I was up at 5am to watch US dominate Slovakia, so I'm a little miffed that I missed that amazing US-Russia game. Hopefully there's more good ones ahead though, with some medals on the line
I have to admit I missed a pretty significant chunk of the US-Russia game too. When I got up I sort of fast forwarded through most of Slovenia-Slovakia and then watched the first period of US-Russia. As I was skipping through the commercials my older son came out and wanted to play a game on the XBox and I told him the 2nd period was likely to begin soon and he could play when that was done - so I fastforwarded and it was right at the puck drop. Watched the second, let him play a while, and he decided to be done and we dropped back over to TV just as they were going into the sixth round of the shootout.
Can't believe that Russia and Slovakia are going into OT. Slovakia's one of those countries I usually root for - I still remember how much they got the shaft from the NHL during the Salt Lake Olympics. I know the Kings, for example, had told Ziggy Palffy that he could play in only one of the three qualifying round games - so he was there watching helplessly as they had like 14 skaters in a game against Germany. Sometime in the second period they were down, you could see the guys were just gassed, and he finally decided to suit up and play the rest of the game. The GM was on the phone with him saying that that was the only game he'd be able to play, which really sucked because it's not like the Kings were any good at all then (as I know far too well being a fan). I also remember Irbe and Ozolinsh playing what must have been like seven games in five days between NHL and the qualifying round.