the mad sports man

 Spring began at 8:46 am Prince Albert time. It's definitely felt like it the past few days. Supposed to cool off starting this weekend. And some snow.

 This one went to overtime. #11 VCU beat #6 North Carolina 82-78. Will there be another tonight? Stay tuned.

 Didn't take long to get it. #12 High Point (where?) beat #5 Wisconsin 83-82. There may be more. Who knows when.

  Its the time of the year where everyone is Irish for the day. People wearing green, drinking green beer, or green juice, the Chicago River is green. Enjoy the day.

 Three tidbits. 1. Brazil won its first ever winter Paralympic medal in cross country skiing men's sprint. It was a silver by Cristian Ribiera. 2. Latvia also won its first ever winter Paralympic medal, it was a bronze in mixed doubles curling. Polina Rozkova and Agris Lasmans. 3. Canada was the first team to go undefeated in the wheelchair curling 4 team event. Mark Ideson, Jon Thurston, Ina Forrest, Collinda Joseph and alternate Gil Dash won gold here. There are your 3 Paralympic tidbits.

 The speeches have been made. Flame is out. Performances were made. The 2026 are officially finished. Another Olympic and Paralympic adventure is done. Canada finishes with 3g, 4s, 8b for 15 total. Next stops: Los Angeles for the 2028 summer games and French Alps for the 2030 winter Games.

 The United States beat Canada 6-2 for para hockey gold. Clearly the better team today. Canada finishes the Paralympics with 3g 4s 8b for 15 total. Coming up - the closing ceremony.

 Kalle Ericsson and guide Sierra Smith have a bronze in slalom vision impaired. It's their 3rd medal. That is now 3g, 3s, 8b for 14 total. And one more to come in pata hockey.

 The flag bearers will be Natalie Wilkie and Mark Ideson. Ideson found out after receiving his gold. Wilkie won 4 medals. Closing ceremony is tomorrow.

 First the bronze. Michaela Gosselin has a bronze in the standing slalom. This medal is also the 200th Paralympic medal. Now the gold. The wheelchair curling team beat China 4-3 to claim gold and go undefeated at the same time. So now that is 3g, 3s, 7b for 13 total.

 Natalie Wilkie has her FOURTH medal of the games, this one a gold in the sprint pursuit. That is now 2g, 3s, 6b for 11 total.

 Both bronze. First Brittany Hudek in the women's 10k cross country skiing. Second is Mark Arendz in the men's 10k cross country skiing. That is now 1g, 3s, 6b for 10 total.

 Natalie Wilkie has her third medal of the games. It's a bronze in women's cross country sprint standing.  That is now 1g, 3s, 4b for 8 total. Yes!!!

 Kalle Ericsson and guide Sierra Smith have another bronze (also their second), this one in the visually impaired super G downhill. That is 1g, 3s, 3b for 7 total.

 .... Matt Dunstone of Manitoba. Him, Colton Lott, EJ Harnden, Ryan Harnden and alternate Jacob Horgn defeated Kevin Koe and his team 6-3 to win his first Brier. Dunstone will represent Canada at the men's worlds later in the month in Ogden City, Utah.  Congratulations.

 Three more medals. First the bronze. Tyler Turner wins it in the para snowboard cross. Next the gold. Natalie Wilkie wins it in the women's para biathlon individual. Now the silver. Mark Arendz wins it in the men's para biathlon individual. That is now 1g, 3s, 2b for 6 total.

 A silver and a bronze. The silver is from Natalie Wilkie in para biathlon and the bronze is from Kurt Oatway in para sit skiing. Yippee!! That is 2s, 1b for 3 total.

 .......a silver in men's downhill visually impaired. Kalle Ericsson and guide Sierra Smith have it. Great start. More to come.

 The flame has been lit, speeches made, formalities are done. 55 nations at the ceremony. A pretty good opening ceremony today. 9 days of competition to begin. Canada with 50 athletes here. Let's go.

 They are Tyler McGregor and Natalie Wilkie . McGregors 4th games and Wilkies 3rd. Opening ceremony is next Friday.

