Sydney Heatwave

So, Friday was the hottest day ever recorded in Sydney's Central Business District. It hit an unimaginable 45.8 at Observatory Hill just before 2.00pm, breaking a record high that had stood since January 1939. There was a wall of heat in the city. Thanks to the lack of sea breeze, the mercury soared far higher than the expected CBD top. You could not be outside and hope to escape the heat. It was just incredible, a blanket that seemed to be suffocating the entire city.

Getting home on Friday was a disaster. I mean, it's hot, abnormally so, and you can expect that the trains might be having problems coping - people certainly were. But how do you explain thing like trains sitting alongside platforms for as long as 30 minutes without any announcement on the platform or in the carriages. At least, none that were in what I would call passable English. They were garbled or else spoken at quickfire rate by people who had a distinct accent. Just as well they're all going to the Australian Radio School, or whatever it's called, for their training from now on.

This isn't a knock on those folks, who're doing what they're told. It's a knock on City Rail not understanding how much people need to know what's going on in this sort of situation and making arrangements whereby there are people with clear voices who are well-spoken and precise behind the microphones. That would help. The thing that people complained about the most was the lack of information being passed along. Everyone understood that the heat was causing problems. You knew it before you went to the station. Not hearing much of anything worthwhile gets people angry.

Also, it would be wonderful for City Rail and the NSW Government to perhaps leap ahead in these technological times and run fully air-conditioned trains everywhere, like in any other civilised city in the world. As I tweeted from Town Hall Station on Friday:

It's damn near criminal for City Rail to be running non-air conditioned trains on a day where it reached 40 in the city! #heatwave #CityRail

And it's true. Traveling on those silver trains for any length of time - like, for example, City to Liverpool via Bankstown - had to be a fresh kind of hell. Hot, with no breeze, and a full trian because of so many previously cancelled ones. Luckily, I managed, through more good luck than good management, to snag a train that was air-conditioned. 

After traversing the City Circle, we stopped at Central and had to wait for a new driver. There was another train on the adjacent platform, one that wasn't air-conditioned. A PA announcement was made that the other train would be leaving in two minutes, to the same destination as the one we were on. Less than a quarter of the packed train left the cool of the Waratah train for the silver rattler. I don't blame them.

City Rail, something has to be done! I know it isn't always this hot, but those rattlers are approaching unbearable on days when the ambient temperature isn't much over 30. I don't even want to imagine what it was like on Friday. One day, someone's going to get on one of those things on a hot day, have a serious heat-related illness and then there'll be hell to pay.

Thank God the cool change came through Friday night!!

NHL 2013 - FOX Sports Australia: Interrupted Transmission

How pumped was I for hockey being back? I got up before 7.00am on a Sunday ready to watch the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings raise their Championship Banner before taking on the Chicago Blackhawks in the first game of a season we've waited a long time for. 

In America, the plan was for NBC to show the entire Stanley Cup ceremony and the first five minutes (real time) of the Kings vs. 'Hawks and then some of the country would switch over to the Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh game. But not FOX Sports Two in Australia, at least not according to their Electronic Program Guide.

When Dave Strader announced that the Pens vs. Flyers game was about to start I expected nothing to change...but a few seconds later, we got the usual arena shot behind the Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia graphic. Eh, no big deal - I mean, hockey's hockey, right? And we've waited long enough. And it wasn't as though they'd switched over to a boring match-up. Pens vs. Flyers is blood rivalry stuff, so it wasn't all bad.

Except that the NBC commentary didn't come along with it. I mean, it was kinda nice to not hear Pierre McGuire between the benches, but oddly more annoying to see him talking without the words coming out. And I missed Doc Emrick's voice. The game started....and continued...and continued. No sound. Finally a graphic promising that audio would be back. Then another graphic announcing that FOX Sports would resume Chicago vs. LA coverage soon.

Then an ad break. A random one. Come back, and there's a second goal on the board for Pittsburgh. So we missed a goal, but finally the sound is back. No sign of the defending Stanley Cup champions. Crowd restless in Philly, down 0-2 to their hated rivals. Starting to feel the same way. But at least there's a game with sound on my TV.

