phelps

OK...last weekend I watched Alpine Skiing and Snowboard last world cup events before the Olympics, Golf (US PGA Tour), Futsal Europeans and of course the Superbowl... in the last couple of days I focused once again on Futsal, then the Ice Hockey Champions League final and a couple of NHL games... today is the traditional "detox" day before the great, crazy fortnight... from tomorrow, it's almost only Winter Olympics for the next 18 days (I'm gonna make just an exception for the semis and the final of the Futsal Europeans and for the Juventus vs Tottenham match in Champions League)... however, my day -1 schedule is quite "light"... I'm not gonna spend the night in front of my TV...and I'm going to catch up with the men's downhill 1st training and a bit of curling round #1 in the morning... then I go live with the Qualifying Round of the Ski Jumping and in the afternoon I'll try to watch also another curling match from session #2 (probably the one involving my Swiss friends)...

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Short Track Speed Skating Men's 1500m Day 1 February 10th, 2018 Charles Hamelin X Samuel Girard Shaoang Liu Saolin Sandor Liu Sjinkie Knegt Lim Hyuo Jun X Seo Yi-Ra Hwang Dae Heon X John Celski Any Other Athlete Luge Men's Singles Day 2 February 11th, 2018 Reinhard Egger Wolfgang Kindl X Samuel Edney Andi Langenhan Felix Loch Johannes Ludwig Dominik Fischnaller X Kevin Fischnaller Kristers Aparjods Semen Pavlichenko Roman Repilov X Tucker West Any Other Athlete Speed Skating Men's 5000m Day 2 February 11th, 2018 Bart Swings Ted-Jan Bloemen Patrick Beckert Moritz Geisreiter Nicola Tumolero Andrea Giovannini Sven Kramer X Jan Blokhuijsen Bob de Vries X Peter Michael Sverre Lunde Pedersen X Lee Seung-Hoo Any Other Athlete Speed Skating Women's 1500m Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Any Athlete from Canada Any Athlete from Germany Miho Takagi X Lotte van Beek Marrit Leenstra Ireen Wust X Heather Bergsma Brittany Bowe Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Athlete X Luge Women's Singles Day 4 February 13th, 2018 Alex Gough Kimberley McRae Dajana Eitberger Natalie Geisenberger X Tatjana Huefner Raluca Stramaturaru Martina Kocher Summer Britcher X Erin Hamlin X Emily Sweeney Any Other Athlete Figure Skating Mixed Pairs Day 5 February 15th, 2018 Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya Harley Windsor Megan Duhamel Eric Radford Julianne Seguin Charlie Bilodeau Sui Wenjing Han Cong X Yu Xiaoyu Zhang Hao Vanessa James Morgan Cipres Aliona Savchenko Bruno Massot X Any Pair from Italy Any Pair from Italy Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov X Natalia Zabiiako Alexander Enbert Alexa Scimeca Knierim Chris Knierim Any Other Pair Any Other Pair Skeleton Men's Skeleton Day 6 February 16th, 2018 Any Athlete from Canada Christopher Grotheer Axel Jungk Any Athlete from Great Britain Martins Dukurs X Tomass Dukurs X Nikita Tregubov Alexander Tretiakov Sungbin Yun X Matt Antoine Any Other Athlete Skeleton Women's Skeleton Day 7 February 17th, 2018 Janine Flock X Kim Meylemans Jane Channell Mirela Rahneva Elisabeth Vathje Tina Hermann X Jacqueline Loelling X Laura Deas Lizzy Yarnold Kimberley Bos Elena Nikitina Any Athlete from United States Any Other Athlete