the mad sports man

on this day 93 years ago was the opening ceremonies for the first Winter Olympic games, held in Chamonix, France. it was held from January 25 to February 5. it was initally know as "International Week of Winter Sport." a year later it was decided that it would be renamed the first Winter Olympics and to be held every 4 years. the first gold went to Charles Jewtraw of the U.S. in the 500m speed skating event. two unique situations happened at these games. 1. figure skater Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden defended his summer Olympic gold from 1920 (figure skating was a summer Olympic sport. i don't get it either) and 2. the Canadian ice hockey team also defended it's summer Olympic gold from 1920. (ice hockey was also a summer sport. i still don't get) it was also the last summer sport defended in the winter games. it was the first time a host nation failed to win a gold on home soil. France had three bronze. it would also happen at the 1928 winter Olympics...

a wicked snow storm in the New York area produced two feet of snow, but that did not stop 334 people getting to the Brendan Byrne arena to see the New Jersey Devils beat the Calgary Flames 7-5. the start of the game was delayed until 9ET when both teams, officials and fans arrived at the game. there were vehicles that were still stuck on the roads that day. someone working for the arena went around the arena to get the adresses of all the fans that made it and "334 club" was started. the seats weren't closed off so the people sat anywhere in the arena. Doug Sulliman scored three goals for the Devils in the win. shown here is a couple of news clippings and a ticket stub of the game.

it turned into a blow out in the third quarter. the New England Patriots are in the super bowl for the second time in three years as they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-17 and will face the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51 in two weeks. should be a good game. game is February 5th in Houston and will start at approx. 4:30pm Edmonton time

this one was pretty much done by halftime. the Atlanta Falcons blew out Green Bay to the tune of 44-21. Green Bay didn't mount much of an offense. Atlanta will be in the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history. they lost Super Bowl 33 to Denver. who will Atlanta face? find out in 3-4 hours.

the Pittsburgh Steelers hung on to this one, beating the Kansas City Chiefs 18-16. the Steelers got all of their points on field goals. they gave up a late touchdown to the Chiefs, but the game tying two point conversion failed after a penalty. ouch. the Steelers will be heading to New England to face the Patriots next Sunday at 4:40pm Edmonton time, while Green Bay at Atlanta is at 1:05pm Edmonton time.

for the first three quarters Green Bay was dominating. Dallas made a furious comeback in the 4th to eventually even the game at 31-31. Aaron Rodgers makes a hell of a hail mary pass that was barely caught in bounds. that set up the game winning field goal as Green Bay wins 34-31 and will go to Atlanta to face the Falcons for the NFC Championship game.

after a pretty close first half, New England pulled away enough to a 34-16 win over Houston and will host the AFC Championship game against either Kansas City or Pittsburgh. even with Tom Brady's four interceptions they still pulled it out. the AFC Championship game is a week from tomorrow.

after falling behind early, Matt Ryan got going and the Atlanta Falcons ended up owning the Seattle Seahawks, winning 36-20 in the first NFC divisional game. they will play either Dallas or Green Bay in the NFC Championship game a week from tomorrow. coming up has Houston at New England.

the Green Bay Packers will be heading for Dallas after throttling the N.Y. Giants 38-13. Aaron Rodgers threw for 4 td's and Randall Cobb caught three of them in the win. the Packers and Cowboys will be next Sunday.

the Pittsburgh Steelers ran away with this beating the Miami Dolphins 30-12. Le'Veon Bell broke Franco Harris' rushing record in the process. Pittsburgh will travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs on the 15th while the Houston Texans goes to New England to face the Patriots on the 14th. coming up has the N.Y. Giants at Green Bay with the winner going to Dallas to face the Cowboys on the 15th.

it was a close game until the 4th quarter until the Seattle Seahawks score 16 points to knock out the Detroit Lions 26-6 in the NFC wild card game. defence was steady as well. they will be going to Atlanta for the NFC divisional game. stay tuned.

the Houston Texans are into the divisional round after beating the Oakland Raiders 27-14. the defence showed up and owned it here. Brock Osweiller had a game of his own as well and scored a touchdown of his own. who will they play? stay tuned and find out tomorrow. coming up: Detroit at Seattle.

what a game this was and it went to a shootout. the U.S. wins it in the shootout with the only goal in the shootout. after they were down two goals TWICE. Canada ends up with the silver. congrats to the U.S.