8:06 gone in the first period and a graphic comes up. FOX Sports "endeavouring" to return us to Chicago vs. LA shortly. Finally, at the end of the first period in Philadelphia and after an intermission report...back to LA. Hello, Strades, Edzo and Engblom. But really? It's 3-0 already. Half the scoring's done. The game's basically over. Why did FOX not just stick with the battle east in Philadelphia? At least we'd seen the entire contest - albeit some without sound, but still, the pictures were there - and it made sense to continue. Instead, we saw a period of one game and two periods of another. Disjointed viewing if ever I've seen it...and a strange start to the already strange 2013 of the National Hockey League

Not a good start for FOX Sports. Two live games a week will be awesome, as long as we can get sound and picture for both. And one full game, rather than bits of both. Not too much to ask, is it?

2013 Rolex 24 at Daytona - Australian TV Guide

The first major event of the motorsport season is upon us again, with Daytona Prototypes and GT cars set to do battle at Daytona International Speedway for the 2013 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Round One of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The twice-round-the-clock classic features the usual assortment of Grand-Am guns, plus stars from the IndyCar Series, NASCAR and international sports car drivers from all over the globe. 

This year, Australia's own Marcos Ambrose will drive for Michael Shank Racing, the defending race champions, and looks to have a good shot at what would undoubtedly be the biggest victory of his career.

SPEED in Australia has hours of live coverage, a direct simulcast of the SPEED coverage out of North America, featuring Bob Varsha, Brian Till, Dorsey Schroeder, Calvin Fish and others.

All times AEDT

Sunday January 27

7.00am - 3.00pm
(Green flag approximately 7.30am)

Monday January 28

1.00am - 8.00am
(Checkered flag: 8.30am)

NHL 2013: Australian TV Guide (20-27 January 2013)

The NHL is back! After a couple of months spent watching World Juniors, Canadian junior and NCAA hockey, it's great to know that the big boys are back!!

Finally, a labour dispute that shouldn't have taken as long as it did to resolve has been put to bed, with a ten-year (opt out at eight) Collective Bargaining Agreement ratified by both sides! That means we can drop the puck! FOX Sports in Australia say they will show "at least" 2 LIVE games per week as the teams rip through a compacted and shortened 48-game regular season before Stanley Cup Playoffs. The good news? There'll be hockey right into late July.

Sunday's (in Australia) Opening Day features the Stanley Cup banner raising ceremony in Los Angeles prior to the defending champions opening their 2013 campaign against a Chicago Blackhawks team that figures to be a force in the West this year.

All times AEDT

Sunday 20 January

Los Angeles Kings vs. Chicago Blackhawks (7.00am; FOX Sports Two)

Play-by-Play: Dave Strader
Analyst: Eddie Olczyk
Inside the Glass: Brian Engblom

Saturday 26 January

Vancouver Canucks vs. Anaheim Ducks (2.00pm; FOX Sports Two)

Play-by-Play: TBA
Analyst: TBA
Inside the Glass: TBA

This Week...Gopher Hockey

Well, it's been a pretty good seven days for the University of Minnesota University Men's hockey program. 

The Gophers, coming off a successful Mariucci Classic campaign in the waning days of 2012 - including a wonderful 8-1 triumph in the Championship game, against the same Boston College Eagles team who ousted the Gophers in the Frozen Four semi-final last year, to the tune of 6-1 - started off 2013 with a bang. 

Securing their No. 1 ranking after the shellacking of the Eagles, and with the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish coming to town, there was a feeling that, potentially, the Gophers would suffer a letdown. After all, the game against BC had been fast, hard and tough from the outset and after such a morale-boosting win to close out the old year, it was always possible that the team would come out flat in another big game.

Thankfully, it wasn't a problem. The Gophers scored early - a wonderful drop pass from Zach Budish for a laser from the top of the right circle off the stick of Nate Condon for a 1-0 lead - and they scored often, out-muscling Notre Dame when necessary, and riding another sterling performance from freshman goalie Adam Wilcox to a 4-1 victory. It wasn't as physical a contest as against Boston College, but the maroon-and-gold jerseys asserted their collective will where necessary. It was a powerful message sent from Minneapolis to the rest of the college hockey world, on top of the one sent at the end of the Boston College demolition: Dear rest of the NCAA, the Gophers are for real.

Three days later - a tough rebound after such a big-time game against the Irish - the Gophers were back in action, against an Alaska-Anchorage team who figured to be pesky. And they were. The Seawolves went up 1-0 in the opening game of the weekend, and after taking a 2-1 lead into the third period, it was a wild final frame that first saw AK-Anchorage go up 3-2 before the Gophers came roaring back, thanks in part to a bad Seawolves penalty - a five-minute major - that sent the big gunners on the Minnesota offense to work. Bang-Bang! Nick Bjugstad scored, and, with fifty-one seconds left to play in a tie game, Bryan Marshall broke his twelve game goal drought with the game winner, and it was Minnesota, 4-3.

