Before the Olympics, I originally thought that this would be the last time we would see the NHL involved in the Winter Olympics. In all honesty, I was a fence sitter on whether the NHL should still be involved in the 2014 games in Sochi or if amateurs should start taking part in the Olympics again.
But after watching the competition of the 2010 games in Vancouver, I have hopped over the fence, and jumped on the bandwagon supporting the NHL in the 2014 games.
Yes, a Canada-Russia final would have been great to watch from a rivalry standpoint as well as a marketing standpoint, featuring another match-up between two big stars, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Instead of getting that, we saw the two teams battle it out in the quarterfinals with Canada eliminating the Russians.
And while Canada-Russia would have been an entertaining gold medal match up for sure, one couldn’t have asked for a better game than the gold medal final between the Americans and the Canadians. Of course, we all know it was epic to say the least, thanks in part to Zach Parise’s game-tying goal with less than a minute to go. And of course there was the game winner from Sid the Kid in overtime.
In all honesty, this was certainly the best Olympic tournament that featured the NHL, which is why they should go to Sochi and participate in the Olympics again.
All I have to say to Gary Bettman and the rest of the NHL Front Office is this: Please capitalize on this opportunity to expose the game on a world stage and go to Sochi in 2014.
