I only know about the result because I accidentally stumbled upon a story image of it late last night on line; when you’re a hockey blogger and Canada loses at anything in hockey, you fairly can’t avoid its reporting. Anyway, I haven’t read a single file related to the Worlds this spring. It interests me none.

This is a Worlds-free site this spring. I don’t care a lick about them. I don’t even know why they’re being contested in this Olympics year. If your team wins a gold medal at the Olympics, isn’t it judged to be the best in the world, having beaten the world’s best athletes? So what in the world is the IIHF doing having another international competition just weeks after we got through one of the best ever in Vancouver? (Making money, I know.)

Yes, I’m seriously cranky still from the sudden Capitals defeat. I’ve battered golf balls the past three weeks, and it hasn’t helped my psyche much. (I am grooving a great swing, however.) I am interested greatly in the Chicago-San Jose series. Two terrifically talented clubs there, and the Hawks are defying forecasts and getting great netminding. But once those games are over I go back to being pissed off pretty fast. Meanwhile, back East, we’re profaning Lord Stanley’s Cup allowing one of Philly or Montreal to compete for it in another week or so. That’s adding to my crankiness.

We in HockeyWashington may look back on this spring years hence and only then realize how enormous an opportunity was wasted by our guys in red. I’m not buying into the Philly love story this spring. Look at who they’ve had to play to get where they are. They weren’t that good with Jeff Carter in the lineup; they’re not better without him. And they’re on like their 40th goalie on the season. Sickening. I’m nauseous thinking about it.

It was life-altering fun three springs back going to Moscow on Mr. Leonsis’ dime and covering the IIHF Worlds and the Caps participating in it then. When your NHL team is young and inexperienced and rebuilding, such competition is good experience. But when you’re a 120-point NHL club and a bevy of your players are competing in the Worlds, virtually from the onset of the tourney, it’s not a good thing at all. No good is coming from core Capitals’ players skating in their second international tournament of 2010.

What am I supposed to do if our Russians win another game over there and have shiny medals placed around their necks, pump my fist in the air while a Flyers’ fan looks over at me and laughs?

I really don’t care how well Ovi, Semin, and Semyon played against Canada yesterday or in any of the other IIHF games. I couldn’t care less. No manner of feat over there by any of them alters one iota the sting we’re still feeling in Washington at a hockey season ended way too prematurely. A part of me wishes Ovi had followed Sid’s lead when it came to these Worlds games and said, in effect, You know what, I’ve done my part for my country this year already, I’ve put my body through upwards of 100 elite-level games this season, I’m heading off home to heal up and work even harder this offseason to do everything I can to assure there’s no repeat of late April 2010.

I’d respect that.

* * * * *

Speaking of Mr. Leonsis, I’ll find out how cranky he is these days at noon today, when he appears at the National Press Club as its lunchtime newsmaker keynote. Those keynotes field a lot of questions from the diners in the room, and I plan on submitting one or two. I’d be delighted to read any and all questions you’d ask of him if you leave them here as comments, and add the best ones among my submissions. We’ll also be tweeting the standout observations he offers at the lunch.

* * * * *

Here’s an effective way to combat the grumps — a John Walton call of yet another Bears’ playoff triumph in overtime, from last night’s game 5 in Manchester:

Bouchard the Hero of game 5

Hershey has matched an American League record this postseason with six wins in extra time. The Bears head home to try and wrap up the American League Eastern conference finals Saturday night in game 6, and earn their fourth Calder Cup finals appearance in the last five years. I’ll make that trip north, to try and further work out the grumps.

“Perhaps Congressman Terry and his Congressional Hockey Caucus can go to work on it,” the senator suggested to me in email this week.

Here’s a modest list of athletes who in recent years have been honored for their athletic feats at the White House: volleyballers from Penn State; the women’s bowling team from Vanderbilt; the University of Colorado ski team; and even a WNBA team — the Detroit Shock — went to meet President Obama last summer.

Don’t you forget about 1960; if you haven’t seen the terrific DVD made of the feat grab a copy of it today for your hockey media library. Meanwhile, the list of agenda items for the first-ever Congressional Hockey Caucus grows.