Saturday night, the Gophers came out on a mission. Unlike the close game one night before, Minnesota jumped all over the Seawolves, scoring 2-2-3 in the three periods for a commanding 7-1 win that featured Kyle Rau's first career hat trick (which gave him the team scoring lead, which Bjugstad had held for only one night), and, perhaps most important of all, a chance to rest Wilcox midway through the final period. After a ten-save performance, Wilcox rode the pine for the final 7:53, allowing Michael Shibrowski to make a rare appearance, and two saves, and the Gophers ran out the clock, storming to their eighth consecutive victory.

The Gophers maintain their No. 1 ranking heading into this weekend -- the blood feud series against North Dakota, who will be Minnesota's third nationally-ranked opponent in six weeks. It will also be the last regular season WCHA match-up between these long-time rivals. A tough schedule is a good schedule, especially after the weak schedule last year was show up by Boston College in the Frozen Four , and anything above a 1-1 series split this weekend stands the Gophers in wonderful stead heading into the WCHA stretch run.

Notes:

1. Wilcox improves to 15-2-3, best in the WCHA, with two wins this weekend
2. Bjugstad held the team's scoring lead for just twenty-four hours, before Rau's hat trick relegated him to second place again.
3. 2-0 record vs. AK-Anchorage is the Gophers' first WCHA season sweep
4. Rau's hat trick was the first since a 5-goal Bjugstad effort vs. St Cloud State in November of 2011

Book Review: "Threat Vector" - Tom Clancy

"Threat Vector" - Tom Clancy

A lot has been made of the comparison between Clancy's earliest and most critically acclaimed novels - say, "The Hunt for Red October" or "Clear and Present Danger" - featuring Jack Ryan, John Clark and so many other characters from the incredible universe that Tom Clancy created, and his more recent work - "Red Rabbit" or "The Teeth of the Tiger" - which are either described as being slow and clunky, or else feature more of Jack Ryan Junior than the original Ryan. Then there's the alleged controversy over Clancy co-writing with another author.

I'll say it right now - I've enjoyed every major book that Clancy has ever written. To clarify, I mean his Ryan novels, Red Storm Rising and the more recent books co-written with either Mark Greaney, Grant Blackwood or Peter Telep, rather than the Op Centre, Power Plays or Net Force series'. Yes, you can tell the parts that the co-writer has put together, and you can wonder about how much content Clancy actually contributed, but, at the end of the day, there are few better story tellers in the world than Tom Clancy. Any novel, written fully by him or with the help of another author, that delves into the so-called Ryanverse, is a good thing in my book.

And Threat Vector is good. Not great, but certainly not as bad as many doom-and-gloomers on the internet have suggested. The intricate plot lines, cutting-edge technology and exciting action scenes are all back. Once again, Jack Ryan Junior and the off-the-books intelligence unit, The Campus, are front and centre, but Jack Ryan Senior, recently re-elected President of the United States, features more in this novel than in the last few, as the White House and the Campus must deal with a scandal involving the Chinese and cyber warfare, which takes Clancy's writing into a new realm, keeping him well in step with the changing world. And ripped-from-the-headlines have always been a Clancy specialty.

A few old characters return - some only in cameo roles, like President Ryan's brilliant chief of staff Arnie Van Damn and First Lady Cathy Ryan - and others who contribute greatly to the story. Fantastic to see the names Clark, Chavez and Foley jump off the page. If the more recent Clancy novels have been lacking something, it's the focus on newer characters from the Campus, although some are very good, rather than the Old Guard whose exploits we've followed for years and years.

There's a satisfying ending, and plot lines that began in the previous book, Locked On (which, in turn, extended or finished story arcs from Dead or Alive), are wrapped up, and you finish the novel with a solid understanding of where each of the characters are at. The only frustrating thing is the incredible amount of backstory, pages and pages on each character, which didn't feel completely necessary. You don't need to know in-depth about the childhoods of all these people to care about them. The book might've been significantly shorter had these chunks of detail been removed. And, I don't think the story would've been any worse off, either.

