Ice-hockey: Switzerland beats Canada

The LHC is a great investment. Switzerland rules. Many ice-hockey fans thought that the Swiss were on par with Kazakhstan, Italy, Latvia, and probably below Germany. Instead, the players from the 14 TeV country rule.

The Czech ice-hockey is defending gold from the 1998 olympics in Nagano as well as gold medals from the world championships in 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005. Yes, 1/2 of the golden medals in the last decade went to my homeland. And if you include Slovakia into my broader homeland, it will be 60% because of their gold in 2002. The only other golden country since 1996 is Sweden that won in 1998 and Canada discussed below. Nevertheless, Switzerland managed to beat the Czechs 3:2.

You may think that it's just the Czechs who perhaps don't play that well right now. If you're modest and Swiss, you may have counted the victory over Czechia as a fluke and the greatest victory in your country's history, as The New York Times point out. Sometimes it only takes one day to reveal a gigantic flaw in your calculations. ;-)

Canada, the birthplace of ice-hockey, is defending the 2002 olympic gold from Salt Lake City as well as the golden medals from the world championships in 1997, 2003, and 2004. The Swiss have beat Canada 2:0, believe me or not.

If some feminist readers think that it's just the Canadian men who failed, let me mention that the Canadian women lost to Japan 5:2.

After these two matches, you must be tempted to add Switzerland among the favorites ;-), in the same group with Slovakia, Russia, Canada, and the Czech Republic. I've already eliminated Swedes who lost 0:5 to Russia.

What can happen next? Yes, Italy can also defeat Canada - although just in soccer so far. ;-) The Italians are already reasoning that if the Swiss may have beaten the Czechs, they can do it, too. Superficially such reasoning may look rational but still, I feel that it is kind of flawed. ;-) Finland, on the other hand, beat the Czechs 4:2 after they tried to kill Jágr. Slovakia improved its top position in the group B by their victory 2:1 over the U.S.

The New York Times explains that the three losses today were very painful for the three Northern American teams - Canada, U.S., and the Czechlands.

What is the punch line of this text with many seemingly unrelated numbers in it? Of course, the punch line is that Stephen Harper should better build a huge collider. :-)