About 60,000 people gathered in Vancouver last night for the 2010 Olympics opening ceremonies. Some interesting names and faces resurfaced in the hockey world as well, including but not limited to Alexei Morozov for Russia and Peter Forsberg for Sweden.
Yet with all of this hype and the impending games cutting into the NHL schedule, I'm kind of interested to hear where everyone stands on this.
Personally, I'm grateful the Penguins will have the opportunity to harness some downtime during the break (outside of those competing in the games of course). It's still worth remembering that this is a team that's made two consecutive runs to the Stanley Cup Finals. All of those games combined with a very short offseason can be hell on a player, let alone in two straight runs. This also gives an opportunity for those shot-blocking defensemen (wherever they may be on this team as of late) to heal up some of their wounds and enjoy a little R&R before the final stretch of games that lead up to the postseason.
Tospeak for the other side of the issue, I was watching the NHL Network earlier this week and was able to catch Phil Esposito's take on the Olympics. He's not the least bit excited and isn't afraid to admit it, mainly because he's such an advocate for keeping the flow of the season going strong.
On to more pressing matters - who will you be rooting for during these games? I'd hope in these cases national pride supersedes fanship of any particular player or NHL team, but I've been surprised by the number of people from the States already admitting that they'll be cheering for another country's team.
The Pens have players scattered over a number of teams, including Team USA, Canada, Russia and Czech Republic (if we're counting former Pen Jaromir Jagr in the mix). In other words, you have a pretty good chance of seeing a Pens player in a number of Olympic games and, if the hype matches the reality, well into the medal round.
How interested are you in these games and what team will you be rooting for?
Poll
On a 1-10 scale, 10 being the highest, how interested are you in the 2010 Olympics?
This poll is closed
-
35%
10
(131 votes) -
15%
9
(59 votes) -
20%
8
(76 votes) -
11%
7
(44 votes) -
4%
6
(17 votes) -
3%
5
(12 votes) -
0%
4
(3 votes) -
2%
3
(9 votes) -
2%
2
(9 votes) -
2%
1
(10 votes)