Ultimately, there's no cliffhanger ending at the end of Threat Vector, like there was to Locked On. Perhaps this is a product of Clancy not knowing whether there'll be a follow up. If not, it's been a solid trilogy of books bringing Clancy's old characters into a new age, after too long without a Ryanverse novel. 

Rating: 3.5 stars (from a possible 5)

Book Review: "The Boys of Winter" - Wayne Coffey

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

  By Wayne Coffey

Sports Illustrated suggested the Miracle on Ice was the greatest moment in Olympic history. They're nor off the mark. 

As far as hockey lore goes, there are few games that have ever matched the David vs Goliath quality that the USA vs. USSR semi-final at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York did. The all-conquering USSR outfit came in unbackable favourites. Here was a team, basically hockey professional, who had played together, in some instances, since the first time they had ever laced up skates. This team was made up of legendary names: Tretiak, Mikhailov, Kharlarmov, Fetisov and Krutov. They were coached by a legend, Viktor Tikhonov. 

Against them, a bunch of American college kids from an under-rated NCAA system, who hadn't been together for more than a year. They came from schools like Boston University, Minnesota, Wisconsin and others. Thanks to notable collegiate rivalries, these kids didn't like each other. They didn't like their coach, Herb Brooks from Minnesota. At least, the kids from Boston didn't. Soon-to-be team hero Mark Johnson's father, Bob, a legendary coach at Wisconsin, didn't like Brooks, either, and Brooks had been worried that he might pull Mark from the team. Yet, the team soon gelled, the fighting and squabbling amongst each other a thing of the past. Brooks cast himself as the bad guy, and united the team as one, against him. Risky, but a master stroke in the end. Moreover, he came up with a plan to beat the Russians at their own game. And succeeded.

Coming into that fateful semi-final in Lake Placid, which would forever change hockey in both countries, the Soviets had been on a tear. In the Olympic tournaments since losing to the USA in the Gold Medal game in the Squaw Valley Olympics of 1960, the Soviets had gone an incredible 27–1–1, outscoring their opposition 175–44. In that time, the cumulative score against the United States was 28-7. Even the biggest American optimist had grave doubts whether their team could match it with the USSR, let alone win.

Boys of Winter - The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team tells the story of the game, the players, the coaches, the match officials and the Olympics of Lake Placid themselves. After a foreword from goalie/hero Jim Craig, Wayne Coffey proceeds to bring to life the game as expertly and vividly as any other writer I've ever read. It's so well written and so intricately described that you feel you can see each play come to life, as if springing from the page and to life.

In between thrilling game narration and description - every big play, from a sprawling Jim Craig save to crisp moments of Russian puck possession, to goals that are now slices of history: Johnson's last-gap first period marker, and Eruzione's despertae, thrilling game winner in the third - are insights on the key characters in the game. This book presents both sides of the story. You learn as much about Johnson and Eruzione as you do about Tretiak and Krutov. Brooks is brought to life brilliantly, as is Tikhonov. Coffey takes time to delve into the current-day whereabouts of a lot of the players, detailing how Miracle fame - or infamy, depending on which jersey you wore - has changed life for those who had their lives inexplicably altered over the course of sixty desperate minutes of hockey in February of 1980.

There's interesting detail about the changing face of USSR sport and their ideas about victory and competition since the 1917 revolution, and in the years after the Second World War, when, in the devastated Soviet nation, sport was seen as a way to take people's minds off the larger problems plaguing their country. Learning about the Olympics, and the Miracle on Ice game, from a Russian perspective makes them seem less like the cardboard cut-out bad guys, and more like human beings, Soviet versions, if you will, of Eruzione, Craig, Christian or Broten.

Interestingly, Coffey also paints a vivid picture of Lake Placid and it's Olympics, perhaps the last true amatuer games, held in a beautiful village snug in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, so far from the sprawling cities and commercial deals that now seem to dominate Olympic competition.  Coffey sets his story well against the climate of the world and of an Olympic  set against rising gas prices, American despair and the continuing Cold War. Also, Al Michaels' road to being the play-by-play commentator for the game is documented. And record-setting speed skater Eric Heiden - for whom, also, 1980 was a memorable Olympics - is woven into the fast-moving and interesting narrative, as are the incredible scenes of jubilation post-game.

Through it all, you come to know well players on both sides (and the officials) and despite knowing how the game ends, there is a great build-up to the history-making goal by Mike Eruzione, and the finale does not disappoint. How can it, when, throughout the retelling of the game and the exploration of it's participants, you come to feel a personal connection to all the characters. When the game is over, the book continues - but not for long enough. It's one of those books that you never want to reach the last page of!