Andrew

For the U.S., these Olympics were anything but a failure — across the board and most particularly in hockey. Not only did the Yanks push the gold medal game into overtime after battling back from a two-goal deficit on the host’s home sheet, but they won a medal in a Games in which hardly anyone figured they could. This was supposed to be a “rebuilding” Games for the  U.S., a silver medal perhaps plausible in four years’ time in Sochi. The youngest team in the tournament almost shocked the team that wasn’t supposed to lose. Even with the loss, screaming at the top of my lungs was some of the most fun I have had on a Sunday in a long time.

As for the NHL in the Olympics: Having NHL players in the Olympics is something that should never end. Not only is there nothing but pure excitement in the Olympics when the world’s best hockey players are competing, but often it was NHL stars like Ryan Miller, Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane who were taking over important portions of games. Losing NHL talent in the Olympics would be a massive marketing mistake. To be on Twitter early Sunday afternoon and to read all the hosanas hockey in this tournament generated was to realize that no other event could brand hockey quite like the Olympics can.

Alexander

It had to be Sidney Crosby who delivered for the red-clad Maple Leaf and their 30 million supporters in the gold medal game on the closing day of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Watching this tournament and the inspired play from so many nations at the Games cemented my firm belief that a hockey game can be won by virtually any team. I hate to recognize it as my prediction, but I honestly believe no. 87 will be the most successful NHL player in any competition over the next 15 years — even moreso than Alex Ovechkin.

One learns over time to recognize key characteristics and attributes of players. Chris Drury will always be seen as a clutch player. Nicklas Lidstrom will always be remembered for having phenomenal plus/minus ratings. Crosby has the total package of speed, puck-possession brilliance, and a clinical finish at opportune moments — even if that five-hole OT winner came after almost two periods of Canada sitting on their lead and playing mind-numbingly boring hockey to the equivalence of Italian soccer. Team Canada shrugged off 2006 and squeezed out triumph on home ice in 2010. Credit Zach Parise, one of the most underrated talents in the NHL, for scoring to tie the game with 25 seconds to go in regulation, and Ron Wilson for managing one of the youngest teams at the tournament to the silver podium. It’s too bad gold isn’t judged on effort, because Team USA would be recognized as the best team in the world right now. Ron Wilson said as much Sunday evening: The Americans were the best team at the tournament bar none.

2014 better be a different story for Team Russia, and hopefully for Team USA. Although Gary Bettman’s bureaucratic nonsense will last another couple of years until the new CBA is signed, I, like many of you, believe NHLers will be present at Sochi with the sanctioning of the owners. I love the Winter Olympics, but to be fair to Bettman, I don’t believe it is hockey’s stage. European football’s seasons last from August to late May, yet during the summer athletes still play in the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, both of which last about a month. I don’t see why the NHL can’t do something similar to FIFA and UEFA in scheduling their international competitions. Neither the World Cup of Hockey nor the Canada Cup has not been contested since 2004. Although I don’t know the details of the tournament, 2011 will see the next World Cup. Like many folks, I don’t like the two-week break from NHL action because — to some degree — it re-balances all 30 teams in the run-up to the playoffs. The NHL needs more international fixtures to raise the profile of the sport in the nations that make up the league so that international fans get more excited about their country’s best NHLers. The 2011 World Cup of Hockey is the right lunge toward an NHL-sanctioned and prestigious competition for internationals in the greatest league on Earth. Hopefully it will catch on.

OrderedChaos

The 2010 Olympic Games’ hockey tournament should make it clear to the NHL, and all, that players can and should represent their countries on the world’s biggest stage—er, rink—even though, in Vancouver, the rink was NHL-sized. One wonders how much that contributed to NHL players’ success over their European counterparts . . . but I digress. The point is, NHLers in the Olympics is something the players want and something most hockey fans want. NHL owners and the league must find a way to make it work, and they really need to start figuring that out soon since Sochi is just a bit farther away than Vancouver.

I don’t just encourage Olympic participation because the Caps’ biggest star (and Sochi ambassador) will undoubtedly be in the 2014 Olympics, with or without permission. Key NHL players may decide that it’s better to play for a year or two in the KHL, or their home countries, if that’s the only way they can participate in the Olympics. Stonewalling players from Olympic participation would be a practical and political nightmare, and one the NHL cannot afford. Perhaps owners can strike a deal with the IOC . . . I don’t know, something like shortening the NHL season by 5 games or so in return for promotion/publicity at the Olympics.

