2010 Winter Olympics

The Olympics are infamous for bringing a big buzz to the headline sports in the two week event.  This year, hockey enjoyed the dividends from being one of the biggest events on national television in both the U.S. and Canada in February. 

Everyone loves the Olympic fever and the decisions for the final rosters that cause debate and excitement. Since the Olympics have come and gone and the playoffs have arrived, a few players are making their Olympic exclusions seem like huge mistakes.

Many of the players left off of their national clubs are lighting it up for their NHL teams on the road to the Cup. Some players who didn't make the playoffs were among the NHL elite by finishing off the season with huge point totals.

The games for Canada kicked off on a rather poor note winning only 8 medals in the first week of competition.

Many Canadians were starting to feel that the games were going to be a huge failure, but during that second week the atheletes kicked it up into full gear.

Claiming 18 medals in the final week, Canada set a record for most gold medals ever won at a winter olympic games. Canada also beat their all time medal count at a games by 2 medals.

The following is a look at Canadas top 10 Canadian heroes of the games.

After arguably the best hockey tournament ever witnessed, can the hockey fever that the Winter Olympics created benefit the NHL?

A few random thoughts are rattling around my head this Monday morning, as I bask in the everlasting glow of the 2010 Olympics and await tonight's Habs tilt versus the Bruins.

For me, the 2010 Olympic ice hockey tournament was some of the best hockey I have seen in my life.

Sid the Kid scored one for the ages Sunday.  In overtime of the gold medal game between Teams USA and Canada, Crosby's little wrist shot through Ryan Miller's legs wrote a page in hockey history not soon to be forgotten.

According to several reports, ratings for the Olympic finale were through the proverbial roof.  In the U.S., the game drew an average of 27.6 million viewers with a ratings share of 15.2.

Whenever something takes two weeks away from the NHL season, there better be a good reason. This year, the Olympics did just that.

The Idiot In Charge, I mean Commissioner Gary Bettman has made the point that there needs to be a legitimate value to the National Hockey League for the League to continue investing in the world's greatest sports spectacle. If the largest television audience in the history of Canada, and the largest non-Super Bowl audience for a sporting event in the United States in over six years isn't reason enough, what is?

Not everything was super in the Olympics though.

The NHL has two poster boys that they promote all day, every day.

One, Alexander Ovechkin, was watching the gold medal game from home.

And yes, Sidney Crosby scored the now-legendary game-winning goal in overtime to win the gold, but he hadn’t scored in regulation in four games in the tournament. 

The Winter Olympics have come and gone, and the NHL trade deadline is quickly approaching, but before all of the speculating starts, let's have a look back at the Olympics.

And for the record, curling is still my second favorite sport—although, I won't lie, I did question things a couple of times.

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With one shot, it was over.

Yes, Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal lifted Canada past the United States in one of the most thrilling hockey games ever played, Olympic or otherwise. It also allowed every Canadian to breathe a sigh of relief, their national pride on the line in a climax of epic proportions.