 The flame is out. Closing speeches made. Last medals handed out. Handover made. The winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina D'ampezzo are officially done. Next up the 2028 summer games followed by the 2030 winter Games in the French Alps.

 The US wins gold in men's hockey, beating Canada 2-1 in overtime. That finishes competition with  5g, 7s, 9b for 21 total. Coming up are the closing ceremony.

 ... Valerie Maltais and Steven Dubois. Both have won medals here. Congratulations to both.

 The team of Brad Jacobs, Mark Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert and alternate Tyler Tardi has won men's curling gold, beating Great Britain 9-6. Yippee. That is now 5g, 6s, and 9b for 20 total. Yes!!

 This in the women's mass start. It's Ivanie Blondin who gets the silver. That is now 4g, 6s and 9b for 19 total. We're finishing with over 20. 

 The team of Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes and alternate Rachelle Brown have a bronze medal after beating the United States 10-7 in the bronze medal game. That is now 4g 5s and 9b for 18 total.

 The 1989-90 NHL season had 21 teams and an 80 game schedule. Highlights include: 1. June 16 1989, St Louis signs Curtis Joseph. 2. January 20 1990, Bernie Nicholls traded to New York Rangers. 3. January 30 1990 Wayne Gretzky records 11th straight 109 point season. 4. March 31 1990, Brett Hull sets right wing record with 72nd goal of season. 5. October 15, 1989 Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howe for most NHL points. 6. December 6 1989, Larry Robinson records 200th career goal without recording a 20 goal season. 7. June 15, 1989, Adam Oates traded from Detroit to St Louis. Bernie Federko goes to Detroit.  8. March 31 1990, Joe Sakic first to record 100 points with a last place team. 9. Quebec first to use 7 goalies in a season. Playoffs. DSF: Boston 4 Hartford 3, Montreal 4 Buffalo 2, New York Rangers 4 New York Islanders 1, Washington 4 New Jersey 2, Chicago 4 Minnesota 3, St Louis 4 Toronto 1, Los Angeles 4 Calgary 2, Edmonton 4 Winnipeg 3. DF: Boston 4 Montreal 1, Washington 4...

 This from Brendan McKay. Sweet. That is now 4g, 5s, and 8b for 17 total. More to come.

 Valerie Maltais has a bronze to her collection, this one in the 1500m speed skating event. That is now 4g, 5s, 7b for 16 total.

 Canada way two minutes away from winning, until the US ties it at one. The US just won gold in overtime 2-1. Canada settles for silver. That's now 4g, 5s, 6b for 15 total.

 Steven Dubois has just won gold in the men's 500m short track speed skating race. His second medal here and Canada's 4th. That's now 4g, 4s, 6 b for 14 total.

 The team of Courtney Sarault, Kim Boutin, Florence Brunell and Danae Blais has taken bronze in the short track 3000m relay. Woohoo. That is now 3g, 4s, 6b for 13 total. And more coming.

 The speed skating team of Valerie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidman has Canada's third golf, beating the Netherlands in the pursuit final. That is now 3g, 4s, 5 b for 12 total. Yeeeees!!!!

 Meghan Oldham has a gold medal in freestyle skiing big air. This after some gusty and snowy conditions delayed it. That is now 2g, 4s and 5b for 11 total. Let's get more.

 Courtney Sarault now has a silver in her collection in the women's 1000m speed skating.  Now it's 1g, 4s and 5b for 10 total. Excellent 

 Yes, Canada has a gold and it's Mikael Kingsbury in moguls dual. Won it convincingly I think. That is now 1g, 3s, 5b for 9 total. Hopefully more.

 This to Laurent Dubreuil in the men's 500m. This after missing the podium by 0.03s in 2022. That is now 3s and 5b for 8 total.

 This one to Courtney Sarault in the women's 500m. Came from behind to get the medal. That is now 3s and 4b for 7 total. 

 This silver goes to Eliot Grondin. Missed gold by 3/100th of a second. That is now 3s and 3b for 6 total.  Good day so far

 Mikael Kingsbury has a silver in moguls. He was tied with an Australian for first. Tiebreaker was highest turns score (?) and the Aussie had it. That is now 2s and 3b.

 Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier have a bronze in the ice dance part of figure skating.  Tessa's. That is now 1s and 3b for 4 total. Yippee!!!

 The mixed team of Courtney Sarault, Kim Boutin, Florence Brunell, Felix Roussel, William Dandjinou and Steven Dubois have a silver in the short track mixed relay race. That is now 1s and 2b for 3 total. Woohoo.

 Meghan Oldham has Canada's second bronze, this one in snowboarding slopes style. Two bronze so far at these games.

 It was Seattle Seahawks from the start. Took to the 4th quarter to get some touchdowns. Jason Myers had 5 field goals - a super Bowl record. Defense had 7 sacks and caused 5 turnovers. A complete game. The Seahawks beat the New England Patriots 29-13 to win Super Bowl LX and their second ever one.  Congratulations to the Seahawks.

 Valerie Maltais has Canada's first medal, and it's bronze in the women's 3000m speed skating medal. Nice way to start.

 The cauldron has been lit. Speeches have been made. The parade of nations were 92 nations long. The opening ceremony was pretty good, spread out through four locales.  The lighting of the cauldron was one of the neater ways of lighting.  The games have officially underway. Enjoy the next 16 days.

 The two replacements are Victor Primeau and Skye Clarke, replacing Alexandre Duchaine and Olivia Asselin due to injuries to Duchaine and Asselin.  The addition is Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt in cross country skiing. 

 The flag bearers for Canada are Marielle Thompson and Mikael Kingsbury. Great choices I think. Winter Olympics are a week from Friday.

 We start with the ski cross team. They are: Brittany Phelan, Hannah Schmidt, Marielle Thompson, Kevin Drury, Reece Howden, Gavin Rowell and Jared Schmidt. Now the alpine team. They are: Cameron Alexander, Jack Crawford, Jeffrey Read, Brody Seger, Kiara Alexander, Cassidy Gray, Valerie Grenier, Justine Lamontagne, Ali Nullmeyer, Britt Richardson, Amelia Smart, Laurence St Germain. Good luck in Italy all.

 6 lugers here. They are: Trinity Ellis, Embyr-Lee Susko, Kailey Allan, Beattie Podulski, Devin Wardrope and Cole Zajanski. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here is the bobsled team. They are: Cynthia Appiah, Melissa Lotholz, Bianca Ribi, Kelsey Mitchell, Dawn Richardson Wilson, Skylar Sieben, Niamh Haughey (sub), Edin Wilson (sub), Taylor Austin, Jay Dearborn, Keaton Bruggeling, Yohan Eskrick-Parkinson, Shaq Murray-Lawrence, Luka Stoikos, Mark Zanette Chris Homestead. Good luck in Italy all 

 Here's the rest of the snowboarders. Parallel giant slalom: Kaylie Buck, Arnaud Gaudet, Ben Heldman, Aurelie Moisan.  Snowboard cross: Evan Bichon, Tess Critchlow, Eliot Grondin, Audrey McManiman, Liam Moffatt, Maryeta O'Dine, James Savard-Ferguson (alternate). Halfpipe: Brooke D'Hondt, Felicity Geremia, Elizabeth Hosking. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here are the 8 biathletes heading for Italy. They are: Adam Runnalls, Zachary Connelly, Jasper Fleming, Logan Pletz, Nadia Moser, Pascale Paradis, Benita Peiffer and Shilo Rousseau. Good luck in Italy.

 3 will be going down head first. They are: Josif Brusic, Jane Channel and Hallie Clarke. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here's the team representing Canada at the Paralympics from March 6-15. They are: Corbin Watson, Adam Kingsmill, Tyrone Henry, Shawn Burnett, Rob Armstrong, Auren Halbert, Mathieu Lelievre, James Dunn, Zach Lavin, Tyler McGregor, Adam Dixon, Greg Westlake, Vincent Boily, Dominic Cozzalino, Liam Hickey, Anton Jacobs-Webb, Micah Kovacevich. Good luck in Italy all 