Figure Skating Men's Singles Day 7 February 17th 2018 Patrick Chan Jin Boyang Moris Kvitelashvili Oleksii Bychenko Yuzuru Hanyu X Shoma Uno X Denis Ten Mikhail Kolyada Dmitri Aliev Javier Fernandez X Nathan Chen Adam Rippon Misha Ge Any Other Athlete Speed Skating Men's 500m Day 8 February 19th, 2018 Alex Boisvert-Lacroix Mika Poutala Nico Ihle Any Athlete from Japan Kai Verbij Ronald Mulder X Jan Smeekens Havard Holmefjord Lorentzen X Any Athlete from South Korea Any Athlete from United States Any Other Athlete X Bobsleigh Women's 2-Man Day 9 February 21st, 2018 Elfje Willemsen Kaillie Humphries X Alysia Rissling Mica McNeill Mariama Jamanka Anna Koehler Stephanie Schneider Nadezhda Sergeeva Sabina Hafner Jamie Greubel Poser X Elana Meyers Taylor X Any Other Athlete Freestyle Skiing Men's Ski Cross Day 9 February 21st, 2018 Any Athlete from Austria Any Athlete from Canada Jean-Frederic Chapuis X Terence Tchiknavorian Francois Place X Arnaud Bovolenta Paul Eckert Victor Oehling Norberg Viktor Andersson Marc Bischofberger X Alex Fiva Any Other Athlete Short Track Speed Skating Women's 1000m Day 10 February 22nd, 2018 Kim Boutin Marianne St-Gelais X Elise Christie Arianna Fontana X Yara van Kerkhof Suzanne Schulting Lee Yu-Bin Choi Min-Jeong Shim Suk-Hee Any Other Athlete X Figure Skating Women's Singles Day 11 February 23rd, 2018 Loena Hendrickx Gabrielle Daleman Kaetlyn Osmond X Carolina Kostner Satoko Miyahara Kaori Sakamoto Elisabet Tursynbayeva Evgenia Medvedeva X Maria Sotskova Alina Zagitova X Mirai Nagasu Bradie Tennell Any Other Athlete Freestyle Skiing Women's Ski Cross Day 11 February 23rd, 2018 Sami Kennedy-Sim Andrea Limbacher Kelsey Serwa Brittany Phelan Marielle Berger Sabbatel X Alizee Baron Debora Pixner Sandra Naeslund X Fanny Smith X Any Other Athlete Speed Skating Women's Mass Start Day 12 February 24th, 2018 Ivanie Blondin X Any Athlete from China Elena Moeller Rigas Claudia Pechstein Francesca Lollobrigida X Francesca Bettrone Any Athlete from Japan Irene Schouten Annouk van der Weijden Any Athlete from United States X Any Other Athlete Snowboarding Men's Parallel Giant Slalom Day 12 February 24th, 2018 Alexander Payer Andreas Prommegger Benjamin Karl X Radoslav Yankov Jasey-Jay Anderson Sylvain Dufour Roland Fischnaller Edwin Coratti X Mirko Felicetti Rok Marguc Lee Sang-Ho Nevin Galmarini X Andrey Sobolev Any Other Athlete Snowboarding Women's Parallel Giant Slalom Day 12 February 24th, 2018 Julia Dujmovits X Claudia Riegler Ina Meschik Ester Ledecka X Ramona Hofmeister X Selina Jörg Carolin Langenhorst Gloria Kotnik Julie Zogg Ladina Jenny Ekaterina Tudegesheva Alena Zavarzina Any Other Athlete Bobsleigh Men's Four-Man Day 13 February 25th, 2018 Benjamin Maier Justin Kripps Chris Spring Francesco Friedrich X Johannes Lochner X Nico Walther Oskars Kibermanis Oskars Melbardis X Yunjong Won Rico Peter Any Athlete from United States Any Other Athlete Curling Women's Tournament Day 13 February 25th, 2018 Canada X China X Denmark Great Britain X Japan South Korea Sweden Switzerland United States Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Curling Men's Tournament Day 13 February 25th, 2018 Canada X Denmark Great Britain Italy Japan Norway South Korea Sweden X Switzerland X United States [/hide]

wow! nice...

