DC Games 2014: It's Hockey's Time

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

We are heading towards the end of the XXII Olympic Winter Games, and the action has been heating up, literally - temperatures late last week reaching into the 60's in the warmest city to host an Winter Olympics. Last weekend, some skiers at the cross country & Nordic combined events, including the American team, even competed with short-sleeves on, taking a cue from the recent trend in the NBA. And even one Norweigan skier has been skiing with just shorts on, following in the fashion trend sparked by the famous pants worn by his fellow Noreweigans at curling. There's plenty of action at long & short track speed skating, alpine, figure skating and more taking place as the closing weekend nears.

But just as it was four years ago in Vancouver, the sport that's arguably the biggest team sport at the Olympics, winter or summer, will take precedent as the marquee sport at the Games: ice hockey. In Canada, the sport feels like a religion, and so it is over in Russia. All of the three top teams: the host nation, defending gold medalists Canada and the United States played very well in the preliminary round; while as expected Canada and the U.S. rolled over their opponents ex route to a gold medal match today.

   Here in the United States, hockey is enjoying a surge of increasing interest, both on television and attendance wise. Although not nearly as big as football, not drawing the type of strong TV audiences as other big sporting events (except perhaps in cities north of the Mason-Dixon Line), and being mostly ignored by SportsCenter on its former rights holder ESPN, the NHL is on an uptick with five straight years of TV audience growth and a coveted TV deal with NBC & what would become NBCSN. Last year's Stanley Cup postseason, one of the most exciting ever, was the most-watched in the U.S. on record with the Blackhawks' stunning Game 6 Cup clincher being the most-watched NHL game in the U.S. in many years.

   And there's the Winter Classic, which has become a phenomenon and has become a new New Year's Day tradition. The idea of hockey outdoors was spawned in the '90s by a number of Los Angeles Kings preseason hockey games taking place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, followed by the 2003 Heritage Classic where Montreal and Edmonton squared off in the cold of Commonwealth Stadium. The joint idea of NBC and the NHL in 2008 to help bring new fans to the sport south of its Canadian heartland, it has grown to becoming the league's biggest regular season showcase, helping bring in new fans in the States at some of America's most-iconic NFL & MLB stadiums. The 2014 edition at The Big House set TV viewing records both in the US and Canada when the Toronto Maple Leafs bested the Detroit Red Wings in a shootout in the snow of Michigan Stadium.

But when you get down to it, there's several differences between the hockey fans are used to in North America and the hockey we see during the Olympics. This mirrors the differences the NBA has with basketball played internationally, and both American and Canadian football.

- First, there's the size of the rink in Olympic play. It is considerably larger than its North American cousins: as much as 15 feet wider than a standard NHL rink, and there's a lot more room to work with. It's often referred to in international circles as "the big sheet." But in Vancouver though, the Olympic tournament used North American sized rinks for the first time in Olympic play, primarily to sell more tickets instead of burdening the cost of expanding Rogers Arena and UBC Arena to international size.

- Second, the international game places emphasis on speed and skill rather than the NHL's more aggressive style. For example, fighting is not allowed in the international game compared to the NHL, carrying an automatic game misconduct penalty. And every team since the heyday of the Soviet dominance of the sport have looked to the Red Army's intricate puck handling and teamwork that saw them dominate the sport from 1956 to 1988, save of course for the two U.S. Olympic gold medals.

- Third: for international play, teams have two additional players for which to be dressed for a game roster than the NHL, at 20 compared to 18. And players don't have to touch the puck when there's an icing call, and they won't be penalized if they put the puck directly over the glass.

- Fourth: and there's the shootout. In the NHL when it became the method of determining regular season games in 2005, coaches can choose three players to shoot in the best-of-3, then rotate among all their players if it goes beyond that. In international play, only one player can shoot, regardless of how many rounds it goes.

Then, there's best on best: in essence, it's when the best players from each country take on each other in international play. It happens only at the Olympics due to the NHL taking its break for players to take part since Nagano, and many other players playing in Europe for the Russian KHL and other leagues. By contrast, the annual World Championships take place in May, but also during the Stanley Cup playoffs and only players from NHL teams eliminated from the postseason may be able to participate; and it's more regarded in Europe than it is in North America.

   What eventually led to NHL players taking part in the Olympics was a 1970's dispute between Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation. Hockey Canada put the topic of full amateurism to the governing body over using NHL pros in international competitions which weren't allowed back then. A further point in their complaint was that the Soviet team was amateur in name only when they were actually professionals playing in the Soviet league. It was because of that loophole, among other things, that Canada didn't take part in any international hockey during the early '70s until a deal was brokered in 1976 that allowed the country to return, pros included, in international play, along with a new Canada/World Cup competition.

   The catalyst for that move was the Summit Series where the best players from Canada took on the best of the Soviet Union in an 8-game series, held throughout Canada and later in Moscow. It riveted the two countries with a compelling series that saw the Soviets take a 3-1 series lead (with a tie) and looking to run away with the series win. But a stirring Canadian comeback to tie the series led to a winner-take-all game 8 that attracted the largest Canadian TV audience to that point. A comeback from 5-3 down in the 3rd saw Canada scored two goals to tie it, and then in 34 seconds left Paul Henderson scored the winning goal and became a national hero as they won 6-5 & the series 4-3-1.

