Around the Rink: Olympics, Olympics, Olympics

Every once in a while 'Nucks and Pucks will offer links to some of the best hockey stories of the past few days. It's a chance for me to share the great hockey sites, blogs, and writers that entertain and inspire me. Enjoy!

• Luongo's career-defining opportunity: Luongo's assumption of the starting job for Canada is an opportunity for the goalie to silence his critics and carve out a legacy for himself. Of course Canucks fans are hoping he does that this spring as well. [Puck Daddy]
  

• Great ratings for US/Canada game...: MSNBC draws 8.2 million viewers for last Sunday's game, tying the Obama inauguration for most-watched program in the network's history. [Sports Media Watch]

• ... but not so great coverage: However, NBC's hockey coverage is not without many, many, many problems. Puck Daddy is offering readers a change to air their many complaints about the network's Olympic hockey coverage. For the absolute funniest thing I have read in a long time, please check out the very last anecdote - amazing, hilarious stuff about a fan gaining grudging respect over the years from the old Italian guys at his local in Brooklyn for his insistence that the bar put hockey on TV, only to lose it because NBC sticks with curling before switching over to the hockey game. [Puck Daddy]

• Who DIDN'T watch in Canada? Meanwhile, North of the 49th, the US/Canada game drew a 10.6 million viewers. That's roughly 1/3rd of the country, for those of you scoring at home. So if we make the Gold Medal game (knock on wood) does the country unofficially shutdown on Sunday? [Vancouver Sun]

• The best "worst Olympics ever" piece you will read: If you've never read Down Goes Brown before, your funny bone has been missing out on an excellent workout. Here, the site presents the reasons that the 2010 Games have been the worst ever. My favourite: "Over halfway through the Games, the much-hyped Canadian men's hockey team has failed to win even a single medal." [Down Goes Brown]

• The road to the Gold: Finally, over at the other, far more popular and far better hockey blog I sometimes write for, you can find a handy chart outlining how the brackets stack up for the rest of the men's hockey tournament. Depressing reality of the day: if Canada beats Russia tonight, they still have to go through either Sweden or (less likely) Slovakia to get to the Gold Medal game. Well, at least they'll have to earn it, right? [Nucks Misconduct]