Storybook ending.

Could you have written a better ending?

After 17 days of fantastic competition, the most anticipated event of the Vancouver Olympics ended in a overtime goal by Cole Harbour's own, Sidney Crosby.

And the men's hockey gold medal, lifted Canada to the sole owner of the Winter Olympic record for most golds. 14.

Perfect.

It prompted a spontaneous celebration coast-to-coast. Spring Garden Road, the busiest street in downtown Halifax was closed down after people ran into the streets in celebration.

The cops were there, but they were handing out high-fives and enjoying the atmosphere.  Nobody got out of hand, everyone loved everyone. What a night.

The ratings were released Monday afternoon and there was an average audience of 16.6 million viewers, while 26.5 million tuned into at least some of the game -- Yes, that is 80 per cent of the country.

Only in Canada.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx or find her on her blog National Passtime

When a beer is just a beer.

Everyone needs to relax. Actually I think everyone needs a beer. Chill out, guys. I'm serious.

So the gold medal champions in Olympic women's hockey had a beer. WOOPdeEFFINdo.

One of the last things I saw before I went to bed last night was a twitter post from Greg Wyshynski, the editor of Puck Daddy hockey blog. "Marie-Philip Poulin, with Olympic gold and a Molson. Canadian bliss" (Accompanying the tweet was the the photo you see at the top of this blog post). 


I had a laugh and thought, 'well deserved, ladies'.

That tweet was followed up by "Hope all this 'Marie-Philip Poulin is underage!!!' stuff is in good fun. Otherwise, our world's been taken over by Debby Downers & Killjoys" 

I didn't think much would come of the underage stuff, but then CTVOlympics.ca reports that "Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympic Games, said he wasn't aware of the celebration until informed by a reporter with The Associated Press"


Who is this douchebag reporter from AP who felt it necessary to be the Debby Downer? Haven't you given a glass of wine or champagne to your teenager at special events? She won a freaking gold medal... she scored the only two goals in the game. Let her have a freaking beer. I mean it wasn't even good beer. It was a Molson. 


But instead the IOC has to be all fatherly.

"If that's the case, that is not good," said Felli about the celebration. "It is not what we want to see. I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public."

Hmm... okay.

What's the difference between what the girls did, and skeleton gold medalist Jon Montgomery chugging a pitcher of beer in front of a big crowd in Whistler on national television? I believe an open-liqour-in-public fine in Vancouver runs around $230. Beer chugging... sport values... right. But none of us cared, we all thought it was awesome and fun. Why? What's the difference? Why are people outraged about what the women did?

Is IOC members flying first class around the world, being wined dined and bribed a good promotion of sports values? Just sayin'.

Here's another one to chew on.

What's the difference between the girls having a beer on the ice after everyone's left. And the fans getting absolutely trashed in the stands? Did I mention that all the fans were gone?

Annnnd.

 Ironically this is a photo by the Associated Press.

Consistantly media are allowed in the dressing room after a big win. Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, World Series... shall I go on? When have you not seen shots of players popping champagne. What's the difference there?

These athletes are people. People drink. To say that because they are athletes means they should not drink is ludicrous.

This 'controversy' if you can call it that... is ridiculous! They had a beer. End of story.

Jennifer Casey was born and raised in Halifax. She loves all sports but tries to stick to writing about hockey for sanity purposes. You can follow her on twitter @jenncaseyhfx

Think there's nowhere to go but up?

Think again.

The Canadiens continued their colossal meltdown, losing their fifth straight game to no other then powerhouse, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Well, no matter how bad it gets ... it could always be worse.

Golden boys.

Jekyll and Hyde.

also known as Team Canada.

One game they look like they could lose to one of the many Team Canada's playing in the under-17. And the next game they play like a bunch of winners.

It was a good time to show up. Seems like the Swedish trash-talking woke some people up.

Specifically, Dustin Tokarski. He looked shaky in the games leading up to the final -- but he turned away 39 shots last night. And he actually didn't look like a fish-out-of-water doing it, as he did in his previous two games. Of course, it did help that his counterpart across the ice spent the better part of the game trying to turn away actual players instead of pucks.

Then there was PK Subban, who couldn't make a good decision at the blueline to save his life during the semi-final, was a force to be reckoned with (wait... who owns his rights? Montreal? really.)

And Angelo Esposito proved why he was (finally) the right choice. Although, I actually found it quite amusing that the TSN panel decided to mention that if NHL clubs actually released players... Esposito woulda met the same fate as he did for the past three years.

And so the streak is alive, and they go for six next year in Saskatoon. The biggest question for Team Canada, is will John Tavares make the jump to the NHL after the draft this summer. It's expected he should be able to make the jump to whatever club wins the Tavares derby. But there's that off-chance that he won't. And if he's around next Christmas. Look. Out.

Coming to you live from the CBC.

Hey gang.

Sorry about the hiatus, I just started my internship at CBC Radio Charlottetown. My first day was yesterday. Still getting the hang of stuff, they threw me right into working.

I will probably start posting more regularly after I get the hang of this stuff.

I must say that I missed the Canadiens game, but Ryan O'Byrne apparently put the puck into his own net on a delayed penalty. He passed it back to Carey Price, who wasn't actually in the net. That actually tied the game for the Islanders.... and then they won in a shootout. Bill Guerin was credited with the goal.

Gold star, bud. In fact, take a hundred.