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Cross-Country Skiing Women's 15km Skiathlon Day 1 February 10th, 2018 Theresa Stadlober Kerttu Niskanen Krista Parmakoski Marit Bjoergen X Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen Heidi Weng X Justyna Kowalczyk Charlotte Kalla X Stina Nilsson Nathalie von Siebenthal Jessica Diggins Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Athlete Ski Jumping Men's Normal Hill Individual Day 1 February 10th, 2018 Stefan Kraft Markus Eisnbichler Richard Freitag Andreas Wellinger X Junshiro Kobayashi Anders Fannemel Johan Andre Forfang X Robert Johansson Dawid Kubacki Kamil Stoch X Piotr Zyla Any Athlete from Slovenia Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Men's 30km Skiathlon Day 2 February 11th, 2018 Alex Harvey Matti Heikkinen Iivo Niskanen Maurice Manificat Alexey Poltoranin Hans Christer Holund Emil Iversen Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo X Martin Johnsrud Sundby X Calle Halfvarsson Marcus Hellner Dario Cologna X Alexander Bolshunov Sergey Ustiugov Any Other Athlete Ski Jumping Women's Normal Hill Individual Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Chiara Holzl Daniela Iraschko-Stolz Katharina Althaus X Juliane Seyfarth Carina Vogt Any Athlete from Italy Yuki Ito Sara Takanashi X Maren Lundby X Any Athlete from Slovenia Irina Avvakumova Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Men's Sprint Classic Day 4 February 13th, 2018 Ristomatti Hakola Iivo Niskanen Any Athlete from France Federico Pellegrino Eirik Brandsdal Pal Golberg Emil Iversen X Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo X Teodor Peterson X Oskar Svensson Alexander Bolshunov Gleb Retivykh Sergey Ustiugov Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Women's Sprint Classic Day 4 February 13th, 2018 Krista Parmakoski Maiken Caspersen Falla X Kathrine Rolsted Harsem Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg Heidi Weng Anna Dyvik Hanna Falk X Stina Nilsson X Laurien van der Graaff Sadie Bjornsen Sophie Caldwell Jessica Diggins Natalia Nepryaeva Any Other Athlete Nordic Combined Men's Normal Hill+10km Day 5 February 14th, 2018 Wilhelm Denifl Luka Klapfer Ilka Herola Eero Hirvonen Francois Braud Maxime Laheurte Eric Frenzel Fabian Riessle X Johannes Rydzek Alessandro Pittin Akito Watabe X Espen Andersen Jarl Magnus Riiber Jan Schmid X Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Women's 10km Freestyle Day 6 February 15th, 2018 Theresa Stadlober Kerttu Niskanen Krista Parmakoski Riitta-Liisa Roponen Marit Bjoergen X Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen Heidi Weng X Charlotte Kalla X Sadie Bjornsen Jessica Diggins Anastasia Sedova Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Men's 15km Freestyle Day 7 February 16th, 2018 Alex Harvey Matti Heikkinen Maurice Manificat Andrew Musgrave Alexey Poltoranin Hans Christer Holund Johaness Hoesflot Klaebo X Simen Hegstad Krueger Martin Johnsrud Sundby Calle Halfvarsson X Marcus Hellner Dario Cologna X Alexander Bolshunov Sergey Ustiugov Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Women's 4x5km Relay Day 8 February 17th, 2018 Finland X Germany Italy Norway X Sweden X Switzerland United States Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Nation Ski Jumping Men's Large Hill Individual Day 8 February 17th, 2018 Stefan Kraft Markus Eisnbichler Richard Freitag Andreas Wellinger X Junshiro Kobayashi Anders Fannemel Johan Andre Forfang Robert Johansson Dawid Kubacki Kamil Stoch X Piotr Zyla Any Athlete from Slovenia Any Other Athlete X Cross-Country Skiing Men's 4x10km Relay Day 9 February 18th, 2018 Finland France Germany Italy Kazakhstan Norway X Sweden X Switzerland Any Olympic Athl. from Russia X Any Other Nation Ski Jumping Men's Team Day 10 February 19th, 2018 Austria Czech Republic Finland Germany X Italy Japan Norway X Poland X Slovenia United States Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Nation Nordic Combined Men's Large Hill+10km Day 10 February 19th, 2018 Wilhelm Denifl Luka Klapfer X Ilka Herola Eero Hirvonen Francois Braud Maxime Laheurte Eric Frenzel Fabian Riessle Johannes Rydzek Akito Watabe X Espen Andersen Jorgen Graabak Jan Schmid X Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Women's Team Sprint Day 11 February 21st, 2018 Finland Germany Italy Norway X Slovenia Sweden X Switzerland Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Nation X Cross-Country Skiing Men's Team Sprint Day 11 February 21st, 2018 Canada Estonia Finland France X Germany Italy X Norway X Poland Sweden Switzerland United States Any Olympic Athl. from Russia Any Other Nation Nordic Combined Men's Team (Large Hill + 4x5km Relay) Day 12 February 22nd, 2018 Austria X Finland France Germany X Italy Japan Norway X Poland United States Any Other Nation Cross-Country Skiing Men's 50km Mass Start Classic Day 13 February 24th, 2018 Sergei Dolidovich Alex Harvey X Matti Heikkinen Iivo Niskanen X Alexey Poltoranin X Hans Christer Holund Johaness Hoesflot Klaebo Sjur Roethe Martin Johnsrud Sundby Calle Halfvarsson Dario Cologna Alexander Bessmertnykh Sergey Ustiugov Any Other Athlete Cross-Country Skiing Women's 30km Mass Start Classic Day 14 February 25th, 2018 Theresa Stadlober Kerttu Niskanen Krista Parmakoski Aino-Kaisa Saarinen Masako Ishida Marit Bjoergen X Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg X Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen Heidi Weng X Justyna Kowalczyk Anna Haag Charlotte Kalla Nathalie von Siebenthal Any Athlete from United States Anastasia Sedova Any Other Athlete [/hide]

