Russian hockey player or Wonder Woman?

I can't get over the atrocious socks that the Russian hockey team is wearing during the Olympics. The vertical stripes down the front make them look like Wonder Woman. Take a look for yourself:














The fact that some players (like Ovechkin) secure their socks with colored athletic tape makes the look even worse, because the horizontally-applied tape cuts the line of the stripe, making it look like there are two segments of striping on the sock. It's just not a good look.

A few other quick thoughts after the hockey game. As I said in my previous post, Russia looked sloppy, despite winning 8-2. The aspect of their play that worried me the most was the number of no-look passes the players were dishing out. A no-look pass can be great at the right time in a game, but it doesn't make sense to make a pass like that when there are several players from the opposing team between you and your teammate. Hopefully the team will look at the game tape and decide that they don't need to be as fancy when moving the puck.

What bothered me the most, however, was a discussion the announcers (I believe it was Kenny Albert and Joe Micheletti) had about Sergei Gonchar's wife. They mentioned that Gonchar had met her at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, where his wife was an ice dancer for Armenia. They then noted that Gonchar's wife came in last in that Olympics, which was 24th place. They were clearly laughing about her last place finish. After listening to Bob Costas talk about how for most athletes just being part of the Olympic experience is an accomplishment, it was disappointing to hear two announcers laughing about someone who went to the games and competed, even if she didn't do well. They did end the discussion by saying something like "at least she made it to the games," but even that wasn't all that great, and their comment that "at least she found a husband!" was off-putting at best.

More hockey tonight, with Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia being the most notable teams. Russia plays again tomorrow.