Friday, February 22, 2002

Remote Control

By ROB BRODIE -- Ottawa Sun
 Some warmup for the really big game, eh?

 Then again, it'll be interesting to see CBC's ratings for last night's women's hockey gold-medal game at the Salt Lake Olympics.

 Bet on them being huge.

 No, it wasn't the game and the gold medal that's been talked about endlessly for months by fans and media in this country. But it was hockey all the same. You know Canadians watched it in droves.

 It brought emotions soaring to the forefront when our girls in red and white humbled the favoured Americans right in their backyard, for the biggest prize of all.

 We saw it in the eyes of players who had to live with the disappointment of Nagano for four years.

 A telling picture showed coach Danielle Sauvageau, so calm in the face of a wave of penalties called against her team, with tears running down her cheeks as O Canada played in their honour.

 We heard it in the voice of Cassie Campbell, who dissolved into tears as she recalled Nagano in a post-game interview with CBC's Terry Leibel.

 And in the words of Hayley Wickenheiser who had these sharp words for the Yanks: "We heard they had our flag on the floor of their dressing room. Now I want to know if they want us to sign it!"

 Emotional? Very.

 But hey, it was hockey.

 And a golden TV moment for anyone who watched it.

 GAMES TALK:

  Gold-hungry Canadian hockey fans aren't complaining about today's semi-final against Belarus -- on paper, a far easier chore than a rematch with Sweden. But credit CBC's Kelly Hrudey with offering up this dose of honesty yesterday: "It was a neat story that Belarus won (against Sweden). But it didn't make the tournament any better." ... Rogers Sportsnet deserves a hand for giving the Canadian women's hockey team strong play throughout the Games ...

 LOWS:

  Here is all you need to know about how hockey is viewed in Canada and the U.S. CBC carried the women's gold-medal game live through the medal ceremonies. NBC shunted the game off to one of its cable partners, CNBC -- even though the Americans were heavily favoured to win. NBC, instead, went with extended coverage of the free skate final in ladies' figure skating -- always a top audience draw south of the border during a Winter Olympics. But CBC still managed to squeeze both in during its coverage.

 TODAY'S BEST BETS:

 Men's hockey semi-finals, Canada-Belarus and U.S.-Russia. Canadians will care much more about the first game, but the second should be the classic.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

2002 Games News Coverage