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Women's 7.5km Sprint Day 1 February 10th, 2018 Darya Domracheva Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier X Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer X Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina X Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 10km Sprint Day 2 February 11th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade X Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe X Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete X Women's 10km Pursuit Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Darya Domracheva Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen X Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier X Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer X Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 12.5km Pursuit Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade X Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer X Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe X Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete Women's 15km Individual Day 4 February 14th, 2018 Darya Domracheva X Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen X Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer X Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 20km Individual Day 5 February 15th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade X Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe X Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen X Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete Women's 12.5km Mass Start Day 6 February 17th, 2018 Darya Domracheva X Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen X Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier X Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 15km Mass Start Day 7 February 18th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder X Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade X Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe X Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete 2x6km Women's + 2x7.5km Men's Mixed Relay Day 8 February 20th, 2018 Austria Belarus Czech Republic Finland France X Germany X Italy Norway X Slovakia Sweden Switzerland Ukraine Any Other Nation Women's 4x6km Relay Day 9 February 22nd, 2018 Belarus Canada Czech Republic France X Germany X Italy X Norway Poland Slovakia Sweden Ukraine Any Other Nation Men's 4x7.5km Relay Day 10 February 23rd, 2018 Austria X Canada Czech Republic France X Germany Italy Norway X Slovenia Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United States Any Other Nation [/hide]

yeah, I didn't consider the Alpine Skiing downhills (here in Europe most TV stations will show all 3 training runs live, also for the women's event)... for Luge training runs, frankly I don't remember...but it's surely my fault...

and it's Italy 1-2-3 in the second training session for group B... but surprisingly, it's not D-Fisch on top of our team (actually, he's only 3rd), it's his cousin Kevin... and really unexpected good runs also from Emanuel Rieder, who's been quicker than D-Fisch also in the 2nd run... still very, very competitive is also Chris Mazdzer from the USA... meanwhile the Russian are all half a second behind this time round (Repilov being always the best among them by more than 1/10 of a second)... however, I guess the start numbers helped the Italians (they were the last 3 to start, when the temperature was surely dropping minute after minute at that time of the night)... so, after day 1 of training, Kindl, Gleirscher, Repilov and the Italians (maybe also Mazdzer) look to be the most consistent medal candidates...but I still believe that the Germans won't be as bad as they looked today when it really matters (especially if temperature and humidity should raise a bit, as expected in the next few days)... in any case, we have a real chance...and this is enough for me at this point... p.s. however, if the track (and the Germans) conditions stay the same as today, this would make the women's race also very interesting (and possibly give the US girls a real shot at beating the Germans)...