I don’t have the solution; but the NHL must find one in the next few years.

On a side note, not even Team USA’s loss at the hands of Sidney Crosby rivaled the disappointment that Rush was part of neither the opening nor closing ceremonies. D’oh, Canada!

Gary

These Olympic games were wonderful with respect to hockey. Though a much anticipated Russia/Canada matchup failed to meet expectations, a United States/Canada matchup did not. Twice. Yesterday had a Super Bowl vibe to it with much more at stake. National Pride. It was, as Badger Bob Johnson would have said, “a great day for hockey.” A great day, indeed. You may not have enjoyed the outcome of the Gold Medal Game, but who can say they did not enjoy the game? Canada may have gold, but hockey was the winner.

Fast forward to Sochi in 2014. Will the NHL be there? I think they will. The league has been mum because this will be a barganing chip in the owner’s pocket for the next CBA. I believe the players will want to be there. I believe the owners want to showcase their sport. Will there be issues to solve? Sure there will. But timezone’s shouldn’t be one of them. Salt Lake City and Vancouver sit in time zones that for the most part are Washington/New York/Toronto friendly. Sochi sits four hours ahead of Greenwich time. Torino and Nagano? Plus one and plus nine respectively. If Torino and Nagano is doable, so is Sochi.

DC Sports Chick

If nothing else, these Olympic hockey games were full of surprises.  Who would’ve thought that the U.S. would beat Canada on Feb. 21, that Russia would exit the Games so early, or that the U.S. team would be playing for a gold medal?  What surprised me the most was how it seemed like EVERYONE was watching the gold medal game yesterday, even folks whose hockey knowledge was limited to “The Mighty Ducks.”  The sport was definitely the big winner yesterday; here’s hoping some of those casual fans are intrigued enough to want to learn more about hockey.

As for 2014, NHL players have to be there.  Would yesterday’s game have received that massive level of attention if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wasn’t there?  It still would have been a big game, but not on the same level.  Whether Gary Bettman likes it or not, having the NHL at the Games is a crucial part of pushing hockey into the mainstream.

pucksandbooks

After I recovered from the sudden-death gut-punch by him, I was able to place this gold medal hockey game in its proper context. It was a game Canada survived, while for the Americans it was one serving noticed that they’d arrived. Two weeks ago, conventional wisdom was that these Games were a formality for the continuation of the Canada-Russia rivalry. By Sunday night, hockey’s top rivalry had been recast. Looking ahead, considering the prevalence of elite, under-25 talent at all positions for both Canada and the U.S., it seems certain to be a rivalry to endure. And ripen! The Americans this year have served notice at both the World Juniors and the Olympics that they’re big players on the biggest hockey stages.

photo by Reuters

Will there be NHLers in Sochi? The debate was made moot by the two U.S.-Canada games in Vancouver, in my opinion. How could the NHL possibly stand in the way of a renewal of this drama? I know that there’s a World Cup of Hockey scheduled in a couple of years. I’ll watch that, too, and it’ll be great hockey as well. But there’s no substitute for the luster of the Olympics. Gary Bettman and perhaps a plurality of NHL owners may not recognize it, but the rest of the world does. When you get past all the sliminess of the IOC, all of the pomposity and pimping out of the Games’ heritage, in its essence the Games continue to showcase the greatest feats of athletic endeavors the world knows.

“While in Washington recently, I ran into a woman who drives an hour each way every day just to watch the Capitals practice,” The Hockey News’ Ken Campbell wrote at Vancouver’s conclusion. “She spends $2,500 on season tickets. She told me she knew absolutely nothing about hockey before the 2006 Olympics, but saw Alex Ovechkin playing and learned he played for the local team.”

More locals were converted to hockey in the past week by what they saw.

“I think (the Olympics) is great for hockey and we have to give back to fans everywhere,” USA coach Ron Wilson said after the gold medal game. “We do a pretty good job of stealing players from every country and we owe their fans an opportunity to witness a tournament like this one.”

Wilson enjoyed a lone instance of success in international hockey — quite notably, in the 1996 World Cup — but that amazing victory seemed an outlier relative to the rest of his coaching work, and most particularly relative to the flameout by his Americans in the Nagano Olympics in 1998. The Americans in ’98 played four games and lost three of them, defeating only Belarus, and were at their most aggressive in Japanese bars in the middle of the night during the Games before embarking on a rampage of their lodgings in the Olympic village. Fairly or unfairly, Wilson was scapegoated.

