Van Halen's 'Jump' blares from the speakers as I enter the Mastercard Centre for the 'Battle of the Blades' season 3 finale. It's actually appropriate considering all the twirls, spins and yes, jumps, the hockey players and figure skaters have showcased during the third season. The catchy tune is also whipping the crowd into a hand-clapping frenzy, and why not?



The finale's three remaining pairs -- Tessa Bonhomme and David Pelletier, Marie-France Dubreuil and Bryan Berard, and Tanith Belbin and Boyd Devereaux -- put everything out there with two spectacular performances. The first is a brand-new routine while the second has them repeating their favourite routine from earlier in the season.

With a $100,000 grand prize for charity on the line, not to mention bragging rights, the participants bring their A-games. Snazzy dresser Don Cherry joins resident judges Sandra Bezic and Jeremy Roenick and for the only time this year, the panel gives no scores. Instead, the winners are solely determined by Canada's votes.

Finale results and interviews with the pairs after the jump!

Worst Olympics Ever.

Oh I'm sorry, am I not allowed to say that? Because on Day 2 of the Games, I almost got into a Facebook fight with an old friend when he posted a status update that accused those of us with discerning tastes and sharp tongues of not supporting our country. He got an argument from me, but support from pretty much everyone else.

I guess VANOC is like our troops in the PR war. Nelly Furtado's lip synching is the shock and awe of the Olympiad. Isn't this how Bush got elected a second time?

Not only am I not sorry for coming out and saying that The Vancouver Games and the TV coverage of the Games suck, I'm actually kind of enjoying myself.

That's 17.3 days of Olympics coverage, people. And most of it is going to be focused on figure skating. The Olympics run for 17 days (from February 10-26), but NBC will not be playing the events around-the-clock. Instead, it will spread its coverage out during daytime, primetime, and late night viewing hours on six stations: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC HD, and Universal HD. In comparison, NBC had 375.5 hours of coverage during the Salt Lake City winter games four years ago.

Bob Costas will return as primetime host for the winter games, his seventh year with NBC Sports. And, to feed the needs of all those ice skating fans, Dick Buttons will host Olympic Ice, a daily report on the games' most popular sport. NBC is also prominently featuring David Pelletier and Jamie Sale in their coverage. The Canadian couple, who just got married, were a crowd favorite in 2002 when they ended up tying for gold with the Russian pairs skaters.