Vancouver Olympics Live Thread (Day 5)

Tuesday, Feb. 16 NBC 3-5 p.m. — Men's Biathlon-12.5km Pursuit Gold Medal Final (LIVE); Women's Biathlon-10km Pursuit Gold Medal Final.

8 p.m.-Midnight — Men's Figure Skating-Short Program (LIVE); Women's Snowboard-Snowboard Cross Gold Medal Final; Women's Speed Skating-500 Gold Medal Final; Men's Alpine Skiing-Super Combined Gold Medal Final.

USA Noon-6 p.m. — Men's Ice Hockey-USA vs. Switzerland (LIVE); Men's Curling-USA vs. Germany (LIVE).

CNBC 5 p.m.-5 a.m. — Men's Ice Hockey-Canada vs. Norway (LIVE); Russia vs. Latvia (LIVE) Women's Curling-USA vs. Japan (LIVE); Women's Ice Hockey-Finland vs. China (LIVE); Men's Curling-USA vs. Norway.

Seth Wescott of the USA, beats Mike Robertson of Canada, left over the finish line to win the snowboard cross final at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo delivered gold to end China's barren Olympic figure skating spell and immediately turned their thoughts to creating the next generation of champions. Wearing the new additions to their medal collection around their necks having broken Russia's 46-year hold on pairs gold, the giggling couple switched their focus to the idea of a new addition to their family.

Silver medal winner United States' Johnny Spillane reacts during the medal ceremony of the Nordic Combined Individual normal hill event at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Sunday. Spillane has roots in the Muskegon area. His mother graduated from Muskegon Catholic Central before moving to Colorado, and his uncle, Raymond Reinhold lives in Egelston Township.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gives a thumbs up as he arrives to watch the U.S. women's hockey team play China at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, February 14, 2010

China's Zhang Ben (L) fights with Natalie Darwitz of the United States of America during the women's preliminary round Group B match of ice hockey at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, on Feb. 14, 2010.

The United States trounced China 12-1 in the women's ice hockey in the second day competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games here on Sunday.

The United States, seeded second in the Games, opened scoring quite early at two minutes 50 seconds as defence Angela Ruggiero helped her team to take the lead.

10 am - 11:15 am (1 pm - 2:15 pm EST) CROSS COUNTRY SKIING - Women's 10-kilometer race. Where: Whistler Olympic Park

10:30 am (1:30 pm EST) ALPINE SKIING - Men's Downhill Where: Whistler Olympic Park

10:30 am (1:30 pm EST) SNOWBOARDING - Men's cross - qualifying runs. (Four racers compete on course, fastest two move on.)

2 pm (5 pm EST) SNOWBOARDING - Men's cross (Four racers compete on course, fastest two move on)

2:26 pm (5:26 pm EST) SNOWBOARDING - Men's cross - quarter-finals. (Four racers compete on course, fastest two move on)

2:30 pm (5:30 pm EST) ICE HOCKEY - Women's - Switzerland vs. Canada. Preliminary round. Eight teams competing. Where: UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver

2:42 pm (5:42 pm EST) SNOWBOARDING - Men's cross - semi-finals. (Four racers compete on course, fastest two move on)

5pm (8 pm EST) LUGE - Women's singles (Run 1 out of 4) Where: Whistler Olympic Park

6:50pm (9:50 pm EST) LUGE - Women's singles (Run 2 out of 4) Where: Whistler Olympic Park

7 pm (7:30 pm EST) ICE HOCKEY - Women's - Sweden vs. Slovakia Where: UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver

Robin Szolkowy had spun high into the air thousands of times as he performed the double axel to perfection in training and at numerous competitions. On Monday, that jump cost him the Olympic gold medal.

As double world champions, Szolkowy and Aliona Savchenko were front-runners for the pairs title at the Vancouver Games and after completing their opening high-flying triple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, they looked set for gold.

Then as the duo launched into the double axels, Savchenko landed the jump beautifully but could only watch in horror as her partner sprawled on the ice after slipping over on his blades.

Sweden's Charlotte Kalla reacts after the women's Cross-Country Skiing 10km free at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Whistler Olympic Park, Canada, Feb. 15, 2010. Kalla won the gold of the event with 24:58.4

Winner Defago, second Svindal and third Miller wave during the medal ceremony for the men's Alpine skiing downhill competition at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, February 15, 2010

There is a big debate going on about this...

