Thoughts on the Winter Olympics

I'm taking a quick break from the NFL Dream Team to talk a little about the Olympics and specifically the Hockey tournament in the 2010 Vancouver games. Hockey is my second favorite sport, and next to the Broncos winning the Super Bowl in 1997 and 1998, one of the greatest sports memories I have is when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994. Hockey hasn't been at the forefront since the lockout of 2004, and rarely does Hockey get any attention in this country, but the level of play at this Olympics was just amazing. Since 1998, the NHL players have participated in the Olympics, and every time the Hockey has been unreal. This year was no different. What made it even more special is that we got the dream Gold Medal game: USA vs. Canada. It was a great game, and displayed just how awesome this sport can be. Canada jumped out to the 2-0 lead, but the Americans crawled back making it 2-1 at the end of two periods. Late in the 3rd, the USA pulled the goalie and they finally scored on a Zach Parise goal with 24.4 seconds left to tie it at 2 and stun all of Canada. Overtime was fast and furious, but Canada won it on Sidney Crosby goal halfway through the extra session. It was fitting that Canada would win 3-2 in overtime on a goal by the best hockey player in the world. For the USA, it is disappointing because winning the gold on Canadian soil would have been sweet. The US was not regarded as a medal favorite because they had the youngest team in the tournament. As the tourney played out, the US played like the best team in the world. They beat Canada in the first round 5-3 (Another amazing hockey game), and they finished the first round undefeated at 3-0. They were the number 1 seed heading into the medal round and got by the Swiss 2-0 and then destroyed Finland 6-1 in the semifinals. The USA-Canada rivalry is now becoming one of the biggest rivalries in all of internation sports. This US team was fun to root for. They were the young, up and coming underdogs who no one talked about. They proved that USA Hockey is in good hands and the future is bright for the sport in this country. Once again, Hockey proved that it is a better product than all the other sports with the exception of the NFL. These last two weeks were just a joy to watch, and hopefully people in this country will begin to look at hockey in a different light. It needs more exposure, but it also needs some tweaking. The sport delivers on every level, and hopefully this run by Team USA will give the sport some sort of boost it desperately deserves. Hopefully, the NHL players will return to the Olympics in Russia in 2014 because the level of play is so good it can't be taken away from not just hockey fans, but sports fans as well. One of my goals is to witness a USA team winning the gold medal in Olympic Hockey. I was 3 months old when the Miracle on Ice happened in 1980. The USA lost to Canada in the gold medal game in 2002, and this year we fell short again to Canada in overtime. One of these Olympics we will break through, I just hope that Hockey has a chance to breakthrough in the public's eyes first.