Boys of Winter is a brilliant story of two hockey teams, and how the game itself, a simple contest for sixty minutes on a sheet of ice in Lake Placid, New York, was and became so much more than that. If you're a hockey fan, this is a must-read. And even those with a limited knowledge and love of the game will find something in this, for it tells the incredible story of one of the greatest feats in Olympic history. 

Trust me, if you live and breath hockey, this is a story that simply won't disappoint.

NCAA College Football 2012: End Of Season Awards

Another season is done, and the Crimson Tide/Nick Saban/South-Eastern Conference domination - or, is that dynasty? - continues. Here are my picks of the year:

Team of the Year: Impossible to go past Alabama. Their BCS National Championship performance solidified what most people had already concluded: that this football team, stacked with talent and coached by one of the greatest perfectionists in the great history of the game, is the best of the best at the moment. If you want to know how good you are, go play Alabama. It's that simple.

Player of the Year: Impossible to go past Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M). Or is that Johnny Football? Or Johnny Heisman? Whatever you want to call him, you also must call him the first freshman to ever win college football's most prestigious individual award. Whatever else happens, Manziel will be famous for claiming the Heisman at his first opportunity. His performance in the Cotton Bowl - 500+ yards in the rout of Oklahoma - showed that there's no Heisman Hangover. Just wait for next year...

Biggest Surprise: As a USC fan, this hurts to say. Undoubtedly, Notre Dame. From un-ranked and basically an afterthought amongst the Oklahoma's, Alabama's and USC's of the college football world, Brian Kelly's squad nearly pulled off one of the greatest seasons in history. Except they ran into that Alabama buzz saw on Monday night in Miami. Even with that shellacking at the hands of Saban's men, this season was an incredible transformation for a team and a program many thought would never reclaim it's former glory. Instead, it's fair to say that Brian Kelly is doing exactly that: making Notre Dame relevant again.

Biggest Disappointment: As a USC fan, this also hurts to say. Without question, USC. National championships and Heisman's were the order of the day over the summer, with returning QB Matt Barkley, surely a #1 NFL Draft pick, and a corps of incredible receivers coming back. The Trojans had come out from under the shadow of their Bowl ban, and with a stacked team, seemed likely to roll through the PAC-12 and onto the National Championship. Except that the defense was terrible, Barkley was erratic at times, and UCLA were the best team in Southern California this year. Oh, and they lost the Sun Bowl - not the Bowl destination anyone had in mind for Lane Kiffin's men prior to the start of this year - to a 6-7 Georgia Tech team who needed an NCAA waiver to get into the post-season. Lane Kiffin was lucky not to be fired. His father, defensive coordinator, Monte, seemingly went before he was pushed.

Defensive Player Of The Year: Manti Te'O (Notre Dame). The Fighting Irish linebacker was a man possessed in the middle of Bob Diaco's defense this year. He came to symbolise the resurgence of Notre Dame football under Brian Kelly, and was a Heisman finalist in a competition normally dominated by offensive players. A rough BCS National Championship might see his stock plummet, but the body of his work this entire season is, by anyone's estimation, impressive.

Offensive Player Of The Year: Johnny Manziel, again. No one in college football - not this season, certainly, and maybe not ever - managed to run an offensive show like Johnny Football. He ran and passed and generally confused the heck out of defenses on a regular basis. The scary thing is he's only a freshman, and has three years of college eligibility still left to come. If Kevin Sumlin's staff can ensure he doesn't take too many hits, the way Denard Robinson has, watch out...

Coach Of The Year: Bill Snyder (Kansas State). Tough to go past Brian Kelly for his resurrection of Notre Dame football or Nick Saban for the another National Championship, but the Kansas State Wildcats, led by their own quarterback star, Collin Klein, were a loss away from playing in the National Championship themselves. Those dreams ended in Baylor, but Snyder's work in making the Wildcats a legitimate national power after years in the shadows of other Big XII teams should not go unnoticed. Klein played a large part, but Snyder's also a very, very good coach. It's not the first time he's done this sort of work in Manhattan, Kansas, either.

Conference Of The Year: The SEC. No contest. The seventh straight BCS National Championship for the South-Eastern Conference. This wasn't just a win, but a shellacking of what people thought was a good football team in Notre Dame - a team that some thought could beat the Tide. The SEC also produced the first freshman Heisman Trophy winner in Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel. Pretty nice double, that one.