The American entry in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic Games would be a rebuilding roster, a transition team of promise but conspicuous inexperience, a marked contrast from the legacy veterans who had well-served the Red, White, and Blue for a decade-plus. So why not consign them to a grizzled disciplinarian of whom no one would reasonably expect much?

This morning Ron Wilson is potentially 30 hours away from staking claim alongside Herb Brooks as the most accomplished American coach in international competition of the past 50 years. Take down the Canucks on their home ice on Sunday afternoon, add a gold medal to his World Cup winning effort of ’96, and Ron Wilson needn’t apologize to anyone for the achievements of his coaching career. And lest we forget, he guided the Capitals to their lone Stanley Cup finals appearance, in 1998.

The postscript for such success surely would read: in short durations, Wils is an able and effective leader, but alas he wears his welcome out relatively fast. After all, the Cup finals appearance with the Caps occurred in Wilson’s first season in D.C., nothing notable achieved in a postseason here thereafter.

Perhaps it is so. But you can’t ignore what Wilson has done in what are arguably two of the most star-studded tournaments in hockey history. The Americans’ victory over Canada in a best-of-three finals format in the ’96 World Cup — again on Canadian ice — stunned the entire hockey world. Go back over the rosters for that tournament and you appreciate the enormity of the American achievement. This month, no one had this American team pegged for the finals on Sunday. And the Canadians left Canada Hockey Place ice late Friday night with something less than the swagger the Americans did six hours earlier. This really could happen.

To no small extent these are Ryan Miller’s Olympic Games as American hero, much as 1980′s were for Jim Craig. But Ron Wilson’s imprint, much as Herb Brooks’ 30 years ago, is on this team too. Brooks had six months of preparation with his Miracle-workers. Wilson had about 48 hours early last week. He was still fine-tuning his forward line combinations against Switzerland last week, trying to find chemistry on the fly. In the most important game of this tournament, last Sunday night against Canada, Wilson had his American skaters prepared mentally and physically from the puck-drop.

His team in these Games has played disciplined (13 penalties — all minors — in five games), cohesively, and tenaciously. They’ve also never trailed in these Games. They also appear to be getting stronger as the tournament progresses. The shock at this stage would be if the Americans under Ron Wilson didn’t give the favored Canadians the fight of their lives on Sunday.

The most passionate of American hockey fans likely didn’t realize how strong this American hockey team assembled for Vancouver was. It’s even more certain they didn’t realize how ably they’d be led behind the bench.

When you’re trying to follow these Olympics, and European football, as I am, where I am, naps are key.

I woke up in time for some Champions League football, where Chelsea was taking on Internazionale in Milan. I’m a Chelsea boy so I had to put that on the big screen TV.  The Champions League started at 7:45 p.m. local time, and the USA Olympics quarterfinal started at 8:00 p.m. The latter was available on the internet, through the wonderful circuitry of BBC online entertainment, so I just watched that on the laptop. Both games were really enjoyable, but Chelsea lost their first leg match. However, they did score an all-important away goal in the 2-1 defeat. At half-time, I was done watching football. Because BBC is really smart and decides to put all Olympic programming on one channel with multiview, it took about 25 minutes to not get an error message. There was no way I was going through that again, so I just left it on hockey.

10:30 p.m. At the end of a completely ice-tilted match, the USA pulled out the 2-0 victory. The Swiss are proving they’re a club to be reckoned with in future tournaments. Anyway, hockey ends. I went to my room to do some homework. I had to perform a monologue from a play in the morning. Ricky Roma’s “All train compartments smell vaguely of . . . “ bit from Glengarry Glen Ross. I am thankful I got to see the US game in primetime here, but two hours later, it was twilight time and I was about to see what everyone was calling a game for the ages. It was of course anything but.

12:45 a.m. Canada already had a 3-0 lead at this point, and I felt that same queeziness in my stomach that I had last felt on May 14th. I just got over it fast because, after all, it’s only Russia,  and I’m American. It was still worth watching though, because Canada did put on a clinic.

