The 2014 Sochi Olympic Games are finished, back to the business of the NHL

The NHL gets back into the swing of things on tomorrow as the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes play a make-up game. The rest of the league, including the Sabres who will end up playing three games in four nights, will get rolling on Wednesday.

Before we get back to the NHL some thoughts on hockey at the 2014 Winter Olympics:


--The Canadian Men's Hockey Team kicked ass and showed how a team game is to be played even while boasting a team of All-Stars. They finished the tournament with back-to-back shutouts against the US in the semis and Sweden in the finals to win the gold once again.

There's no question this team could win a pond-hockey shootout with all the skill and firepower they had up front, but who would have imagined them turning up the defense on the large ice surface and throttling their opponents on the way to gold.

Am of the opinion that this team should be considered to be on the same level as the 1972 Summit Series team and the Soviet Red Army teams of the 70's as well as the '76 Canada Cup team (for those Canadian rosters, click here.)

--As for the Americans, their performance in the bronze medal game was a complete embarrassment. Only a bunch of spoiled brats would put on a performance like that.

No leadership on this squad, just a bunch of fast and skilled players who's mantra was gold or bust, with the latter being the final product.

It would seem as if USA GM Brian Burke had the right idea--speed on the wings to take advantage of the open ice and mobile d-men to move it up ice--but in the semis, the Canadians matched every stride of the forwards and harassed the defense into a ton of turnovers.

In the end Canada's strength down the middle, world-class defense, All-star lineup and brilliant coaching headed by Mike Babcock dominated the entire tournament.

--The idea of having the greatest hockey players in the world compete for their countries at the Olympics is a wonderful showcase for the NHL.

Sure there are problems--most notably injuries like John Tavares and Henrik Zetterberg--and there is the compact schedule the league plays around the Olympics, but this was an incredible display of hockey. Sports fans who often wondered what the sport was all about had their interest piqued and were asking questions like (unfortunately) what happened to the US team?

They were watching.

It's only once every four years, so the NHL should continue to participate. It's helping grow the sport in the US, despite the pathetic effort of the Americans in the bronze medal game.