So, a week ago, while I was on vacation, I received the horrible, horrible news that the goalie of my dreams, my personal superhero, and The Reason I Love Hockey, pulled his name off the Finnish Olympic team just after he was named to it. The reason given was to rest an "inflammed hip" that he had been nursing for some time. But then he continued to play every night for the Flames, and well (or not, but not badly anyway). And the way it was worded just made me wonder if there wasn't some other reason.
I' was trying to enjoy myself in the beautiful Colorado mountains with my family, but I couldn't sleep and I just started wondering what it could possibly be. I can understand that he wants to be in good shape for the playoffs, it's important, especially after coming so close to the Cup last time. But he's an ironman, he's played more minutes in the last two seasons than any other goalie, every night he shows up and plays his heart out. So the "I need rest" excuse seems a little thin. And I'm remembering that he had some sort of issue with the national team coach during the last World Cup, so maybe it's that. But again, he's a Vulcan. Nothing ever seems to bother him, so it seems unlikely that he would back out of a two week gig of such huge importance over a personality conflict.
Then it dawns on me... It's got to be drugs. The IOC have a list a million miles long of banned substances, so if he knew he'd get tested and fail it would be a huge scandal, and possibly ruin his career. But what drug? I can only hope that it's like someone in the Flames forum suggested, it's some anti-inflammatory that he's taking for his real hip injury, something that's not banned by the NHL but is by the IOC. It seems the most plausible explanation.
Still the whole thing is a huge disappointment to me. I'm just glad I didn't spend $150 on the #34 Kiprusoff Team Suomi jersey I was really thinking about ordering. I'll still be rooting for the Finns, and I'll still probably get up at 4 AM to watch the games, but I'm just not nearly as jazzed as I was about the Winter Games now.
Anyway, I'll post more about the trip soon. There's more hockey there, too...
Very sad to read that Vincent Schiavelli has died. He almost made it to 100 imdb film entries, too. He was one of my original "that guy!"s. He made anything he was in that much better. I only ever caught his cooking show once, but I could tell that he really loved his native sicillian food. He will be missed. Now who's going to play the tall weird-looking guys?
OK, I don't really want to be a total nerd and start blogging too much about hockey, but I brought it up before, so I should mention how it came out. Flames got a sweet overtime goal and beat the Senators. Aaron threw his Senators cap at the TV and stormed out of the house. And he actually likes the Flames. I knew we shouldn't have watched it together. The commentators were saying the Senators/Flames matchup was going to be a "possible Stanley Cup preview." If that's the truth, Aaron and I are going to have to find different places to live for two weeks in May.
Gritty, hard-fought game, just the kind the Flames are best at. I'm still giddy.