3:00 a.m. Russia/Canada game ended. Finland and the Czech Republic, starting around 4:00 a.m. my time? Hey, I love hockey, but I’m still a student, and mom and dad expect some return on this overseas school investment. So I went to bed. But I didn’t sleep for the next 45 minutes. Class at 10:30 a. m. Alarm clock set for 9:30 a.m . Awesome!

I performed that monologue and was absolutely dreadful. Much practice is needed. The end of these Olympics should help.

Mike Green or no Mike Green, Canada is always the enemy if you are a Washington Capitals’ supporter. Unless you’re a Canadian Caps fan. I digress. While they may be the enemy, the guys from up north showed Russia how hockey is played last night in a 7-3 rout at Canada Hockey Place. Coming in to the tournament, Russia, the world’s top ranked team, were favorites for a gold medal matchup with the Crosby-led Canadians. But come to think of it, Russia really only had a top-six forward corps of elite caliber. Canada has 13 forwards capable of painting the Russian net black. But let’s face it – Russia’s roster is significantly weaker than the US team, at least in terms of depth.

Sergei Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov were roadkill in last night’s game, as were the rest of the KHL players, incapable of doing any sort of physical damage, nevermind getting anywhere near Canada’s net. Alexander Radulov was a lot better in the NHL than he displayed last night. I’d like to believe that on any other night, the Russians could have pushed this to overtime or even win handily, but that I think it being too optimistic. Alex Ovechkin, Russia and Caps posterboy, was really nowhere last night. I don’t like to be too critical of my favorite player in the world, but Russia’s performance last night was eerily similar to a certain game 7 last spring.

Russia’s best player last night was Ilya Kovalchuk, who sparked play by being the only forward to swing back and assist his defensemen and create forward rushes. His line of Pavel Datsyuk and Maxim Afinogenov were the only plus players on Russia. Ovechkin looked to be sprung into the offensive zone all night by his defensemen, a strategy that never paid dividends. He just didn’t have it last night, which might have been a product of having two or three Canadians defending him at all times. But that should open up space for the other Russia players, right? Wrong. Russia’s defensemen where atrocious, to the degree of British Elite League play – which in case you didn’t know is pretty terrible. They never passed to the forwards when the opportunity was presented, instead being forced into the boards by Canadian forecheckers. That, I’m sure, discouraged the Russian forwards even more than Canadian physicality.

A major hockey media outlet said before the Olympic break that the Games are a win/win for Ovechkin and the Capitals, as he’ll be angrier than ever for missing out on Gold in his second of five possible Winter Games or stoked from winning and wanting to win both Stanley and the yellow stuff in the same year. That remains to be seen.

A US/Canada rematch would be an awesome finale, seeing as how Sweden is no longer in the mix either. If the US does meet Canada again, I believe the US has significant claim to the best in the world and not just the best in this tournament. The good news for me is that the medal round games are contested on the weekend, when watching them while streets are cleaned and taverns are locked up won’t impact my schoolwork so much.

When the Russians stemmed the Canadian tsunami a bit at 3-1 deep in the first period, they needed a fortified Nabakov to get them to the first intermission without any further damage done, with some semblance of viability going into period two. Instead, he allowed a softie to Brendan Morrow, which re-established Canada’s three-goal bulge and broke open the floodgates. The San Jose Sharks of course are pinning their Stanley Cup hopes on Nabakov. Hmm.

Bykov for his part offered up one of the worst coaching performances Olympic hockey has ever seen. Has ever a coach done less with more? His players were entirely unready for play when the puck dropped. Bykov made no adjustments until it was way, way too late. And his handling of his goaltenders bordered on the criminal. At 4-1 after 20 minutes the game was discouraging from the Russian vantage but not quite damning; and yet Bykov bull-headedly ignored Nabakov’s glaring unsteadiness, and stuck with him. In allowing him to surrender two more goals early in the second frame he castrated his team’s chances thereafter.

Mike Babcock made plain his intention to match the Ovechkin-Malkin-Semin line for Russia with Mike Richards, Jonathon Toews, and Rick Nash, and despite having the game’s last change, Bykov did nothing to liberate his top line from the effective checking of Canada’s fourth line. OFB has a better chance of skating the first line for the Americans in Sochi than does Bykov of being behind the bench for Russia then.