[hide] Women's Tournament Preliminary Round February 10th - February 15th, 2018 8 Nations, 2 Groups, the 1st and 2nd Nations from Group A will qualify for the Semifinals, the 3rd and 4th Nations from Group A and 1st and 2nd Nations from Group B will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the 3rd and 4th Nations from Group B will qualify for the 5th-8th Places Semifinals Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 11th 2018, h. 16:40 Finland 5 United States February 11th 2018, h. 21:10 Canada 4 Olympic Athletes form Russia February 13th 2018, h. 16:40 Canada 4 Finland February 13th 2018, h. 21:10 United States 4 Olympic Athletes from Russia February 15th 2018, h. 12:10 United States 2 Canada February 15th 2018, h. 16:40 Olympic Athletes from Russia 2 Finland Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 10th 2018, h. 16:40 Japan 3 Sweden February 10th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland 7 South Korea February 12th 2018, h. 16:40 Sweden 9 South Korea February 12th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland 1 Japan February 14th 2018, h. 12:10 Sweden 3 Switzerland February 14th 2018, h. 16:40 South Korea 4 Japan Men's Tournament Preliminary Round February 14th - February 18th, 2018 12 Nations, 3 Groups, the 1st Nations from each Group and the best 2nd ranked Nation between all Groups will qualify for the Quarterfinals, the other Nations will qualify for the Round of 16 Group A Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 15th 2018, h. 21:10 Czech Republic 5 South Korea February 15th 2018, h. 21:10 Switzerland 2 Canada February 17th 2018, h. 12:10 Canada 1 Czech Republic February 17th 2018, h. 16:40 South Korea 4 Switzerland February 18th 2018, h. 16:40 Czech Republic 2 Switzerland February 18th 2018, h. 21:10 Canada 4 South Korea Group B Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 14th 2018, h. 21:10 Slovakia 3 Olympic Athletes from Russia February 14th 2018, h. 21:10 United States 3 Slovenia February 16th 2018, h. 12:10 United States 1 Slovakia February 16th 2018, h. 16:40 Olympic Athletes from Russia 6 Slovenia February 17th 2018, h. 21:10 Olympic Athletes from Russia 1 United States February 17th 2018, h. 21:10 Slovenia 2 Slovakia Group C Date & Time (GMT +9) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 February 15th 2018, h. 12:10 Finland 4 Germany February 15th 2018, h. 16:40 Norway 2 Sweden February 16th 2018, h. 21:10 Finland 3 Norway February 16th 2018, h. 21:10 Sweden 3 Germany February 18th 2018, h. 12:10 Germany 2 Norway February 18th 2018, h. 21:10 Sweden 1 Finland [/hide]

well, he is the Olympic Silver medallist from Salt Lake City 2002...not just a former athlete like many others...

well, tonight's jumps say that the Norwegians (who missed the first session) are well in the hunt, too... Forfang and Johansson seem to like this hill a lot... and also Hayboeck is having a good session... p.s. Freitag's improving too...

wow! the Austrians seem to have found the magic touch on this track... right now, they look well in front of the rivals, but I don't trust the Germans too much...I want to see all the training sessions before leaving them outside the medal candidates group... however, Kindl is scaring me a lot... Sochowski also is a very pleasant surprise...I hope he can deliver in the actual race, too (training sessions are not the same thing)... I can't wait for the Group 2 results (take notice that those timings shouldn't be compared with Group 1, since the time difference between the the 2 groups is way too long and the track and weather conditions would change too much between them)... p.s. the track looks way faster than last year...in both the first training sessions the best time is 7/8 tenth of a second quicker than the official track record (held by D-Fisch)...

no, not at all... it's 3 per NOC in all individual events except for the women's 5000m/men's 10000m and the Mass Start Races, where only 2 athletes per NOC are allowed to start... and of course there's only 1 team per NOC in the team pursuit (but this is quite obvious)...

it looks like it's gonna be a Stoch vs Wellinger affair for the Gold medal, with Kubacki just ahead of a bunch of serious contenders for Bronze... but it's still early...

unfortunately no training events are covered by live streaming/TV pictures...

no, this time I'm not going for the night watch... I hope, as I wrote before, to be able to manage the time difference through the on-demand features of the Eurosport Player for the European night events... and I rely on my sat dish for the European day activity, which I'm gonna follow live, of course...

being in Italy, of course I can't have access to the British Apps features...I can watch only the sat channels (I did enjoy so much the 8 BBC HD channels during the Rio Games...they were my primary source for watching the Olympic events normally ignored by the Italian TV)... p.s. I don't recommend the Italian colour buttons' features to anybody... I hope the Eurosport Player would do most of the job this time (but frankly I don't like its not so good picture quality...it's just a 720p stream with relatively low bitrate for my taste...I'm used to HDTV and/or Amazon/Netflix/US Sports Services' standard..so, you can imagine what's my opinion on this kind of things)...

