Sunday, February 22, 2009

Canadian women undefeated













by Paul Webster

HARBIN, China – Our women are definitely doing us proud here at the Winter Universiade, and it paid off for them as they were rewarded with a dinner at Pizza Hut tonight – the true heaven of restaurants. They agreed with our boys that hot food can really win your over... particularly when you haven’t had it for seven days!

The girls are sitting at a perfect 6-0 with a few big games still to come, namely China, and the Czech Republic. The Czechs have been somewhat of a surprise at only two losses, however, they are making a lot of shots and are deserving of their wins. China had a big loss today versus Japan, but their skip was rotated out for the game. China did the same with their men’s skip in tonight’s (Feb 22) game after a loss earlier today versus Sweden.

Our girls are guaranteed a tiebreaker spot but they are setting their sights on a top spot in one of the semifinals. The FISU/WCF runs a traditional double semifinal with the winners going to the gold medal match and the semi-final losers going to the bronze medal match. Win the semi and you can breathe a sigh of relief, as you have just won a medal!

Our girls are definitely playing like they deserve it so far!

Now let’s talk about the boys... have you ever had a string of games where you and your teammates simply can’t get on a run? Well that is where this team is right now. A lot of head scratching and soul searching is underway, with the team trying to find that magical formula, or simply that magical moment, like they had during the Norway game, when they would make all eight shots in one end. How sweet a feeling that is. We’ve lost that shooting feeling.....woahoh, that shooting feeling.... sing it with me, please!

Seriously... any hints, please send them my way. Trust that Coach Ken McCormack and I are doing our best to try to get these boys back on track.

A little bit about China: it has snowed while we are here and I challenge you to find either a snow plow or shovel... they send out groups of shovellers across the city and they clean up everything. I kid you not. It is an amazing sight, groups of 20 or so on on the main roads shovelling and scraping, and then the next crew cleans up their piles and puts them into trucks, and out of the city it goes!

If we only had 30-40 million more people in Canada this may be a way to save some money on snowplowing... while providing jobs for Canadians. Heck, I know our street in Calgary could use the help!

Off to a team meeting. Girls are in bed as they have a two game day tomorrow. China in the morning – I'll update everyone right after that game.

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