And that's that - 2012 in a nutshell. See you after the off-season!!

NCAA Football 2013: Discover BCS National Championship

No. 2 Alabama def. No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14

Well, wasn't this a fizzer? For all the talk about how this Discover BCS National Championship would feature two great football programs, traditional powers, huge fanbases...all of that, it turned out that there was really only one great program on the field at Sunlife Stadium in Miami Gardens tonight. At least, only one great program when it counted. Alabama are kings of the college football world, the South Eastern Conference is the still the dominant conference in the sport, and Notre Dame are going to remain in the national eye for a little while longer through this winter, though for all the wrong reasons.

Right from the get-go, Alabama smacked Notre Dame in the mouth, dominating every phase of the football game, and they didn't stop until the very end, when their 42-14 victory was being celebrated on the Crimson Tide sidelines. The first half for Notre Dame was so bad that Head Coach Brian Kelly joked during his half-time ESPN interview that the only way the second half would be any better than the first for the Irish - who looked completely hapless and woefully outclassed tonight; the old men vs. boys scenario - was if Alabama decided to not take the field.

Alas, that didn't happen, and although the second half was a 14-14 tie, all the damage had been done in the first, with Alabama roaring, snarling, throttling Notre Dame all the way to a 35-0 lead. This was a rout of epic proportions, and not even those who dreamed of the Irish being embarassed on this big a stage could have imagined the Golden Domers would be dissected as they were. 

If last year's BCS National Championship was QB AJ McCarron's coming out party, then this was his national coronation. The well-spoken kid who could make all the throws tonight - and, apparently, can attract drop-dead gorgeous women, too - was on fire: 20-28 for 264 yards and 4 TDs. Then there was the running game, the two-headed monster of Eddie Lacy (20 carries, 140 yards and a TD) and TJ Yeldon (21 carries, 108 yards and a TD), which dominated when McCarron wasn't doing the same. Combined, the Tide rolled up a whopping 529 yards of total offense, previously unthinkable against the Fighting Irish defense, which had been stout all year.

On defense, the Crimson Tide really did roll. The vaunted Notre Dame run game was held to a meagre 32 yards on 19 carries. The inability to run against the Alabama front put the fortunes of the team - the program - and the weight of expectation squarely on the shoulders of QB Everitt Golson (21-36 for 270 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT) who was okay at times, made some bad throws at other times and, occasionally, was completely monstered by the Alabama defense. A lot of those passing yards came late in the game, too, well after the Tide had put the proverbial cue in the rack.

On the sidelines, Brian Kelly's game plan folded like a house of cards, and, across on the other side of the field, Nick Saban's seemed perfect. The man whose NFL coaching career barely got out of the blocks with the Miami Dolphins had something of a night of retribution on the same field where the South Beach NFL franchise plays it's home games. It's Saban's fourth National Championship: three with Alabama and one, before his short-lived NFL career, with LSU. There's no reason to think he'll stop at that number, either. This is becoming a dynasty. The Tide faithful will want more, expect more.

And so ends another college football season with Alabama certain to be pre-season No. 1, and with so many returning players, it's hard to think that they couldn't come back and go for their third consecutive - and fourth in five years - National Championship. You know Nick Saban's already thinking about it...

Traveler: Lake Placid, New York

A wintertime exploration of the tiny, historic Olympic village of Lake Placid, New York.

If you're not a died-in-the-wool hockey fan, haven't seen the movie "Miracle" or aren't either a resident of upstate New York, chances are good that when you hear Lake Placid mentioned in passing, you think of the dodgy movie starring Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda and a man-eating crocodile in a Floridian lake. 

Well, there's a whole different Lake Placid, and it's pretty much at the opposite end of the country to the one featured in the so-bad-it's-good movie. Sitting snugly in the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountain Range, not all that far from the Canadian border, the home of the 1980 Winter Olympics - and, if you believe the Sports Illustrated poll, the home of the single greatest moment in Olympic history - is a very well kept secret, a alpine charming village set amongst incredible scenery and, perfectly, home to some of the best skiing anywhere in the United States of America.

We drove from New York City, out through New Jersey, and back into New York State, roughly following the Hudson River for most of the time. North of Albany and Saratoga Springs, we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts in Glens Falls, New York. From there, the Adirondack Northway skirts the bottom of Lake George, and north-west climbing higher and higher into the mountains. Outside, the temperature does the opposite: it drops, quickly and often.

