The Roar of the Rings Canadian Olympic Curling Trials being held in Ottawa will come to an end on Sunday and it is always a terrific ending.
The two teams who will represent Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea will probably win it due to one great shot or one unfortunate miss. All of these superb teams are so good that any one of them could potentially "take it to the house" but if you trust history, on the women's side, put your money on defending Oly champion Jennifer Jones or perennial front runner Rachel Homan. It's a lot more difficult on the men's side but the old crystal ball says go with Kevin Koe but look out for defending champion Brad Jacobs and Manitoban Mike McEwan.
IOC showed guts
To their credit, and I applaud them enthusiastically, the IOC this week showed their guts when they decided that Russia will not be able to participate in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea due to their state-sponsored systematic doping scandal from the last Olympics in Sochi, not to mention the cover up that followed. Vladdy and the Kremlin are not impressed and it'll be interesting how they'll react because they continue to deny any participation or knowledge in the scandal.
Over 200 Russian athletes will be rightly barred from competing and only those who can prove to the IOC doping committee that they are clean (meaning having never ever tested positive for drugs/steroids) will be allowed to compete under a neutral Olympic flag.
Personally, because this was government sponsored and so widespread, I would have liked to have seen NO Russian athletes allowed to compete. Nyet! But I do love the part about the IOC also fining the Russians $15 million to cover all the costs associated with their investigation that dragged on for 18 months.
Sympathy for S. Korea
You have to feel sorry for PyeongChang, the host city in South Korea who, after spending tens of millions of dollars to get the Olympic Games, is now having to deal with two body blows that'll hurt their chances to have a successful event.
First you have the NHL, and maybe the KHL, declining to participate in hockey, which is always the number one fan favourite sport. Now you have one of the biggest nations being banned from competing which will definitely hurt their bottom line.
Throw in the verbal nuclear war escalating between "Rocket Man" (Kim Jong Un) and "Liar Don" (Trump), you can see why they're having a real tough time selling tickets. Would you go watch a sporting event when you know there's a psycho dictator with his finger on the trigger of a nuclear missile 60 miles north from where you are sitting?
NHL News
The Winnipeg Jets, 11-3-2 since November, may want to pinch themselves these days to see if they're dreaming as they continue to soar, continue to win, tied for the most points in the NHL. When was the last time they could say that? Never! Getting to the top of the pile is extremely difficult in pro sports but as many of you know, staying there is even harder because now you have all the teams gunning for you.
It's hard to believe that we're over a third of the way into the NHL season and not one Buffalo Sabres defenceman has yet to score a goal.
Golf News
Rickie Fowler picked a great time to put it all together when he rattled off seven straight birdies, 11 in total, in the final round to come from seven strokes back to win the Hero World Challenge by four.
The other big story from the weekend was the surprising but positive results from tournament host Tiger Woods (you may have heard of him, he won a few tournaments a while ago). The five-time winner of this event looked good, shooting three rounds in the 60s and booming multiple accurate drives over 300 yards.
Is this just a flash in the pan fluke or is his surgically repaired back after four operations finally healthy? The way he was swinging so hard, pain-free, leads one to believe it has to be the latter.
Japan’s star pitcher
If you have never heard of Japanese baseball player, Shohei Ohtani, you soon will. He's garnering a huge amount of media and MLB attention because of what he can bring to the table. There's been other star pitchers who have come from the Land of the Rising Sun to pitch in the Big Leagues (Dice K, Tanaka, Yu Darvish) but no one has ever pitched at such a high level and also become an everyday player.
Ohtani is such a good hitter that he'll probably fit in quite nicely in the AL where they use the DH, you would think. We have not seen somebody like this since the great Babe Ruth from days gone by, who started out as an ace pitcher but because he could consistently hit the ball so damn far, he became an everyday player, never to climb the mound again.
Gronk’s dirty hit
The NFL has suspended Patriots' TE Rob Gronkowski for one game, without pay, for his uncharacteristic late dirty hit on a Buffalo Bills cornerback, prompting a concussion protocol to be assessed on said player. This is Gronk's first ever suspension but he's appealing it, hoping to save the almost $300,000 (his pay for one game) he is set to lose if he doesn't win his appeal. Pay up man, you're not winning this one.
Until next time....
