Thirty years ago, Team USA jubilantly gave Americans reason to believe. Sunday, it silenced a nation.
No medals were awarded following the United States’ surprise 5-3 victory against Canada, but Ryan Miller and the Americans looked plain golden. It was the type of game that could turn casual hockey observers into die-hard fans, and die-hards into pucking addicts. Forget it was the preliminary round, and forget these two teams could meet again deeper in the medal round.
Sunday’s game shoved hockey into the spotlight for a country commonly viewed as the silver medalist in a two-nation rivalry.
The Americans hadn’t beaten Canada during [...]

Think about this, and think about it unselfishly and intelligently. Would an NHL player rather win a gold medal representing his country, or would he rather win a Stanley Cup for his city?
My guess is if you ask a player, the question would be extremely tough to answer. That’s the way it should be. The problem resonating through the debate whether or not NHL players should be allowed to participate in the Olympics is this: We know how the players feel, and we ignore it.
NHL owners who dole out millions of dollars to field a team each season are rightfully [...]

Haven’t done this in awhile, but here’s a look around the Blackhawks blogsphere:
Reading around the Internet today, everyone seemed to have two things in common: 1) Being shocked at Q-Stache’s decision to start Antti Niemi against Columbus and sending Cristobal Huet to a month-long hiatius between starts; 2) The Blackhawks need this Olympic break — bad.
As much as I hate this F-ing debate regarding the ‘Hawks goaltending, it’s a curious decision to give Niemi four straight starts and give Huet an assload of time wearing the baseball cap given the amount of backing Q-Stache has had for Huet this season.

Still, [...]

I’m not going to sit here and write that I’m happy about these past two games, but I’m not exactly upset. The ‘Hawks blew two-goal leads, took at least one period off and had a star player injured on the ice for an extended amount of time in both games against inferior competition. Nothing there really blows my skirt up.
But, it’s hard to get upset with four points heading into the two-week break — no matter how ugly those four points were earned. The Blackhawks fell behind early in both shootout wins against the Atlanta Thrashers and Columbus Blue Jackets, [...]

Maybe the 18-year old wunderkind is a bit too young to be considered a villain, but Evander Kane is one hell of a player. And with the recent trade of Ilya Kovalchuk to New Jersey, Evander suddenly becomes the face of a franchise desperately hoping for a bright future.
His 23 points in 58 games this season may not be setting the world on fire, but this shoot-first center is barely old enough to legally have a cigarette. Evander scored a hell of a goal against the Minnesota Barker Havlats last night in Atlanta’s win, and the Trashers have picked up five [...]