MARCH 3 2010 -- The Olympic Break is now behind is and it’s back to reality for the NHL.  I loved the hockey that we saw during the Olympics and even the worst games on TV easily blew away any All-Star Game.   The great games rivaled some of the great Stanley Cup Game 7’s and all in all, there were more awesome games during that short period than I could have hoped for.

As great as the hockey was, I’m still up in the air about whether I like seeing the NHL players participate and having the league shut down for it.  Luckily there were no major injuries during the Olympics, but I have to wonder how a team like the Washington Capitals felt about the break. 

The Caps were 7-1-2 going into the break and had some nice momentum working.  They also had several of their key players involved in the tourney and one has to wonder how happy they would have been had either Alex Ovechkin or Alex Semin been injured and out for even a few games.

Speaking of Ovechkin, one of my favorite moments of the tournament came when Ovechkin laid out Jaromir Jagr and separated him from the puck, allowing Semin to pick it up and score.  Jagr probably forgot that when he’s playing against NHL players that he needs to keep his head up and look around. 

I also enjoyed watching the games while laying some smack down on Twitter and on Facebook.  For the most part it was all good-natured border skirmish and it was kind of cool to see Americans taking up for hockey in such a huge way!

The smack talk wasn’t limited to the U.S. v Canada games.  There was a lot of junk being run during the Switzerland v Canada contest as well.  You may remember that as the game where Anaheim’s Jonas Hiller almost single-handedly shut down Canada and “The Chocolate Makers” (as I dubbed Switzerland in my Tweets and Facebook status updates) nearly beat Canada in that game. 

Again, I want to remind you that this was all in fun and that 99.99% of the people involved took it as such.  I gave pretty well, but I also received my fair share of taunts.  Shortly before Canada played Russia I decided to get on Facebook and stir things up a bit. 

Please keep in mind that I have the utmost respect for Sidney Crosby as a player and as a person.  Right now he is the face of Canadian hockey and I firmly believe that if you want to stir the pot, you go right for the icon.  With that disclaimer firmly in place, an hour or so before Canada v Russia, I posted this:

My message to Alex Ovechkin? PLEASE lay out Cindy Crosby the way you laid out that other chick, Jaromir Jagr!!!

With the exception on one person (an American Pittsburgh Penguins fan who dropped a few hearty F bombs on my page) everyone took it as good-natured and made some comments back.  I wasn’t looking for anyone to get hurt, because as I said earlier, I don’t want to see any NHL teams suffer because their players got hurt in the Olympics.  All I wanted to see was a clean, hard hit. 

Oddly enough, with as many good games as there were and with all the anticipation this particular  game brought, it was very one-sided and pretty much worth turning off about 15 minutes in.  To me the most intriguing aspect of this game was seeing Ovechkin, Semin and Evgeni Malkin play against Crosby, instead of the usual Malkin/Crosby v Ovechkin/Semin matchup.  Oh well—there was always curling to watch.

About 15 minutes before the Gold Medal game it was kind of quiet on Facebook, and I decided it was as good a time as any to get my two cents in, so I posted this for my Canadian friends:

Fat, greasy cheeseburgers, jalapeno potato chips and cold beer. That's what Americans eat while they watch Gold Medal hockey! It's time to go all Lake Placid on the Canadians. USA Baby. USA...

The gold medal game didn’t turn out quite the way I hoped and I received a ton of grief after the game from my Canadian homies—mainly due to the fact that “Cindy” Crosby scored the game winner.  Oh well.  It was deserved, and as they say, “sticks and stones…”

The biggest surprise of the tournament was easily the Swiss team, led by Hiller.  New York Islanders defenseman Mark Streit was the only other NHL’er on the roster, yet they took Canada to a shootout and lost to the U.S. by a very respectable score of 2-0.  This team played big against big opponents and should be extremely proud of the way they played.

Another team that should be proud of their Olympic showing is the Anaheim Ducks, with eight players on Olympic rosters and seven medals won—three gold, two silver and two bronze.  Canada captain Scott Niedermayer along with forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Corey brought home the gold, while Americans Ryan Whitney and Bobby Ryan earned silver medals.  Finnish icons Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne brought home bronze.

Finally, a big “Who’s your daddy” to Olympic MVP Ryan Miller.  Before the tournament people knew Miller was good, but few outside of Buffalo knew how good he could be.  Miller was easily the best player in a tournament filled with the best in the world.  His 94.56% save percentage and eight goals allowed in six games is stuff of legend.  Miller proved to the world that the best goalies don’t come from Quebec or Europe.

The 2010 Olympic hockey tournament was the best hockey that I’ve seen in years and this was hands down the best Olympic tournament in my memory.  Whether or not we see NHL players in 2014 is going to be up to Gary Bettman, and we’re going to have to wait a while to see if this young, talented USA squad can stay together and go for the gold once again.

EMAIL JASON: jr@wesandjr.com

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