NBC explains its ice-dancing-over-U.S./Canada-hockey decision

By Greg Wyshynski

VANCOUVER – From horse-racing conflicts to shuttering the big screen at Mellon Arena, NBC has given hockey fans as much anxiety and anger as watching Jay Leno sit in Conan’s chair.

The latest affront to puckheads: The U.S. vs. Canada men’s preliminary-round showdown Feb. 21 won’t be shown on NBC, but on cable’s MSNBC at 7 p.m. EST. Instead, the Peacock will bring fans an exhilarating night of ice dancing, women’s speedskating, men’s freestyle skiing and men’s giant slalom – rather than what amounts to an NHL all-star game on an international stage.

To the surprise of no one, NBC’s getting torched for this: Outspoken player agent Allan Walsh tweeted that it was “disgraceful, and Chicago Now called it inexcusable:

How can the NHL cancel their all star game and postpone their season for two weeks to accommodate the Olympics without getting any major network attention during the Winter Olympiad?

This is just another case of why the NHL will never be as popular as its fan base either believes it is or wants it to be. When the pinnacle of the sport calls on the best of the best of your league, you have to get these games on national television. The worst part of the whole deal is the league (NHL) has the contract with the television network already and still cannot get the best hockey competition in the world on the tube.

The notion that the NHL would shutter its season for the Games and that its broadcast rights holder wouldn’t then put the NHL-centric U.S. vs. Canada on its primary network is baffling.

So we reached out to NBC for comment and context, and found out who gets the blame for this malarkey: American women.

According to the network, there are three major sporting events that have more female viewers than male viewers: the Kentucky Derby, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Turning three hours of prime-time coverage on the East Coast over to a hockey game isn’t exactly catnip to those casual female viewers, despite Sidney Crosby’s(notes) pouty lips.

Ice dancing, like figure skating, is a demographic draw; it’s the hook for a night of coverage that appeals to a broader audience than hockey does. But it’s not the only reason USA/Canada was shifted to the home of Keith Olbermann’s foaming mouth.

In essence, committing to a hockey game is committing to a three-hour programming block that can’t be interrupted. Imagine the outrage if NBC cut away during the second period of USA/Canada because someone was taking a historic bobsled run. Ice dancing allows for drop-ins at other events, which is another reason NBC believes it’s the best option in East Coast prime time.

Now, aside from the indignation of having hockey shuffled off to cable, there’s been some concern from hockey fans about the quality of that coverage: namely, that MSNBC may not have the HD hockey coverage that NBC would have had.

MSNBC’s HD station was rolled out last summer, and one of the last major holdouts finally came around this week: Verizon FiOS, which added the network to its digital HD tier. Chances are the U.S./Canada tilt will be in HD in your area, if you have digital cable or satellite with an HD package.

NBC told us with pride that it’s offering an enormous amount of hockey on its networks; a full schedule of games is here, and the majority of them are on cable – although the Russia/Czech game scheduled before Canada/USA will be on NBC that afternoon on the East Coast.

The bronze-medal game for men’s hockey is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 27, on MSNBC, with the gold-medal game on NBC the following day. (Keep in mind NBC told us there is some flexibility in moving games from network to network if there’s a reason to – such as, perhaps, Team USA playing for the bronze.)

If you’re interested in watching games on the Web, NBC is streaming hockey while dropping the hammer on sites that stream live TV.

So there’s the NBC side of the story, which we felt was important to bring you. It’s not as if they aren’t showing the game at all, or as if it’s been sent off to an obscure corner of the cable box. They have their reasons for the decision, and we, as hockey fans, have our reasons for disagreeing with their decision.

It’s hard to embrace NBC as a friend to puckheads when the biggest hockey event of the season (at least until the medal round) isn’t deemed important enough for prime time.

From a demographic, sponsorship and ratings perspective, NBC has every reason not to put the game on its broadcast network. But in the context of other culture clashes with hockey fans, NBC’s decision damages its relationship with that audience.

Do you go to NBCSports.com for hockey coverage? Because they’re really increasing it soon in a bloggy sort of way. Yet when the parent company doesn’t promote the game in a moment like this, it’s hard to separate that from other, more positive endeavors to cover the hockey for fans who feel insulted.

But the Winter Classic is lovely every year. On that, we can agree.

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