It’s been pretty much the in thing the last couple of days to make fun of Canada’s hockey team after its Sunday evening loss to the United States in the Olympics.

The Canadians may yet wind up with the last laugh. They made a tough decision with their goaltending situation, benching veteran Martin Brodeur for Roberto Luongo.

While Brodeur may be one of the best goalies ever, certainly one of the very best in the last 20 years, his play Sunday wasn’t what fans are used to seeing. Luongo may give Canada a better shot.

And they still have terrific talent, paced by one of the planet’s two best players, Sydney Crosby. If they get by a Tuesday night game against Germany (they lead 1-0 in the second period as I write this) then Canada gets a huge quarterfinal test with Russia.

Get through that one and they’re guaranteed a chance to play for a medal. And the only chance for a Canada-U.S. rematch would come in either the gold or bronze medal game. With as many people as were excited about Sunday’s game, the excitement for a rematch — especially if it’s for an Olympic championship — might be totally off the charts.

I’m sorry. I know I’m going to make a few people mad.
But I just cannot believe, as I watch the men’s short program for a few minutes during coverage of the Vancouver Olympics, that this is considered a sport.
I know these guys are tremendously athletic. I played hockey. I know how tricky it can be just to stay up on skates, much less make the graceful moves and amazing spins, turns and twists they make.
It is very athletic.
I don’t know, I just can’t get into it. I know it still will be perhaps the Olympics’ most popular event with or without me, but I’m sticking to hockey.
Sorry.

For the weekend after the Super Bowl, it sure was a great weekend to be a sports fan. Even if it did mess some of us up on getting our Valentine’s plans together quite as well as we should have.
Usually it’s kind of sad the week after the final meaningful football game for about seven months. But this year, we bounced back in a big way.
From the Daytona 500, to the start of the Olympics to the NBA’s All-Star festivities, Bedlam basketball and even a few big college basketball upsets mixed in, there was seemingly something for everyone.
The Oklahoma City Thunder was well-represented in Dallas. Russell Westbrook was the leading scorer in Friday’s Rookie-Sophomore Challenge (scoring 40 points) but teammate Kevin Durant won his coaching debut, leading the rookies to their first win in the game in eight years.
Durant later went on to capture the HORSE challenge, and as of this writing was in double figures in the All-Star game.
The Olympics leave us watching a lot of sports we don’t watch all year. I think I spent a good 45 minutes on the biathlon today, successfully getting a child to fall asleep. I actually was pretty interested. Perhaps moreso than watching Team USA devour China in women’s hockey. The period I watched, the Chinese never even got the puck across our blue line.
I didn’t even make it to the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, won for the second year in a row by up-and-coming player Dustin Johnson, who’s taking advantage of the Tiger-less tour early in the golf season. He also had a strong outing last week in San Diego.
Two Big East powers lost Sunday, No. 2 Syracuse at home to Louisville, and No. 7 Georgetown at Rutgers. And then there was that Bedlam game, which  was a nice boost for the struggling Cowboys against an undermanned Sooner squad.
What was your favorite moment of the weekend?

Danica Patrick has established herself during the last several seasons as a talented and capable driver in the IndyCar Series. And she seems to be hoping her learning curve in NASCAR is even quicker.
Patrick ran an ARCA series event Saturday at Daytona, finishing sixth place despite a spinout in the early part of the race. As a result, she and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. have decided to push up her debut on NASCAR’s Nationwide Series from Feb. 20 to Saturday, when she will run in the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona.
“Racing in the Nationwide Series race was my goal during this entire two-month preparation process, but we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do,” Patrick said Monday as the decision was announced. “The ARCA race was a blast, and I’m not ready for my first Daytona Speedweeks to end just yet.  I want more racing.”
As if it wasn’t a big enough weekend of racing anyway, Patrick just made things that much more interesting, especially for the casual race fan.
No woman has ever made her Nationwide Series debut at Daytona, and she may actually be one of two to do so Saturday, Chrissy Wallace, daughter of veteran driver Mike Wallace, is attempting to qualify as well. They could be the first father-daughter duo ever to compete on the series.
But the focus squarely is on Danica. Will she be a novelty or prove, as she has been for several years in open-wheel racing, that she can be competitive?

It’s quite a jumble in the middle of the pack in the Big 12 men’s basketball standings, and several teams are hoping the conference’s overall strength leads to the league getting a higher number of bids to the NCAA Tournament next month.
The top is easy to figure. Kansas is unbeaten and may stay that way if the Jayhawks can get past Texas next Monday. Texas, Kansas State and probably Baylor are another notch below, the Bears strengthened by their huge win in Austin last weekend.
From there it gets pretty interesting. Oklahoma State has a huge win at K State but got thumped in back-to-back games at Missouri and at home to Texas.
The Tigers were looking solid until a home loss Wednesday to Texas A&M, the best moment of the Big 12 season for the Aggies.
Texas Tech and Oklahoma have held up at home but haven’t been able to do much away from home, and rough nonconference seasons put both those teams in a bit of a hole.
And it’s never easy. As good as KU has looked, the Jayhawks have two overtime wins on the road in the last week, one at K State and Wednesday’s against conference cellar dwellar Colorado.
No matter where you go, going on the road will be a challenge.
Experts are predicting anywhere from five to seven bids for the Big 12, and those teams in the pack are sure hoping that number is the higher one. All are still in position to secure places, but a losing streak could take any of them out of it just as easily.