the mad sports man

another epic between canada andthe u.s. on new years eve. and yet the difference was one as canada beat the u.s. 3-2. canada shut dowm the best powerplay in the tournament and zach fucale was great in net. next stop: a quarterfinal matchup (byes have been done away with). the match up will depend on the finland vs switzerland game. right now its 3-2 for switzerland early in the third. we know one match up - sweden vs slovakia. sweden won group b while slovakia finished 4th in group a. canada, the u.s and czech rep finished 1st 2nd and 3rd. stay tuned.

canada barely beat slovakia 5-3 in what was a pretty good game. canada was pretty sloppy the first half of the game. they were 5 on three shorthanded twice allowing slovakia to go up 3-1. slovakia has a pretty good powerplay that is now 7 for 13. canada started their comeback with a late goal in the second to make it three to two. they then score three in the third to pull it out. united states stil lead the pool with 9 pts, with canada at 7, slovakia and germany each have three, but germany has one extra game played, and czech republic with two. tomorrow its canada vs united states for the pool and slovakia and czech repubic will be fighting to get to the quarters.

the last day of the nfl regular season had a load of teams looking to make the playoffs. with philly jsut beating dallas, the following wild card matchups are as follows: on saturday the kansas city chiefs go to indianapolis to play the colts while the new orleans saints go to philadelphia to play the eagles. on sunday the san diego chargers travel to cincinnati to take on the bengals and the san francisco 49ers head to the frozen tundra of lambeau field of green bay to play the packers. awaiting the winners in the divisional round is teh denver broncos, new england patriots, seattle seahawks and carolina panthers. the road to super bowl XLVIII starts now.

the czech republic beats canada 5-4 in a shootout. the czechs i think was the better team today. i think they wanted the game more than canada. four different times the czechs had the lead and canada tied it. next game for canada is against slovakia on monday while the czechs also play monday against germany. after two games, the u.s. has 6 pts, canada with 4, slovakia with 3, czech rep with 2 and germany with 0.

the annual boxing day tradition has begun in malmo, sweden as canada put a 7-2 beating over germany. germany kept it close in the first period, even scoring the first goal. canada was a tad shaky for the first fifteen minutes of the game, then poured it on. anthony mantha had a hatrick in the game. next game for canada is saturday morning here against the czech republic. coverage on tsn starts at 9am. meanwhile germany plays slovakia tomorrow.

merry christmas to all readers and all friends wherever you are. and dont party too much.

winter has officially started today. i am not sure of the exact time it started or will start. and naturally it is a tad chilly here. it is -17 at the moment. just looked it up. come christmas day it is supposed to get to -7 which isn't bad. don't freeze.

it was an absolute fantastic show last night. stuart mclean was at his absolute best with his dave and morley stories - two new ones plus an old one. he even started the second half of the show with a few snipits of old christmas stories, like dave puttung up christmas lights on the roof and getting his tongue stuck on the antenna, dave cooking the turkey, dave raising another turkey, the fruitcake and polly anderson. there was some music involved as well with john sheard on piano and the good lovelies singing. the good lovelies is a three woman band. sounded pretty damn good. i cant remember who was on the base. quite the show. the two new stories provided some laughs and hysterics with dave's hijinks with a difribulator in one story and how to be at two parties at once and all the snacks and everyone ending up at polly andersons house. anyways the vinyl cafe can be heard on cbc 740 am on the radio at noon on sunday afternoons in edmonton. times maty be different elsew

brad jacobs and his team has punched their ticket to sochi with an 8-4 win over john morris of b.c. jacobs ran the table winning all 8 of his games (seven round robin and the final didn't need to play the semi). congrats to jacobs, ryan fry, e.j. harnden, ryan harnden and alternate matt dumontelle. good luck to you and jennifer jones team in sochi. you will represent canada well.

jennifer jones of winnipeg manitoba will be represting canada at the sochi winter olympics with an 8-4 win over sherri middaugh at the canadian olympic curling trials - otherwise known as the roar of the rings. congrats to jones, kaitlyn lawes, jill officer, dawn mccewen and alternate kristen mccuish. tomorrow is the mens final between brad jacobs and john morris. the winner will be the mens curling rep at sochi.

looking forward to the weekend. sunday night is the capper as i go to see stuart mclean and the vinyl cafe - where the motto is 'were not big, but were small' his dave and morley stories are on sundays at noon on cbc radio. i think the repeats are tuesday nights at 11pm but i am not sure. stuart is on his christmas tour and began his alberta part tonight in calgary, is in banff tomorrow and edmonton for two shows on sunday - one at 2:30 and one at 7:30. the evening show i am attending. on top of that my christmas shopping is almost complete. got one more to get. but that can change. roomies are fun sometimes that way. despite the extreme wind chill warning, it should be good. there is a chance the wind chill could reach -40c. high level had that extreme already. could have been worse there i do not know. i do know someone there who would know.

holy cow what a cold start to december already. got slammed with a snow storm on monday - again. it took a couple of days to get to -20c as a high. it was -11 monday, and -13 yesterday. and highs of -24c for tomorrow and friday. it supposed to get to the mid minus teens by the weekend. might get a white christmas yet.