It's hard to believe that Lake Placid is less than five hours from the concrete canyons of Manhattan. It might as well be an entire world away. You go from the maze of concrete and sometimes-insane crush of people to the endlessly beautiful and snow-covered Adirondacks, and it's a nice sea change. Being out of the city was fun. A city is a city pretty much anywhere in the world, each one's particular landmarks not withstanding, but being on the open road and passing through small towns and larger ones gives you a better glimpse at the oft-mentioned "real America." Upstate New York in winter is pretty. It must be amazing in the fall, too.

You arrive in Lake Placid, and the first thing that pops out are the twin ski-jumping hills (http://www.whiteface.com/activities/olympic-jumping-complex-tour), rising over the trees. Not like the modern jumps that are often built into the hill, these two towers stand out above everything else, and were home to the ski jumping contests at the 1980 Winter Olympics. They're still used today by the US National team, both in summer and winter. In fact, there is a lot of Olympic development and training taking place in various facilities around the village.

Visitors can ride the chairlift from the bottom of the hill, and then take an elevator to the very top of the tower. It's an incredible view from the summit, towering over the landscape, and a wonderful way to illustrate the courage - or, is that insanity? - of the ski jumpers. We did, and it was pretty cool...but, if I'd had any inclination to become one of those Lycra-clad daredevils, being at the top of the ramp, and experiencing a little vertigo, convinced me that ski jumping just isn't my thing. More fun is the nearby snow tubing hill (http://www.whiteface.com/activities/snow-tubing). You don't need to be nearly as much of a daredevil for that. Just bring a sense of fun and you're all set!

The Crowne Plaza Resort & Golf Club (http://www.lakeplacidcp.com/), up on the hill overlooking the village (and a short walk from the 1980 'Miracle' Rink) is my accommodation of choice in Lake Placid. The views are unparalleled, the rooms are tidy, the food at the restaurant is sensational and everything around the village is so close: walking distance. Scoring a room on one of the upper floors, with a balcony, makes it even better. You can look out over the lake, to the rugged mountains in the distance. It's beautiful.

You get the sense that most people who come through the village are either hockey fans looking for Mecca or visitors in town for a tournament of some sort. There are a few public outdoor hockey rinks around town, and they always seemed to be full, people of all ages playing pickup games. There's nothing like watching from the other side of the boards, especially at night, and hearing the scrape-scrape of skates and the thwack of a crisp pass. Spellbinding!

Of course, a lot of the town's tourism is generated because of sixty memorable minutes of hockey back in February of 1980, and there are few shops in the village where you can't buy something either USA Hockey-related, or directly related to the Miracle on Ice game itself. In a town that lives and breathes hockey, what I love is how you can walk into either the 1932 or 1980 rink - as they are differentiated now - and pretty much anytime during waking hours in the fall or winter, there's a hockey game of some sort taking place on one or both of these famous sheets of ice.

Most famous, of course, is the Miracle on Ice rink (http://www.whiteface.com/facilities/olympic-center), where Jim Craig stood on his head in net for America, where Badger Bob's son Mark Johnson scored twice, where Tretiak, then the best goalie in the world, was unthinkably pulled after one period, and where Mike Eruzione became an American legend, scoring the game-winning goal that sent the cautiously optimistic crowd into raptures. Where kids named Harrington, Silk, Christian and Schneider became overnight heroes. And, of course, where a terse coach named Herb Brooks defied belief and conventional wisdom en route to Gold.

The rink was empty, completely empty, when I visited. Both times, actually. But that's fine. Standing in the silence, looking at the ice, the scoreboard and the uncomfortable-looking seats (which weren't used much that game; fans were on their feet for large portions), is quite compelling. So much of great Olympic importance happened on the sheet of ice in front of you. 

It's strange to see it for the first time.After all, this is where American hockey really stepped out of the shadows and into the bright spotlight. A bunch of college kids from rival schools who were taught to hate one another with a passion - that BU vs. Minnesota rivalry had been stoked in recent years - somehow united because a coach with a brainwave decided that if they all hated him as a team, they'd spend less time hating each other. And it worked. Back-stopped by Craig's frantic goal-tending, and with just enough offensive punch to counter the incredible amount of puck the all-conquering Russians, Team USA won a famous victory on home ice, advancing to an eventual Gold medal game against Finland, winning that one, too, after most pundits barely rated them an outside chance for bronze. 

