corey Millen, who ended up being the top scorer that year for the team. The Soviets finished first, followed by the Fins, Swedes, Canada, West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and then the US. Now how is this for Irony. Finland actually beat the Soviets on the final day, earning them the Silver Medal. No, that is not a typo, they earned the silver medal despite a 2-1 win over Russia. Russia racked up enough wins prior to that game that it was pretty much meaningless for them to even play, the gold was already theirs. For Finland, the game mattered as they earned the silver, but it doesn’t make sense.

Just like when Sweden beat Canada in the 1994 Olympics, when it was Peter Forsberg who got the winning goal, but it was a shootout goal. I don’t think important games should be decided by shootouts. The NHL has adapted a 4 on 4 overtime now to open up the ice and make it easier for a team to score. If there is no winner after the 5 minute 4 on 4, then it goes to a 3 man shoot-out, until there is a winner. That is fine with me because that format is only for regular season games, and the loser still earns one point in the OTL column (Overtime loss). But in the playoffs, it goes back to a 5 on 5 20-minute overtime until somebody scores a goal. Even in this past World Cup for soccer, or football depending on what country you are reading this in, Italy was awarded the trophy for defeating France, but they won by a shoot-out, or penalty kicks. I just don’t believe strongly in awarding medals, trophies, or championships with penalty shots or kicks. I also don’t believe in awarding championships based on regular season, or pool standings.