phelps

gotta love this farce (and crash festival)...

no, it's not... it looks that there have been issues with the NPB's Yomiuri Giants (tenants of the stadium), who are supposed not to play any of their home games during the Olympics, but they've not been assured of that by the League itself yet, so they haven't found any agreement with the Tokyo Organizing Committee

a-ma-zing!!! what a night of hockey! both SUI vs SWE and CAN vs FIN were just unbelievable...and Swiss and Finns recorded 2 of the biggest upsets in the world junior champs history... earlier, after the tournament opener, I wrote that the Swiss goalie Hollenstein in that match has been the weakest figure of his team...well, yesterday instead he's been the hero of a game to be remembered for the ages by Switzerland, he just outclassed the Swedish forwards for the entire 60 minutes... fun facts: SWE are 48-0 in the last 12 years in the preliminary group matches and they haven't been shut out a single time since Dec. 26th, 2006... yesterday SUI ended this unbelievable streak and made history... meanwhile FIN won a game at the world juniors on Canadian soil for the first time ever, after 11 losses in the 11 previous meets between them... and they did it in style, tying the game with only 46 seconds to go in regulation and with their goalie neutralizing a penalty shot in the OT... and who cares if after those 2 matches, the other 2 quarters were not even close in terms of emotions given to the audience... CZE vs USA was also a promising one, but the Czechs were once again really disappointing...the US boys dominated from the beginning to the end and only a very good goalie like Dostal kept them in the game for the whole 60 minutes, but at the same time they never gave the impression of being able to close the gap between the teams... so, only the last few minutes were quite exciting, even if the Czechs never had a true big chance to score the tying goal... no need to say anything about RUS vs SVK...too big the difference in all the aspects of the game... so far, I still think that FIN is the best team, but RUS now must be considered the favourite to win it all... my heart instead is all for the Swiss boys...Hopp Schwiiiiitz!!!

and after that, did they play this song in the arena?

yeah, I saw the match on the Czech TV (delayed replay, not live, of course) and it was really funny, to say the least... I must admit I've never seen anything like that (never read about the VHL episode earlier this year)...and I also never thought it was possible... so, it's never too late to learn something new... p.s. by the way, I also found this: "According to the official IIHF rule guidebook, here is how referees are instructed to handle two (or more) penalty shots awarded on the same play: “If the referee signals a penalty shot, and before the play is whistled because of a goal or to call the penalty shot another foul is assessed to the same team, the additional penalty will be assessed regardless if the skater scores on either the play or the subsequent penalty shot.” — IIHF Rule 1164 (iv) [IIHF.com] “Should two penalty shots be awarded to the same team at the same stoppage of play (for two separate fouls), only one goal can be scored. Should the first penalty shot result in a goal, the second penalty shot is automatically cancelled, but the appropriate penalty is assessed for the second infraction. If the first shot is unsuccessful, the second shot is taken. The order of the penalty shots will be decided by the order of the infractions during game action.” — IIHF Rule 1169 (vi) [IIHF.com] Essentially, because Lehmann was fouled by Samorukov but still maintained possession of the puck, play was allowed to continue. Samorukov taking Lehmann down a second time, on the same play, warranted a second penalty shot — but Switzerland would only have one goal count, regardless. It didn’t really matter, because Switzerland didn’t score on either penalty shot." p.s. @Dmitry thanks for the info about the previous "double penalty shot" episode... p.p.s. personally, I think it's a very weird rule...imho, they should go with a penalty shot for the first infraction and then 2-min penalties for every subsequent foul... 2 shots (of which only 1 would count anyway) are just senseless to me...

St.Petersburg hosted this week the 2018 FIDE Chess Rapid & Blitz World Championships The titles went to Daniil Dubov in the men's Rapid class, Ju Wenjun in the women's Rapid class; Magnus Carlsen in the men's Blitz class and Kateryna Lagno in the women's Blitz class... here you can find all details and results of both competitions: Chess Rapid* World Championships Chess Blitz** World Championships * = time control of 15 minutes + 10-second increment per move (from move #1) per player ** = time control of 3 minutes + 2-second increment per move (from move #1) per player

Dominik Fischnaller, Andrea Voetter and Ludwig Rieder/Patrick Rastner are the Italian champions in their respective category for the 2018/2019 season... Dominik won a close race with a 0.1 sec margin over his cousin Kevin in the men's single; Andrea won the women's single with a wider margin (over 2/10 of a second) over the young Verena Hofer (Nina Zoeggeler ended up in 5th place); Rieder & Rastner won the doubles' competition, which turned out to be the most exciting of the entire day, with only 17/1000 of a second advantage over the youth world champions, Ivan Nagler/Fabian Malleier (and also Emanuel Rieder/Simon Kainzwaldner, who ended up in 3rd place, were very close, just 61/1000 of a second outside the winning time)... p.s. the races were held in Oberhof (GER) as in Italy we're still without a track (even a modest one, good just for a few national races)...

facial trauma, broken nose and a broken tooth for Klemen Kosi after his nasty fall in Bormio earlier this morning... most likely he won't start tomorrow in the scheduled Super-G...

another tactical battle (euphemism...big euphemism...actually, another boring slow pace match) in Davos...Kuopio upset Metallurg 1-0 after OT and win the Torriani group, so they have a rest day tomorrow and will be back in 2 days already at the semifinal stage... this year we're definitely not seeing our usual Spengler Cup, with high scoring games and the most classic athmosphere of an exhibition tournament (this said by a big fan of close and low scoring games...but at least once a year it would be good to enjoy something different)...

quick info... all games from the World Juniors are available on-demand in full lenght on the TSN (Canadian TV) website (max picture quality 576p/Mbps only, unfortunately)... at least here in Italy it's all available, no geo-blocking (delayed games only, no live pictures, of course) and full Chromecast support...here: TSN On-Demand p.s. also the Spengler Cup games are available on-demand (meanwhile no NBA basketball, EPL soccer nor NCAA football)...

talking of weird and redundant formats... p.s. by the way, thanks a lot...I should have checked it out personally...but, as I always write, I'm too lazy...and in these days my laziness it's even more extreme...

nice game between CZE and SUI, with the Swiss that take only 1 point away, but with a lot of regrets, as they were definitely the most dangerous team through the 60-min regulation... only a great game by the Czech goalie Dostal denied them the 3 points in the standings, meanwhile the Swiss netminder Hollenstein was the weak side for his team (I'm not saying he's responsible for the 2 Czech goals, but for sure he wasn't perfect...and not only in those 2 situations)... Slovakia...almost, but not quite... still, they got close to another upset of the mighty US team... quite surprised by the Swedish victory over Finland (I really thought that FIN this time has the best team of the tournament)... no comment on the Canadian mercyless destruction of Denmark (but I think the Europeans have the most responsibility for that to happen, even if I didn't watch the game)...