Saturday Open Bar: "NINE-TEEN EIGHT-Y!" *CLAP, CLAP, CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!!!*

At the time this post goes live, the US-Russia puck drops in 30 minutes, so let's be like Bylsma and for some reason make it Quick, shall we?

HOCKEY NEWS:

• The United States of America. Russia. Here's Chris Peters' preview. Come for the picture of David Backes knocking out Ivan Drago, stay for...well, to keep staring at that picture of awesomeness! Also, the in-depth coverage. [United States of Hockey]
• Jonathan Quick will again be starting in net. For America. [Puck Daddy]
• Blue Jackets goalie and reigning Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky will start. For those dirty Russkies. [Pro Hockey Talk]
• Did you know that once upon a time, a different US hockey team beat a different Russian hockey team? It's still kind of a big deal. [Pro Hockey Talk]
• In un-American news, there were other games yesterday. Sweden narrowly took care of the Swiss, while Austria was so dreadful they couldn't even beat Canada! [NHL.com 2/14]
• By the time you read this, Slovakia and Slovenia will likely have already ended - let's hope that Jaroslav Halak bounced back, and maybe stoned Anze Kopitar a couple times, too. Later today the Swedes finish their preliminary round. [NHL.com 2/15]
• In the world of SLGT, CanesAndBlues fan crunched some more numbers, this time to find if goalies are binomial. Don't worry, I had to bring up Dictionary.com for that too. [SLGT]

OTHER SHIT:

• After you celebrate America this morning, celebrate St. Louis the rest of the day! There are STL250 celebrations happening all over the city, but you can start small, by learning some history of our founding! [STLToday]
• Today is US-Russia AND STL250 - what else could you possibly want?

VIDEOS:

Your Science Saturday today is...less science, but it does fit with the theme of the morning! We must protect our precious bodily fluids!

Today is the first time the US and Russian senior national teams we face each other since last year's World Championships...where THIS happened, and I assume this exact scoreline will happen again. WE WANT EIGHT! WE WANT EIGHT!

If you don't send me links, I'll have to assume that you're a Red spy and have you appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee - they've been waiting 76 years to uncover even a single Communist! (Seriously, they never did...man was Joseph McCarthy fucking crazy!)

• jasonmcadams1120 AT gmail DOT com
• @JMill1120
• As an added bonus, I'm also curating the United States Tweet Week twitter account this week - you may remember our Bostonian friend Sarah Connors held the reigns a few months ago - so I'll be live tweeting the games from that account until next Friday. You can find me there at @TwkUSA - give it a follow and watch me represent 'Murika!

Also, I hope to see you guys at Amsterdam Tavern for some breakfast beers & some proper American ass-kicking!