Finally, after 3 years of Swedish domination (especially with Frolunda Indians, losing finalists in 2015 and winners in the last 2 seasons), we have a new Nation on top of the European Club Hockey! I think this can only be a good thing for Hockey in general and especially for the future of the Champions Hockey league, which still suffers from significative lack of interest in most part of the Continent throughout the season and does show some sign of life only in the final stages... however, it was nice to see a full house yeasterday night in Växjö, one of those places where normally the arena is almost empty in the early stages of the CHL... and it was even better to watch JYP conquer the ice of the Swedes...

JYP Jyväskylä Champions of Europe! Finals in the Champions Hockey League are always tight, and this year was no exception as JYP Jyväskylä won the game 2-0 to be crowned Champions of Europe! A scoreless opening period saw the home side have the better of the chances and possession. JYP were strong on the penalty kill as Växjö failed to convert on opportunities in the first and middle periods - something that they would later regret. With the Finns this time playing with a man advantage, Joonas Nattinen found himself wide open in the Lakers' zone to put Jyväskylä one up as his shot slipped through Andren. That lead stayed until 51 minutes to go - or so the Lakers though. Eric Martinsson's shot form the point found the net, but was washed out for goalie interference, the officials consulting the video and sticking to the on-ice call. A late minor penalty on the visitors gave the Lakers the perfect chance to tie the game in dramatic fashion. A half-empty net was missed by Andrew Calof as the Lakers pressed hard for the equaliser. Then it was over - empty net, and Janne Kolehmainen shot into the open goal in front of jubilant JYP fans to take the trophy to Finland! Match Highlights

naaa, Colloredo won't have any problem to make the top 50 (actually he could even make the top 30) on the small hill and also Alex Insam most likely will be in Saturday's "real" competition... not so sure about Bresadola, though (and Cecon, if he starts in this individual event)... and on the large hill things should be even easier for our guys (always only if we talk about making the top 50 and not more than that, of course)...

Road to the Final: Växjö Lakers Check out how JYP made it through their group, as runners up, all the way to the final!

Road to the Final: JYP Jyväskylä Check out how JYP made it through their group, as runners up, all the way to the final!

All set for Champions Hockey League Final JYP Jyväskylä arrived in Sweden last night ahead of the final, as the coaches and captains took part in a special pre-game press conference in the VIDA Area. The Finnish side have had a busy schedule leading up to this game, but go into the final with a win under their belts - and a big one at that, blanking KalPa 3-0 in the big regional derby over the weekend. They're fourth in the Liiga going into the international break, but with a game in hand and only three points behind Tappara above them. "We have had a lot of games recently, but that's all in the past. This is a final. They're a very skilled team, but we are aware of that and will of course be playing to win this trophy." said Head Coach Marko Virtanen. Captain Juha-Pekka Hytönen added: "We're all excited to play in this final. We know they're a good team, we're going to have to skate a lot, battle hard, and find that little bit extra." Växjö have come comforts for the final, as they had the best overall record in the competition from the the two finalists. Sam Hallam's men have won three straight in the SHL, including road wins in both of their previous outings. To be 17 points clear at this stage of the season is some feat. "We're in good shape at the moment within th squad, and of course it's nice to play at home. But we got here from hard work in the previous games, and will need one more big effort again tonight" said Head Coach Sam Hallam. "We know it's hard to get to this stage, to a final, and everyone is really excited to play in it," added Captain Liam Reddox.

Champions Hockey League 2017/2018 The Final Tonight, h.18.45 CET, Växjö (SWE), Vida Arena Växjö Lakers vs JYP Jyväskylä

unfortunately the weather forecast aren't that good for the Olympic fortnight...temperatures are expected to raise quite a bit from Saturday... https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/south-korea/pyeongchang so, don't worry about cancellations (in Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing there's a rule about not competing with -20° Celsius and/or below)... thinking about luge, for us (I mean, the Italian team) it would be nice if we get very low temperatures and almost no humidity...meanwhile if we go on the positive side with high humidity, well...we couldn't even start the races...Germany would easily sweep all the podium places (and it would happen in Skeleton and Bobsleigh, too)... however, Lillehammer is always on my mind...the best Winter Olympics ever (and I'm not speaking of the organization)... no comment on the OBS trailers...they're so disappointing that they look like the half-time show of yesterday's superbowl ('na ciofeca, for those who know a bit of Italian slang)...

my birthday is on July, 28th... I love cats...small and big ones, no matter the size...