USA! USA! USA!

Yes, the 2010 Winter Olympics have come and gone. Aside from figure skating, the other marquee event at every Winter Olympics has to be hockey. It was especially the case this time because the 2010 Winter Olympics were held in Canada, where the sport of hockey was born.

If you were fortunate enough to catch some of the hockey games either on NBC or one of its sister networks, you were treated to what is the greatest hockey tournament on the planet. Period. Like many of the other Winter Olympics sports, hockey is one I catch only once in a blue moon. Why? After all, we have the NHL don’t we? Well, personally, I would take Olympic hockey over NHL hockey any day. It’s better to watch for two reasons: no fighting and the spirit of the Olympics themselves.

Olympic hockey does not tolerate the type of thuggish behavior the NHL has argued over the years is just part of the game. This is garbage. It adds nothing to the game and it’s just not good for anyone.

Just ask Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore. It’s only part of the game now because there are no consequences for that type of behavior. In the NHL if you are called for a penalty, you go in the penalty box for two or five minutes.

That’s like putting someone in time-out. It doesn’t get the message across. I know it’s hockey and not ballet, but when I tune in I would actually like to focus on the game itself. Hockey is fast-paced and a treat to watch. Think of all the strategy and athleticism it takes to skate and fly around the ice trying to keep track of that puck.

That’s what I want to see, not guys beating the snot out of each other. If you want to see that, go to an MMA event or, even better, go and find a boxing match. The NHL would be better served if it went to all international rules, one of which is that fighting is prohibited and if you do it you receive a match penalty and are ejected from the game. Something tells me that would get the message across more than putting someone in the penalty box for five minutes.

I have come back to hockey at least a little bit. I actually got to see a few games in person because of my involvement with the Blugold Athletic Band. Those two nights I spent at Hobbs Ice Arena were a blast.

Even though, ultimately, the U.S. lost to Canada in the gold medal game, the hockey on display in the Winter Olympics was great entertainment.

This brings me to one of the other reasons Olympic hockey is better: the Olympic spirit itself. When the Winter Olympics come around you realize what an international sport hockey is. There has been a lot of talk over the past week or so about Gary Bettman maybe not having NHL players in the Olympics anymore. That would be beyond idiotic, but about what I expect from someone who I trust to run my league as much as I trust Bud Selig to install an effective steroid-testing policy.

Don’t tell me that Alexander Ovechkin doesn’t get fired up when he plays for Russia and Sidney Crosby doesn’t feel any pressure when he plays for Canada.

There’s something special about seeing those players put it on the line for king and country that adds more spirit to the game of hockey. Unlike in the Stanley Cup Finals, the players aren’t doing it just to get a ring, but doing it for national pride.

That’s especially true for NHL players suiting up for Canada, Russia, Slovakia and more hockey-dominant countries. If you don’t believe the Olympics have anything to do with national pride, I suggest you go back and watch the Miracle on Ice game from 1980.

If you think that the reaction to that game had nothing to do with politics at that time, you’re missing the boat entirely.

Bettman’s argument is that the NHL doesn’t gain anything from the Olympics. Really?

Even friends of mine who don’t follow hockey say they were riveted by the Olympic hockey games. Until the NHL recognizes that thuggery hurts the game more than it benefits it, I will stick to Olympic hockey and college hockey where they let their skills do the talking and, in the case of Olympic hockey at least, national pride reigns supreme.

Sitzman is a senior print journalism major and guest columnist for The Spectator.