It was Al Michaels' famous call - "Do you believe in miracles? YES!" - as the clock ran down to triple zeroes that immortalised the moment (so much so that Michaels recorded parts of the commentary for the movie "Miracle" and producers used his original call at the end, simply because that emotion just could not be recreated) and you can see the entire game on a TV, looping continuously, inside the fantastic Winter Olympic Museum (http://www.whiteface.com/activities/olympic-museum) in the same complex where the Miracle on Ice occurred. It's a fascinating look at both the 1980 and 1932 games, complete with a great collection of Miracle memorabilia. Most definitely worth a look!

Close by the Olympic Centre is the outdoor skating rink (http://www.whiteface.com/activities/public-ice-skating). There was history here, too, in 1980 when the great Eric Heiden won all the men's speed skating events - an incredible five gold medals - and cemented his place as, aarguably, the greatest short- or long-track speed skater in history. You can hire skates for a very modest price and turn laps on the same, wide 400m oval where Heiden skated to history. It's a great place to learn, or to skate for the first time after a hiatus, as the track is open and rarely hugely busy. Skating under the stars is an almost unmissable experience in Lake Placid.

Lake Placid's village (http://www.lakeplacid.com/) itself is a beautiful, beautiful place. If, like me, you're from a part of the world where you just don't see snow at Christmastime, this is one of those places to visit in the lead-up to Christmas - basically, any time from Thanksgiving onward - if you want to experience the feel of the holiday season as it's depicted in all the movies and all the songs. You can walk up and down the length of the village, going past souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, antique bookshops, a cinema and more. People are friendly, the food and drink are great, Christmas decorations are out in force, and if you're wearing a hockey jersey, no matter what team or country, you can almost guarantee that someone will stop and want to talk about the greatest game on earth. And, with postcard-perfect views of Mirror Lake in the background, you'll find yourself thinking that there are worse places on earth to be than in Lake Placid, New York.

About a half hour's drive from is High Falls Gorge (http://www.highfallsgorge.com/). The thirty-minute trail, a series of bridges and elevated trails through the wilderness alongside an impressive array of waterfalls and cascades, this is particularly worth a visit when there's snow on the ground. Or, as was the case when we were there, when it's actually snowing. Admission includes ice cleats that help you easily navigate whatever snow and ice might have accumulated on the trail. You also get to stop and toast your own marshmallows - quite an experience in the snow - and there's a hot drink waiting for you back at the entrance to the trail, which was certainly appreciated when we were there, after braving the driving snow.

Further on, in nearby Wilmington, is Whiteface Mountain (http://www.whiteface.com/), home to alpine Olympic events and also to a great array of terrain, off the highest vertical fall on the east coast of the United States. For me, cheap lift passes/ski hire, fast lifts, long runs, great - and well-priced food - at the base of the lifts makes a good day's skiing great. Whiteface has all of that and more. And, we had good weather. I mean, sparkling. You could not have asked for better weather: blue skies and sunshine. 

My first time skiing on the east coast was a blast, although following the downhill course from the 1980 Winter Olympics was more than a little scary. Fun, but scary. Like I discovered I wasn't going to be a ski jumper at the top of the tower in Lake Placid, at Whiteface Mountain, I discovered that I won't be signing up to be a downhill racer any time soon. If you're not a skier, I still recommend visiting Whiteface Mountain, so you can ride the Cloudsplitter Gondola (http://www.whiteface.com/activities/cloudsplitter-gondola-rides) right to the top. Amazing views, both of the resort and of nearby Lake Placid, all from what feels like the very top of the world!

Also worth a visit in and around Lake Placid: the Bobsled & Luge complex (http://www.whiteface.com/facilities/olympic-sports-complex/olympic-sliding-track), where, if you're lucky, you can watch bobsleds, luges or even the completely-crazy skeleton riders hurtle down the icy chute at speeds faster than you want to comprehend. Or, if you've got the need for speed yourself, try one of those three disciplines yourself!

And that's Lake Placid, New York: one of the most beautiful and friendly places I've ever visited. Great for hockey fans, yes, but great for anyone who loves the mountains. It's a place that you'll hate to leave - I did - and a place to which you'll want to come back - I did - and, most importantly, a place you won't soon forget. Rug up and have fun!

AK