congratulations!

I don't know about you, but I know I'm going to remember where I was when...THIS happened:

yes! Team Canada was a trending topic on Twitter! usually this is reserved for celebrities I don't care about, obvious stuff like Christmas, and illiterate and/or misogynist nonsense (#URaHoeIf and the like), but today, it was up there. (Mary Poppins is because it was showing on BBC at the time and people were twittering about it) and I helped...

and now, the Team Canada announcements, told like so much else here, through screenshots:

I tried finding the official CBC live announcement, but didn't have the right thing installed to actually watch it. all I could see were some very busy chat rooms:

the percentage of "Yes" votes actually dropped in the time I had this on. someone provided a link to a different feed of the coverage:

I'd missed the goalie annoucements, and they took a while with interviews and such before getting to defence (uh-oh, I'm using Canadian spelling now)

Keith makes it, of course!

and so does Seabrook! everyone loves the chemistry of those two

and there's your captain! he needs a photo that makes him look less like someone you see boarding a Greyhound bus and really, really hoping doesn't sit next to you...

and Toews! (they were showing childhood photos of players but I wasn't fast enough to grab most)

the feed kept going, so I left on this sports show. if you'd told me even a year ago that I'd be listening to Canadian sports radio...

there's the roster at NHL.com. wish I'd been fast enough to capture what a contributor on Pensblog found (cut off after the relevant part):

and then I looked at more on NHL.com. if I was any good at funny captions I'd have one for the pic below, because I love their expressions

there's the Blackhawks from the Hawks website. and congratulations to Hossa and Kopecky for the Slovakian team!

and to the Bruins' Bergeron, who I hadn't mentioned yet. his selection was enough of a surprise to some to get its own story on NHL.com

I haven't waded through all the comments in my usual online hockey reads, but I know From the Rink, Pension Plan Puppets, and Puck Daddy all had active discussions, if you can endure the Canadians out there who are showing off so much, they're drafting their imaginary B teams with the Canadian players who didn't make it...

this post has too much sugar & not enough Team Canada

so it's less than 10 hours until Team Canada is announced, and I'm not gonna bet on whether both Keith and Seabrook will make the team. but I'll bet dollars to donuts that of everyone reading this blog, I'm the only one who had dinner last night at a (soon-to-be-closing, alas. or relocating) 24-hour diner, in a booth where the waitress (on her last day today) told us a (her words) crack whore had given birth, at 6 a.m., one morning. (also I'll bet on "dollars to donuts" and "crack whore" not being used in the same sentence before.)

um, anyway, I listened to the Blackhawks @ Stars game on WGN radio on the way home, and 7 goals had been scored by the time I got to my computer and found the game online, including two quick Stars goals at the top of the 2nd while the bus went the last couple blocks to my place. Hawks lose 5-4, and are 0-2 with the Stars this season. but at least they got TWO power play goals in one game, and Fraser got his first goal of the season (first scored since April 1).

note: one of the WGN guys said in the post-game discussion of how fans feel about Hawks being on Olympic teams, are they "concerned this could take away the possibility that the Hawks could hoist the Cup for the first time in 61 years." ouch! yes, Hawks fans have "61" in their heads but at least the non-winning streak hasn't been THAT long...

remember the Chicago Tribune Toews piece I linked to a few posts ago? well, seeing it on paper was even better--he was the cover of the Sunday section (which used to be the glossy-covered weekly magazine in the Trib. decline of newspapers, etc. etc.). here's what fit on my scanner...

remember the Martin Brodeur recipe page I posted last week? well, I actually made the "traditional fudge from Quebec," but either the recipe's not quite right or (more likely) I messed up the ice-water step because I've never made candy before. so it ended up not as fudge but a zillion-calorie pan of caramel goo. which is unbelievably good over vanilla ice cream. somehow this counts as preparing myself for the New Year's Eve Devils @ Hawks game I'll be attending...

remember the PNC Park, Stanley Cup, etc. in gingerbread form I posted from my Pittsburgh trip? (yeah, still haven't posted my December game recaps/photos...) I expanded it into this this photoblog that also includes gingerbread McDonald's, Titanic, trolleys, Obama (and stayed up so late working on it I didn't post at all here Monday). 

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if all the sappy holiday-time stuff is past...well, it's time for some Canadian-on-Canadian violence again! this Canucks @ Flames game 12/27 has the highest-rated-on-hockeyfights.com fights of any of the post-Christmas games. this fight went on for a full minute, and Tanner Glass received a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down.

I'll just have to link to it because when I embedded it in this post, a version showed up that plays automatically--arrgh, never happened with anything I've posted from there before. a still from Glass vs. Brandon Prust:

re: Team Canada again. you might enjoy Fallen Leafs' "My Team Canada of Man-Crushes". I know I did.