NHL players in Olympics help hockey grow

Common sense has been saying all along that, as much fun as the Olympics are, the break shatters the National Hockey League season. Common sense still says the logistics are nearly impossible and that the two-week hiatus kills momentum. Common sense says that the boost the Olympics supposedly gives the NHL never really happens.

Common sense even goes so far as to point out that hockey in the Olympic Games will never be as electric as it is in Canada.

There is no argument against any of that. As commissioner Gary Bettman points out, the NHL essentially gives its best players (and thus its greatest asset) to international organizations with little to show in return.

Photos: Team USA upsets Canada, 5-3

Add in the little stresses and aggravations, like Islanders personnel scrambling to make flights to Vancouver with only minutes to spare after their game against the Senators right before the break, and the only logical outcome is to say this has been a blast, but we're done.

Except logic was made to stand on its head, imitating U.S. goalie Ryan Miller. Team USA's 5-3 win over Canada on the latter's turf was one of the best hockey games you ever will see. Its raw energy and emotion overflowed from the arena and seeped into two countries. It left common sense shorthanded. The heck with all the reasonable arguments. For the sake of the sport, they have to keep having games like that one.

Forget about trying to convert waves of new hockey fans to the NHL. It just doesn't work. Maybe you'll get a few of the casual viewers to tune in during the playoffs, but history has shown that there is little carryover. If anything, executives of some struggling NHL teams fear they might lose business because some marginal fans have found other ways to spend their time during these two weeks.

What a game like Sunday night's, and a hockey day like Sunday, does is energize the base. That's how political operatives would put it. Before you bring in new followers, you get the faithful to believe. A breathless game - and Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Emrick almost literally was breathless, describing one rush after another - makes those of us who love hockey realize why we love it so much. It validates our support and renews our passion.

An epic such as USA 5, Canada 3 stokes fires. It ensures that the pipeline of great players from Canada will still keep flowing, and that more top players will be coming out of American towns in Michigan, Wisconsin, Connecticut and, yes, Long Island (check to see which sport claims the big share of our top pro athletes these days).

The NHL might not see short-term profit from the Olympics, but the league shows itself to be broad-minded in making an investment in the future of its game. This is the exact and admirable opposite of baseball's long-running short-sightedness in letting TV people schedule World Series games way too late at night.

And it is not just a Canada-U.S. thing. Olympic schedule makers were geniuses in stacking three classic matchups Sunday: Russia-Czech Republic, U.S.-Canada, Sweden-Finland. They couldn't have done any better internationally if they had pitted Troy against Sparta. In terms of intensity, it was like having a tripleheader of Yankees-Red Sox, Rangers-Islanders and Michigan-Ohio State.

In Canada, this wasn't just a game. It was an exercise in the national identity and culture. Today, in English and French, people are debating whether their team is too old, too slow or too soft.

From this viewpoint, Martin Brodeur doesn't seem to have his old aura. At the same time, there was a feeling that the Canadians were missing a special presence. Maybe that's because we're used to seeing multiple icons - Wayne Gretzky with Mario Lemieux or Steve Yzerman with Joe Sakic - playing for the Canadian side.

For Americans, a look at those throwback sweaters from the 1960 Olympics was a reminder that some of the greatest moments in our national sports history were global hockey games. Today is the 30th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice game.

Last night was no miracle. It was, though, a great spectacle.

People sure were buzzing about it on NHL Home Ice on satellite radio. The channel had someone singing new lyrics to the Canadian national anthem, purportedly from an American fan, proclaiming, "O Canada, we stand unjarred by 3."

That fans on this side of the border are so jazzed about hockey means that it is only common sense to keep sending NHL stars to the Olympics.

Photos: Team USA upsets Canada, 5-3