   Years of pleading and rumors among fans all culminated in the mid-'90s with the NHL and IIHF brokering a deal to allow NHL players to play in the Olympics. And in 1998, the NHL shut down for three weeks to allow its players to play for their country in a dream tournament in Japan. And though Dominic Hasek and the Czech Republic and not Canada or the U.S. won the first Olympic gold in the NHL era, since then the hockey tournament has taken the feel of something very special where all the best players are available to play, just as it was in the old Canada Cup and World Cup of Hockey competitions.

   In Salt Lake City, the Canadians would finally return to the top of the medal podium with a convincing 5-2 triumph over the U.S., and then eight years later they played again for the gold and Canadian soil. There, nearly 57 million viewers in North America alone, including the largest Canadian TV audience ever, saw a tantalizing game that saw the USA's Zach Parise tie it in the last minute of regulation, setting the stage for Sidney Crosby to etch his name in national lore with a golden goal in overtime past U.S. goalie Ryan Miller and setting off national celebrations throughout the Great White North.

And lastly, if hockey can have one moment it can hang its hat on in the U.S., it has to be with what happened that February weekend in 1980. It was amidst the cloud of uncertainty spawned by the turbulent 70's, the American hostage crisis in Iran, a U.S. boycott of that summer's Moscow Olympics and during the heart of the Cold War that the Olympics were held in Lake Placid. The U.S. team started their campaign with a come-from-behind tie with Sweden, then won the rest of their games, including an impressive thrashing of the Czechs, to set up a date with the Soviets in the medal round, who also went through the round robin phase relatively unchallenged, and it suddenly caught the attention of TV viewers.

   That set up a medal round featuring then, Finland and Sweden, and in those years it was the best record in a four-team round robin that determined the medals instead of the playoff system we use today. And there was that game, on a late Friday afternoon, in a game that was actually shown on tape delay in primetime (the Soviets rejected a request to have the game be moved to 8PM to be shown live), that ultimately set the stage for, what Sports Illustrated would eventually call it, the greatest sporting moment of the 20th Century, and the single moment that has defined hockey here. A game that saw the Soviets strike first blood, then the U.S. tying it at the end of the period would ultimately see it's turning point when legendary Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov, pulled the greatest goalie ever, Vladislav Tretiak, at the start of the 2nd period, and the U.S. ultimately capitalizing on it. A goal by Mark Johnson tied it up eight minutes into the 3rd period, then at the 10:00, team captain Mike Eurizione, whose name in Italian means eruption, ignited one by scoring the go-ahead goal to put the U.S. ahead 4-3. And they would hang on to pull off the seemingly impossible win, then two days later, the U.S. would find themselves in a deep hole late in their final game against Finland, only to roar back with 3 unanswered goals to win 3-2 and claim Olympic gold.

   It was the call by Al Michaels of "Do You Believe In Miracles? Yes!" at the end of the Soviet game became the highlight of his career and would ultimately lead him to calling 27 years of the NFL's network primetime TV package (first on ABC's Monday Night Football, then with NBC's Sunday Night Football), being the only network play-by-play man to call a Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and Stanley Cup; and his reputation as the industry's premier play-by-play announcer. And it was that victory that forever linked those 20 college players and coach Herb Brooks with Olympic immortality in this country, and in 2002 they reunited as a whole for the first time since visiting the White House afterwards that they all lit the Olympic torch in Salt Lake City.

Now to that game from last weekend. Since I was sleeping at the time of the game, since I usually go to sleep a little bit late on a Friday, I didn't watch the game live but did record it to eventually see later. Unfortunately my timed recording of the game ended during the shootout but fortunately NBC showed the entire shootout at the start of primetime which I recorded and I was able to watch it. The excitement of that game, the intensity of the overtime and shootout, and the tremendous celebrations that came about both in the bars and on social media when TJ Oshie scored the winning goal in the 8th round of the shootout to beat Russia continues to show the great drawing power of the Olympics.

   And because the broadcaster of last weekend's game as well as tomorrow's semifinal, NBCSN is also the national NHL cable broadcaster, one could only imagine the kind of ratings boost the NHL will have once the season resumes next week, featuring all these players fans have been watching throughout this tournament. And now that the U.S. and Canada are assured of three more games through this closing weekend: today's women's gold medal final between the two nations, Friday's semifinal that will shut down most of the nation's productivity and the bronze- & gold-medal games over the weekend, you would suspect the league will get another great boost in interest. It indeed is hockey's time.

Stay here on DCBLOG for more Games 2014 posts during Sochi 2014 as we cover various aspects of the Olympics, the sports and events from Olympic world, taking the SocialPulse of key moments and so much more as the action unfolds from Russia. And Twitter @DC408dxtr will offer live tweeting (Pacific time) of TV coverage including primetime and live streaming & cable coverage, time permitting.

   We're also covering MTV's Real World Ex-Plosion and Are You The One? here & on twitter, including a Fan's View of the RW After Shows and live tweeting of all new episodes later this week. For now, until I join you on twitter and then here on the blog later, thanks for reading and see you then. Go USA!

- DC