alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Southwest Airlines willing, I will be back in Los Angeles in a couple hours, and I’m scheduled to do a video chat with Dustin Brown from Vancouver. Do you have any questions for him? Previous Brown chats — posted here — have covered the early parts of Brown’s Olympic experience, but since then he has played a couple very meaningful games and is now getting ready for the medal round. Feel free to post any questions you might have for Brown, and I’ll post the chat ASAP. Practice for Kings non-Olympians starts tomorrow, so we’ll be back to normal blog posting!
Archive of entries posted by Rich Hammond
USA vs. Canada
It’s a big day in Vancouver, as the United States faces Canada at 4:40 p.m. Pacific time. Other games are Russia vs. Czech Republic at noon and Sweden vs. Finland at 9 p.m.
Today is the final day of preliminary-round play. The top four teams earn a bye to the quarterfinals, and if play was already over now, those four teams would be Finland, USA, Czech Republic and Sweden. Of course, their respective opponents can play themselves into byes today, so it should be a very interesting day. Qualification games — for those teams that didn’t earn a bye — will be Tuesday, with the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Canada’s youngest player, Drew Doughty, continues to shine. Doughty is expected to partner with Duncan Keith today, and coach Mike Babcock said, “I think the steadiest guy may have been (Shea) Weber and I think (Drew) Doughty and (Duncan) Keith really picked up their games last game because they relaxed more and started playing and skating. It appears to me that the guys that can really skate have been the best.”
Finally…
Brown video chat 2
Dustin Brown is back for a second video chat from Vancouver, with Jim Fox. Check it out below. Is everyone gearing up for the USA-Canada game today?
Today in Vancouver (Feb. 19)
Following yesterday’s thrilling men’s hockey games — Canada beat Switzerland and Slovakia beat Russia in shootouts by scores of 2-1, and the United States beat Norway 6-1 — it’s a lighter day today. It’s Belarus vs. Sweden at noon, Czech Republic vs. Latvia at 4:30 p.m. and Finland vs. Germany at 9 p.m. On the women’s side, Monday’s semifinals have been set, with the United States vs. Sweden and Canada vs. Finland.
Curling, you ask? Well, the United States men lost again yesterday, 7-6 to Denmark, so it’s not looking good there. Canada continues to roll, with two wins yesterday, and it faces Denmark today while the United States plays France.
Don’t forget to join the new Facebook group
Morning reading
Before Slovakia’s big 2-1 shootout victory over Russia last night, Michal Handzus did an interview with LAKings.com…
Heidi Androl is also in Vancouver and has blogged about her experiences so far…
Finally, the Wall Street Journal today did a piece of the U.S. hockey team, which includes a quote from Jack Johnson…
Where are they?
Where are some of the Kings spending the Olympic break? Sean O’Donnell planned a trip to Hawaii, while Oscar Moller was going to stay home in Southern California and take care of his and his roommates’ Labrador puppy. Terry Murray was on his way back to the New England area to visit his daughters. There were a couple other trips planned, but it seemed as though most folks were staying close to home, since practice starts up again (for the non-Olympians) on Wednesday afternoon in El Segundo.
Dustin Brown video chat
Want to know how things are going for Dustin Brown in Vancouver? Brown did a video chat with Jim Fox, and you can see it by clicking below…
New blog Facebook page
I’m happy to (finally) announce that there is a Facebook page for the LAKingsInsider.com blog, so please sign up and join the community! The blog should feed there as well — albeit on a slight delay — and you can also post pictures…
Today in Vancouver (Feb. 18)
On the men’s ice hockey side, it’s a big day as the United States plays Norway at noon, Canada plays Switzerland at 4:30 p.m. and Slovakia plays Russia at 9 p.m. Last night, Slovakia lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic last night, and Michal Handzus had one shot on goal.
And don’t forget the curling side, as the U.S. men — [edit] after a narrow loss to Switzerland — face Norway. Favorites Canada and Great Britain each play twice today.
Olympic videos
For those who weren’t there — I’m not certain if it was on TV or not — I’ll embed below the video of the Olympic “sendoff” ceremony after Saturday’s Kings-Avalanche game. There are other videos at Kings Vision and more Olympic coverage at lakings.com/olympics.