Greg Wyshynski called it “one of the most definitive, declarative and emphatic emasculations the sport has seen in decades.” If anything, he understated it. It was remarkable to behold how individualistic the Russians looked while reel after reel of footage from their highly unified, five-man-unit USSR predecessors rolled across the NBC cameras in between games during these Games. They were savagely out-hit from the outset, and subsequently intimidated. The Canadians created the space they needed with their physicality. Canada imposed its will on the vaunted Russians. Russia was badly exposed in this big game, the disproportionate offensive brilliance of their player development no match for Canada’s magnificent balance.

Where and how do the Russians find a back-end over the next four years? Where are the hopes for improvement for the Russian blueline over the next four years? Gonchar obviously will be gone. Andrei Markov is 31. Who looms as an under-25 stud riser back there? We’ve all focused on Alexander Ovechkin’s pride in representing his country in Sochi, but after assessing his team’s performance last night, and crystal-balling its prospects going forward — especially on the back end — he may opt for an island vacation instead in four years’ time.

Another mind-boggling bit of Russian mis-management: the hubris with which they relied on KHLers. The Russians brought nine of them to these Olympic games. The decision proved catastrophic. So sayeth puck daddy:

“The non-NHL players were pathetic. The Russians have nine players on their roster from their native Kontinental Hockey League. [They] were a combined minus-9 with two points, getting outclassed and outcompeted by their counterparts in every zone. They were warm bodies, background players to Canada’s stars.”

More fail: the “veteran” experiments with Sergei Fedorov and most especially Viktor Kozlov.

Russia seemed to have learned nothing from the United States’ effort just days earlier playing against Canada on their home ice. The Americans came out hell-bent on demonstrating their refusal to be intimidated by the bigger Canucks, and scoring early aided their cause. Russia on Wednesday night skated with a deer-in-headlights look it never lost.

photo by Getty images

When it mattered least, Russians showed courage and gumption. With mere minutes left in the blowout Alexander Semin threw a clean but devastating end-boards check on Dan Boyle. The time to do that was two hours earlier. But then Boyle responded as seemingly all too many of this generation’s hockey players do: he couldn’t absorb a clean hit the way our sport’s honorable players did for generations, and get his revenge as the sport’s ethos demands (later, cleanly), and so he went punk on Semin. Boyle should be suspended for his attack, but I’m not holding my breath. The NHL hasn’t addressed this matter, and I have no expectation of the IOC doing so either. This is a real black mark on our game today.

For Capitals’ fans, the outcome was hardly awful news. Two hard-worked stars had their Olympic experience cut short and now can return to Washington relatively unscathed. They won’t enjoy the action-less days ahead, but it’s in their best interest and their team’s best interest with that other prize in mind. Semyon Varlamov, too, avoided injury and can resume efforts to reclaim the Capitals’ cage.

And Nicklas Backstrom’s Swedish team fell late last night, too.

A week ago who would have imagined that the Olympic hockey’s championship weekend would have Ovi, Semin and Backstrom out but Milan Jurcina still in?

“This is the game that most, if not everybody, has been looking forward to. Most Canadians agree with me. A lot of people in the 11 time zones in Russia are expected to either miss work today, come in or leave early to see it.

“Both teams are coming into this game with a couple of concerns.  For Canada playing an extra game, especially the day before the big one, was at least a nuisance. Even when you’re playing against Germany you still have to give it some effort. Even though fatigue may not be the best word to describe it, at least some of it is there.  Also, for some strange reason, goaltending may be an issue.

“For the Russians loosing Sergei Zinoviev may prove to be the turning point. Russia will have to double shift someone at center. Or, better for them, limit the fourth line’s time. Russia will also have to readjust their plans of playing 5 man units. However, the firepower of the Russians is still there. Ilya Kovalchuk is due for his breakout game this Olympics.

“I am not going to make predictions for this one. I can only say that we should be in for the greatest hockey of the Games.”

“A bunch of screaming kids probably won’t be the most intimidating building to go into.”

There are worse ways to begin a mid-week workday than with the impassioned puck calls of the voice of Hershey hockey. JW’s broadcast can be followed here. And this serves merely as brunch before a massive feast of hockey this hump day. The United States faces Swtitzerland in quarterfinal play at 3:00. The Swiss were forced into extra skating by Belarus yesterday afternoon, with the Swiss ultimately prevailing in a shootout. Amazingly, three of the four qualification games yesterday were decided by a lone goal. The afternoon start for the U.S. today allows for the broadcast on the Mothership, NBC. But I’ve a television with cable in my office anyway.

