Thursday Morning Fly By: You going down, Canada: Part one.

Friendly, on-going reminder: Please keep all Olympics discussion to the Olympics post so that the Fly By can remain spoiler-free. Thanks!

*It's USA v. Canada for the gold in women's hockey today at noon. GET IT LADIES! [CTV]

*Yesterday saw Team USA, Team Canada, Team Finland, and Team Sweden advance to the quarterfinals.

*Perhaps the biggest surprised was Russia's defeat, which can be attributed to their lack of high-end talent on the back end. [Backhand Shelf]

*Five more theories about the Russian loss. [ProHockeyTalk]

*And then there's this incredibly weird interview with the Russian head coach... [The Score]

*Players think the playoffs and the Olympics are each special in their own way. [Chicago Sun-Times]

*Patrick Kane thinks Phil Kessel is the best player he's ever played with. Take that, Toews. [SportsNet]

*The ratings for the Winter Olympics are down as a whole, but the hockey games have been a lone bright spot. [Forbes]

*A look at Nicklas Grossmann and the problem with blocking shots. [BSH]

*Midterm 25 Under 25: Anthony Stolarz. [BSH]

*Claude Giroux was happy to be back on the ice; spoke to the media after practice. [Flyers]

*About that practice: ASF says Vincent Lecavalier may have benefited the most from the time off. Which is great news. Also, a look at what the current Flyers have in common with the team that made the finals in 2010.