Oof.

If you thought Sidney Crosby could do anything more to negatively impact your spirit…

The Greatest Hockey Team Ever won gold Sunday, in a classic gold-medal game over the United States. It was the only blemish for a previously undefeated American team, and certainly the wrong time to lose a game. As tough as it is to say at the moment, a silver medal can only be considered a success for the USA, as very few outside of the team itself felt it had a chance to do anything of significance in these Olympics. That’s not to say we didn’t want gold, though…

The game was intense, but not overly exciting. Neither team had a great number of chances. Both goalies allowed soft goals. The hitting was there, though, along with the chippiness and after-the-whistle scrums. All of a sudden, there was a minute and a half left in the third period and the U.S. had pulled the goalie. Zach Parise improbably tied the game with 25 seconds left, sending it to overtime, where Crosby won it for Canada at the 7:40 mark.

Canada got off to a good start in the game. Jonathan Toews opened the scoring midway through the first, and Corey Perry gave the Red Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the second period. USA got to within one goal about five minutes later, as Ryan Kesler deflected a Patrick Kane shot past Roberto Luongo.

No matter the score, it lived up to the hype. Canada was supposed to win the tournament, and only slightly did people waver when they stumbled against the U.S. the first time around. The best team may have won, but the future is bright for the American hockey team. You can only expect it to be better come 2014, when Flyers fans will get a chance to root for team and country with James van Riemsdyk presumably donning the Stars and Stripes (assuming Gary Bettman allows it).

Now we return to our regularly scheduled programming. NHL play resumes tomorrow night; the Flyers play their first game back Tuesday against the Lightning in Tampa Bay. 22 games remain for the Flyers as they attempt to build on their four-game pre-Olympic winning streak and climb the Eastern Conference standings heading into the playoffs.

We can only hope Mike Richards allotted for two championships this year…

50 years ago today, the good ole’ U.S. defeated the crazy Canucks to win gold in men’s hockey at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics, and Canada has been bitter ever since.

For the past 50 years, Canada has attempted to portray the persona of an utopian society free of racism, poverty, and even fractions. Free healthcare and college are just some of the fine points that our neighbor to the north has thrown in our face to show how much more of a sophisticated and humanitarian society they are.

But if Canada is so good, what’s with the huge influx of Canadians immigrating to the United States to make it big? Could William Shatner have captained the Starship Enterprise from his studio apartment in Montreal? Alex Trebek wouldn’t look quite as smart if the Final Jeopardy topic every night was “Maple Syrup, ehh?”

“I’ll take shirtless game show hosts with salt-and-pepper mustaches for $200, please.”

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Every year, there is a Biggest Game Ever, also known as The Game to End All Others and The Most Important Game of Their Lives. We see it in football, baseball, hockey, and basketball, on the college and professional levels, in high schools, and, naturally, in the Olympics.

With that in mind, it’s hard to put into perspective how big Sunday’s gold-medal game between the U.S. and Canada is. No matter who wins, the players comprising both teams will break and go their separate directions, back to their NHL employers to jump right into the stretch run of the regular season. Little time will be left for celebration and/or dismay, but today they play for country, for that classic symbol of team on the front of the jersey. Two teams stocked full of millionaires and future millionaires are playing, for free, for national pride.

That ought to tell you something.

By virtue of having played each other, one team was guaranteed to lose at least one game in these Olympics. USA won that first meeting last Sunday, 5-3, one win out of five that has them sitting 5-0 and in position to finish with no worse than a silver medal. No one comes for silver, though, especially not a country with a proud hockey tradition. Anything but gold will be a disappointment, not in the sense of expectation, but in the sense that the chance for gold was theirs.

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This, the last day of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, ought to be a doozy. Before the closing ceremonies, the United States and Canada will battle for hockey supremacy, and some other people will compete for medals. Forgive us for the tunnel vision.

In honor on NBC’s “coverage” of the Winter Olympics, we pay homage with a multifaceted train wreck of a sports program.

You’re all familiar with Brian Collins, formerly the worst sports broadcaster ever and of “Boom goes the dynamite!” fame. The video below is what an entire broadcast would look like if Collins was responsible for every aspect of production:

People, long time no write. I’ve been reassigned to the best basketball team in the city, explaining why there has been little about the Sixers this week. Really, there’s not much to say. On to ‘Nova…

Tonight’s game between No. 8 Villanova and No. 4 Syracuse undoubtedly is the biggest game in the Big East thus far this season. While conference rivals for some time now, rarely have the two teams faced when both are at or near the top of their games.

Even bigger than the Big East implications are the national standing of both these teams. With a win, Syracuse has a real chance to jump to No. 1 in the polls, as No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Kentucky both lost Saturday. No. 3 Purdue will play No. 14 Michigan State on the road Sunday without its best player, Robbie Hummel, who is done for the season with a torn ACL.

For its part, Villanova needs a win to keep pace in the conference and establish some confidence after recent losses to Georgetown and Pitt. A victory tonight also puts them in a tie with Syracuse atop the Big East.

A record crowd is expected at the Carrier Dome for the nine p.m. tip-off, which will be broadcast on ESPN. And with that, we have some pregame links:

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Roy Halladay, possibly the best pitcher the Phillies have had since Cliff Lee, will make his debut in red pinstripes Thursday. His opponent? An opponent No. 34 knows quite well, one whom Halladay has dominated in his MLB career: the New York Yankees, commonly known as the Evil Empire.

If one were to doubt Doc’s credentials, they need not look further than his numbers against the perennially stiff competition of the AL East. Halladay, whom the Phils acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in December, is 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA in 37 appearances (35 starts) against the Yankees in his career.

Kyle Kendrick will also pitch in the game, making it a no-brainer the marquee event will be carried live by Comcast Sports Net at 1:05 p.m. Thursday.