Check Out Sochi for a Nice Winter Break

Published on 9-Feb-2014 by Chips 10

NHL    NHL Daily Update

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Check Out Sochi for a Nice Winter Break

February is usually the toughest sports month, as football has ended and the winter sports are in their dog days.

This year, however, we get a treat. The Olympics are back.

And with the host country spanning nine time zones these days -- they amalgamated two -- it took a while for the torch to travel from Greece to every point of the world's largest nation:

In this digital age, media in countries like the USA have every second covered. The trouble with coverage in Western nations is that Sochi -- in Russia on the coast of the Black Sea -- is nine hours ahead of their Eastern time zone. So for once, networks like NBC aren't taking flak for putting events on delay.

Canada's CBC has traditionally been exemplary in its Olympic coverage, carrying everything live and assembling highlight packages at set times. NBC Sports took the cue since the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and has carried virtually every event live on at least one of its many digital platforms, which in clude MSNBC, the USA Network, the NBC Live Extra app, and NBC itself.

Now, early in the morning, it's possible to see a speed skating event on one of the outlets, and when it's repeated on a different station later on, it sometimes takes a while to realize it's the same event or race.

Even though the biathlon, the skiathlon, ski jumping, and ice dancing are so much bigger in the European countries, when you take a look at what else is available for sports viewing, why not tune in?

The NBA has its over-hyped All-Star Game next weekend, and right now most of its regular-season games are just featuring players going through the motions with two months left in the season. The NHL is on a three-week break. College hoops will have some great games, and even has a Syracuse-Pitt and Duke-North Carolina double-header coming up on Wed 12 Feb, but everyone understands that no matter what -- even if the Orange remain undefeated -- nothing matters for the big brand teams in college basketball until March.

As one only occurs every other year for roughly two weeks, The Daily Player doesn't exactly have an Olympics section, with the exception of NHL players participating in the hockey tournament. So if any topic involving the Winter Olympics appears on this site, look for it in the Hockey section.

And do know that Bovada is front and center for action on each Olympic event, no matter how obscure. In that sense, think of curling, for example, as a sort of Super Bowl prop bet.