JIM LANG ON SPORTS

BY: JIM LANG
FOR RODPEDERSEN.COM

• OLYMPICS
This break from the regular NHL schedule is a lot better than I thought it would be. A big reason for that has been the amazing work by the Canadian athletes at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

To paraphrase Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street”; winning works. Winning cuts through everything and makes us feel good.

Winning gold medals makes all of us feel even better. Canadians from coast-to-coast are walking a little taller this week after watching our Olympians win so many medals in the first few days of the winter games.

I didn’t know a whole lot about the Dufour-Lapointe sisters before these games but I sure know a heck of a lot about them now. Our whole family cheered as the two sisters held hands and shed tears during the playing of our national anthem.

I screamed my head off as Charles Hamelin won Gold in that crazy, wild sport of short track speed skating.

I loved watching the old master, Alex Bilodeau, show the young lion, Mikael Kingsbury who is still the king of Men’s Moguls.

I am one of those people who feel it is alright to be a little more patriotic than usual during the Olympics. I know one thing is for sure, our Olympians inspire our youth.

My oldest daughter is in competitive swimming and my youngest is in competitive gymnastics as a result of being inspired by watching the Olympics.

You can be sure that there is some young Canadian that watched the Dufour-Lapointe sisters or Charles Hamelin and told their parents that want to train to be a moguls skier or a short track speed skater.

The week got even better Tuesday morning as 19 year old Dara Howell of Huntsville, Ontario kicked some serious butt in the women’s ski slopestyle event.

Even with all of this success I am not sure anything made me more proud to be Canadian than the selfless act of sportsmanship portrayed by Justin Wadsworth. In the middle of the Men’s Cross Country sprint event a Russian skier fell. He was banged up and, much worse, one of his skis was broken. True to the Olympic spirit Anton Gafarov was doing everything possible to finish that race.

Witnessing Gafarov’s issue Wadsworth ran out onto the course while the race was going on and hooked him up with a new ski. That is what the Olympics are really all about. I was thrilled to see the story went viral and was picked up by every major news organization around the planet.

If I ever see Wadsworth I would like to buy him a beer and say “thanks”.

Then there is the story of speed skater Gilmore Junio. This is a guy who knows the true meaning of “team”. Junio stepped aside to allow Denny Morrison to take his spot in the 1000 metre men’s speed skating event.

This is what Junio said in a press release when he announced his decision:

“I believe it’s in the best interest of the team if [Morrison] races,”

Well that unselfish decision resulted in a freaking Silver medal for Morrison. Gilmore Junio, not only do you have a great name, you are a hell of a good Canadian.

When Scott Russell of the CBC had them both on he sent out the following Tweet: First thing @Denny_Morrison said..”Let’s vote for @cdnhappygilmore for closing Flag Bearer”

Don’t get me wrong, I love athletes who let it all hang out and do whatever it takes to win a medal.

But the reality is that only a fraction of the athletes we sent over to Sochi will end up coming home with a medal. For many of them this will be the one and only time they ever represent Canada in the Olympics.

That’s why I have the utmost respect for what Gilmore Junio did. It also obvious that Junio has forever earned the respect of Morrison and the rest of the Canadian Olympic contingent for, as he said, doing what was in the best interest of the team.

We are not even a full week through the Sochi Winter games and our athletes have already given us so much to be proud of.

• OLYMPIC HOCKEY

I realize I might be flirting with disaster, but I really hope Team Canada faces the USA in the Gold Medal game for women’s hockey. The game I witnessed Wednesday morning was one of the most physical women’s hockey games I have ever seen.

Please sir, can we have some more.

That leads us to the Men’s team; more specifically, Carey Price. I get a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I think about Price between the pipes in a do-or-die medal game.

In his career Price has a goals against average of 2.90 in the playoffs. His playoff save percentage is .905. Now maybe he will prove me wrong. Maybe Price will be able to elevate his game to the talent around him and lead Canada to glory in Sochi.

Going into this tournament I rate Finland and the USA as having better goaltending than Canada. I would rate the Russians goaltenders equal to the Canadians.

But if the 1998 games in Nagano proved anything, it proved a great goalie (Hasek) can get into a groove and carry a team all the way to the Gold Medal.

Up front and on the back end Team Canada is so stocked with talent it is ridiculous.

But in a tournament like this all it takes is one bad goal to cost a team a game. Or even worse, cost them a medal.

With Canada facing Norway and Austria to start the tournament Mike Babcock has the luxury of time to figure out which goalie he plans on riding the rest of the way.

I fully expect Roberto Luongo to get the start for Team Canada on Sunday when they face Finland.
If that happens, Team Canada will sink or swim with good old Bobby Lou.

(Follow Jungle Jim Lang on Twitter at @JimLangSports)