But now there is some winter games action worthy enough to hoist a beer up for …

The USA Hockey team is playing for a silver medal on Friday at 12pm!  Woo-hoo!

It’s USA, Canada, Slovakia, and Finland in the Final Four.  And the Canadians are still feeling the sting of that USA upset last weekend –I’m sure they are  dreaming of a rematch in the gold medal game.  The guys from USA advanced to the semis by defeating the Swiss 2-0 in the quarters.

I’m not gonna spew out any stats or analysis, well, because I have watched about 2 mins total of USA hockey so far.  Sorry, I’m just not a puckhead.  But as long as Team Amercia is skating towards a goal medal, then I’m jumping on the Zamboni for the weekend ride.

If the red-white-and-blue guys can get past those pesky Fin dudes Friday, they will have their gold medal shot on Sunday at 12:15pm … hopefully with them Molson lovers from up North.

If you missed Sunday’s USA vs. Canada game you might have another chance this Sunday if everything falls into place. However, there will still be great games leading up to the Gold Medal game. Tomorrow at noon the U.S. plays a scrappy Swiss team who has already lost to the Americans (3-1) and lost to Canada in a shootout. Canada will have to go though Russia and Ovechkin, and then most likely Sweden just to reach the finals. First though, Canada must beat the Germans in a game going on right now (4:30).

Recapping the U.S. victory, most if not all credit goes to Ryan Miller (Buffalo Sabres) who had 42 saves. On the flip side, Canada’s goalie Martin Brodeur deserves the blame for the loss, giving up 4 goals with his lackadaisical and poor play. Arguably one of the best goalies in history, Marty B. will be benched in favor of Vancouver’s own, Roberto Luongo. Are we panicking Canada? A couple neat side notes in the game were: American forward Ryan Kessler who plays for Vancouver during the NHL season made an amazing open net goal to ‘ice’ the victory for the U.S., also, Miller’s coach on the Sabres, Lindy Ruff, is an assistant for the Canadian team.

The stage is set for the Americans to take Gold. They will need to play better though because you can’t expect Miller to play like that for the remaining games, or maybe you can. The Canadians are good, just not as good as their being made out to be. Yes, their team is chalked full of NHL captains, but most them are passed their prime. On the flipside, the Americans are better then most people realize. They are chalked full of All-Stars, and young ones at that. Would you rather have a team with players coming into their prime or coming out of their prime?

Before I end my hockey binge I’ve got to give some props to the American women as well. They will face the skanks from Canada in the Gold Medal game Thursday at 3:30. I normally wouldn’t recommend watching women’s athletics besides pole vaulting or beach volleyball, but watching good women’s hockey isn’t that bad…USA! USA! USA!

This might be comparable to AI crossing up Jordan, but much better and cooler…Ovechkin-might be the best player ever in hockey when he’s done, if he stays healthy. Jagr- Top 10 players in history….Only in Olympic hockey.