The Best of the Best

When played at the highest level, there is no better sport than hockey. End to end rushes. Crunching checks. Hockey matches and surpasses all other sports at combining artistry and finesse with brutal physicality.

Yesterday's USA - Canada match-up was a game for the ages and a showcase for how sports can be played.



And, by the way, NBC did a great job with the broadcast. The focus of the announcers was on the game. The commercials didn't seem to intrude on the play. And the camera work was spot-on.

There were numerous chances for each team throughout. As a fidgety American fan, I thought that Canada had the better of the play early on. But over the course of the game, the two teams played evenly.  The US team was smaller, much faster than the Canadians and had more willingness to play physically.  And by the middle of the third period it seemed inevitable that the USA would mount at least one more serious scoring threat. However, it took a mistake by the not-quite-confident Canadian goalie to give the US its final-minute chance (picture, NYTimes) and subsequent game-tying goal.

Great game and not to be forgotten. Played, frankly, at a much higher level than any recent Olympics finals.

Taking a wider view, though, hockey is still at least fourth in popularity among team sports in the US. And will eventually drop to a solid fifth behind soccer. There are two overarching reasons that hockey has not reached the popularity it deserves: it's a hard sport to play and a hard sport to follow on TV.

Wider access to HDTV has reduced the second part of the problem; the clarity of the picture makes it much easier to follow the puck and more action can fit on the screen at once. There's still a ways to go, though. As an example, I doubt that anyone who was not sitting rinkside could honestly claim that they were able to see the Olympics winning goal in real-time. The puck moves too fast, which is really part of its appeal.

The first problem is tougher to tackle. There are too many games, leading to fatigue-fueled mid-season games which lack any drama or artistry.  Hockey is a sport which needs to be showcased, a la football. Not drum-beaten to death like baseball.