 They are as follows: Aerials: Alexandre Duchaine, Miha Fontaine, Lewis Irving, Emile Nadeau, Marion Thenault. Halfpipe: Amy Fraser, Dillan Glennie, Rachel Karker, Andrew Longing, Brendan McKay, Dylan Marineau, Cassie Sharp. Moguls: Laurianne Desmarais -Gilbert, Mikail Kingsbury, Ashley Koehler, Jessica Linton, Maia Shwinghammer, Elliot Vaillancourt, Julien Wiel. Slopestyle: Olivia Asselin, Dylan Deschamps Elena Gaskell, Evan McEachern, Megan Oldham, Naomi Urness. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here's the ski jumping team . They are: Abigail Strate , Mackenzie Boyd- Clowes, Natalie Eilers and Nicole Maurer. Good luck in Italy all

 It's hockey day in Canada. This year, Moncton NB is the host. Today's games has New York Islanders at Calgary starting shortly, Montreal at Ottawa at 6, Toronto at Winnipeg at 6 and Edmonton at Vancouver at 9. All times Prince Albert time. Enjoy. Update: Calgary 4 Islanders 2 Update 2: Montreal 6 Ottawa 5 (ot) Toronto 4 Winnipeg 3 (ot) Update 3: Edmonton 6 Vancouver 0. That's it for another hockey day in Canada.

 Here is the big air and slope style snowboarding team. They are: Mark McMorris, Laurie Blouin, Cameron Spalding, Juliette Pelchat, Eli Bouchard and Francis Jobin. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here is the long track speed skating team. They are: Ivanie Blondin, Laura Hall, Carolina Hiller-Donnely, Rose Laliberte-Roy, Beatrice LaMarche, Valerie Maltais, Brooklyn McDougall, Isabelle Weidman, Ted Jan Bloeman, Cedrick Brunet, Laurent Dubreuil, Antoine Gelinas- Beaulieu, Daniel Hall, Anders Johnson and David La Rue. Good luck in Italy all.

 Here is the figure skating team. They are:1. ice dance: Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier, Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha, Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Legacy. 2. Pairs: Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud. 3. Women: Madeline Schizas 4. Men: Stephen Gogolev. Good luck in Italy.

 What a day. LA Rams beat Carolina 34-31 and Chicago beat Green Bay 31-27. Two good games to start. Opponents TBD. Tomorrow has Buffalo at Jacksonville, San Francisco at Philadelphia and LA Chargers at New England. Stay tuned.

 Here is the Canadian women's hockey team. They are: Ann-Renee Desbiens, Emerance Mashmeyer,  Kayle Osborne, Erin Ambrose, Renata Fast, Sophie Jaques, Jocelyne Larocque, Ella Shelton, Kati Tabin, Claire Thompson, Emily Clark, Sarah Fillier, Jenn Gardiner, Julia Gosling, Brianne Jenner, Emma Maltais, Sarah Nurse, Kristin O'Neill, Marie-Philip Poulin, Natalie Spooner, Laura Stacey, Blayre Turnbull and Daryl Watts. Good luck in Italy.

 It got interesting the last three minutes of the game. Sweden wins 4-2 (empty better) to win for the first time since 2012. Wow. It was also the first time they played each other for gold. Czech Republic last gold was 2001. Its Sweden 3rd ever gold. Congratulations Sweden.

 Pretty good game here. Canada wins the bronze, beating Finland 6-3 to win their 6th bronze. Coming up has Sweden vs Czech Republic for gold.

 Czech Republic beat Canada 6-4 to play Sweden for gold. Sweden beat 4-3. This one went 8 rounds in the shoot out. Czech Republic played Canada very well tonight, giving Canada very little. Canada vs Finland for bronze is at 3:30 Prince Albert time, Czech Republic vs Sweden for gold at 7:30 Prince Albert time. Final day is near.

 Canada just finished knocking out Slovakia to the tune of 7-1. Yikes. They will play Czech Republic, who beat Switzerland 6-2. Sweden beat Latvia 6-3 and will face Finland, who beat the United States 4-3 in overtime. Sweden vs Finland at 3:30 Prince Albert time and Canada vs Czech Republic at 7:30 Prince Albert time. Both games on Sunday. Also Germany beat Denmark 8-4 to stay up in the top division. Denmark is relegated.

 Happy 2026. I hope it's a good year for you. Have a great one.