Russia takes bronze beating Sweden 2-1 in overtime. the overtime didn't even go a minute. wow. i think the goal was on a turnover as well. coming up in about 40 minutes - Canada vs U.S.

after giving up two weak goals on three shots, Canadian coach yanks Connor Ingram for Carter Hart and the move paid off. Hart stopped everything since and Canada came back to beat Sweden 5-2 to face the U.S. for gold tomorrow nignt, while Sweden has to play for bronze vs Russia. wow Sweden has been to the semi finals 11 straight years and won gold once. so there is tomorrow's final two games. Russia vs Sweden for bronze at 1:30pm Edmonton time and Canada vs U.S. at 5:30pm for gold. both games tomorrow.

this one went to a shootout. Tyler Terry was a scoring machine in the shootout and Tyler Parsons was clutch in the net during the shootout as the U.S. beat Russia 4-3. wow. Tyler Terry's shootout performance was a bit like Jonathon Toews a few years ago. Tyler Parsons came up huge in the net when he needed the big save in the shootout. the U.S. will play for gold and Russia for bronze. both are tomorrow. coming up: Sweden vs Canada.

Finland beat Latvia in game two of the relegation 4-1 and will finish the tournament in 9th place. Latvia will be relegated to division 1A for next years tournament. Belarus will be in Buffalo for next years tournament, moving up from division 1A.

this was a nail biter. Czech rep. scored the first goal of the game and led 1-0 after one, then it turned into a see-saw game. Canada pulls it out and wins 5-3 and will go to the semi finals against Sweden Wednesday night at 5:30pm Edmonton time. the U.S. and Russia semi final game is at 1pm Wednesday afternoon Edmonton time.

the United States barely hung on to win over Switzerland 3-2. the U.S. went up 2-0 after the first period. Swizterland took over and had a flurry of chances - even had the game tied at two for a few seconds before the U.S. scored again - to even it late in the game. the U.S. will face Russia in one semi final game. coming up has Canada vs Czech Republic with the winner facing Sweden in the other semi final game.

Sweden pretty much ran away with this one winning 8-3, although Slovakia made a game of this, scoring three in a row to make it 5-3 before Sweden responded and scored the last three. Sweden is in the semi finals for the 11th year in a row. they will face either the Czech Republic vs Canada game.

Russia beat Denmark 4-0 to open the quarterfinal round. Russia was just stronger today. first goal was scored right from center ice. they will play either the U.S. or Switzlerland. coming up has Sweden vs Slovakia. earlier Finland beat Latvia 2-1 in game one in the best of three relegation series.

the Green Bay Packers vs Detroit Lions game will decide who will get the NFC North, the 4th seed and a wild card date with the N.Y. Giants and the 6th seed and a wild card date with the Seattle Seahawks. all other matchups and byes are set. the rest of the NFC has Dallas (NFC East) and Atlanta (NFC South) with first round byes. Seattle won the NFC West and third spot. the Giants have one of the wild card spots and 5th spot. in the AFC, the New England Patriots (AFC East) and Kansas City Chiefs (AFC West) have first round byes. the Pittsburgh Steelers (AFC North) has the third seed and will face the Miami Dolphins (second wild card, 6th seed) in one wild card game. the other wild card game has the Houston Texans (AFC South, 4th seed) and Oakland Raiders (5th seed, first wild card). dates to be determined later. UPDATE: Green Bay 31 Detroit 24. Green Bay wins NFC North, has 4th seed and will face the Giants in one wild card game and Detroit will face Seattle in the other.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!! fireworks going off downtown. pretty good show so far. i hope everyone has a great start to the new year. Cheers. happy 2017.