Then the granddaddy of the day: Canada and Russia at 7:00 tonight.

There are easier things to locate than the time and station assignment for the Olympic hockey games, such as Jimmy Hoffa’s corpse, but I’ve labored this morning on your behalf. Canada and Russia will air from 7:00-10:00 tonight on CNBC. Then the Finns and Czechs will follow there at 10:00. Unless NBC changes its mind. Or figure skaters sob in prolonged fashion.

Be sure to update your CV after today, highlighting your ability to multi-task.

To most of the rest of the hockey world, what is transpiring in Vancouver this month is heart-stopping stuff. NBC has been excoriated for marginalizing hockey on its cable network affiliates; gold medal favorite Team Canada is engulfed in failure flirtation; Ovi is throwing his weight around just a little; the Americans are creating a new generation of weepy-eyed patriots. But perhaps we could get all this and more were we just to return to eight games a season against the Florida Panthers instead of the distilled half dozen we have now.

One of the reasons Sunday’s Border War engendered the mind-boggling patronage it did was that another hockey game between the U.S. and Canada, contested at the World Juniors little more than a month ago, has remained somewhat fresh in hockey’s collective imagination. That was another international tournament of high stakes, and with one mad rush up the overtime ice that game renewed — reinvigorated — what had become a comatose and lopsided rivalry.

The post mortem from that tourney was that at last the broadening development base for hockey in the U.S., with players coming from California and Texas and Missouri among other unlikely locales — was rendering Uncle Sam on something approaching even footing with Canada’s much lauded junior system of development. And Americans have been conspicuously clogged in the first rounds of many recent NHL entry drafts, and so these Olympic Games are perhaps showcasing that as well.

These are really good developments for global hockey. It’s too bad Jay Feaster doesn’t care to see them.

Feaster attempts, in vain, at irony is his description of the fiercely competitive log-jam that characterizes the postseason pursuits in both the Eastern and Western conferences of the NHL. Sure a good idea we shut down and departed from that, he intimates. But such clutter is hardly novel; the league has been a showcase of parity for years now. And NBC still only wants one day of action a week of it — and that only in the season’s second half.

Feaster laments the event-diminishing time-zone inconveniences associated with Olympic Games contested far overseas. It’s a fair point. I’m not sure what the remedy for that is; surely we can’t contest every Winter Olympics in North America just because the NHL has players in it. But that’s a cosmetic issue — our eyes develop bags under them from trying to follow middle-of-the-night hockey then. But we’re asked to do it just once every four years. And it doesn’t change the fundamental appeal of the competition itself: it’s still the best hockey players in the world wearing their country’s crest. So we need DVRs perhaps to catch it all. What if the IOC and the NHL could come to an agreement whereby the Games were alternated between North America and Europe, so that the nuisance start times were confronted only once every eight years?

And remember when it seemed like such a big deal for the league to shut down for 17 days? Where’s the 17 days? The Caps return to practice at Kettler today. They get six practices as a team before facing off against Buffalo next week. That’s not quite shut down, is it? Feaster and his ilk think that what’s tantamount to a week-long vacation for badly battered players is somehow going to erase hockey’s new-found appeal from America’s sporting consciousness?

Bruce Boudreau this week made plain that he wants the NHL to continue its participation in the Olympics. On Washington Post Live yesterday he suggested a kind of hybrid work stoppage wherein the schedule would be reduced a good bit during the Olympics but that teams would call on farmhands to fill in the Olympics-depleted gaps. There is I think a genuine issue of competitive integrity with this proposal, but at least the head coach is thinking creatively — and in the correct spirit of preserving what is a special slate of superb hockey once every four years.

But the head coach offered what I thought was the most compelling reason for continuing on with having NHLers in the Olympics. During the break he traveled to Flint, Michigan, to watch his son Ben play for the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League. Father was still in Flint Sunday night and taking in the U.S.-Canada game at a restaurant. With every American goal scored, Gabby noted, he saw his fellow diners stand and cheer, creating a remarkable atmosphere.

I think I’ll invite Jay Feaster to Tampa’s next visit to Washington on a Tuesday night and see if he thinks it’s a match for that.