I am one example of someone who has reconnected to hockey over these Olympics, but that is mostly because I am fortunate enough to work from home most days, and have thus caught a lot of the action. And it has been phenomenal. Just about every game I have watched has been great. Old favorites like Teemu Selanne and Peter Forsberg, plus new discoveries, like just how good this Alexander Ovechkin kid is, mean that I will be paying more attention to the NHL. I had fallen away from my hockey habit, but Olympic hockey worked for me.

I agree this is rare. I don't know what the solution is, though. Would people watch the games if MSNBC showed them tape-delayed in prime time instead of live during the day? I doubt it, as most sports fans don't really enjoy tape-delayed events, especially in an era where you can get updates on the internet all day long. In a way, this is really what has killed the Olympics as a whole. Tape delay just isn't as compelling as it was in 1984, or even in 1992.

A lot of commentators have criticized having NHL players in the Olympics, arguing that most Americans just don't care. While this is true, it must help the NHL at least a little to have its product connected to such a high-profile event. I haven't had too many conversations about hockey the past two weeks, but I've definitely talked about it a lot more than in the entire season to date.

Hopefully 2010, with games in American prime time, will be much better.

I live in France near Geneva, Switzerland and with my sister who is visiting from the states this week, we decided to take a day trip down to Torino yesterday. Though you might like a few first hand impressions.

1. Internet directions and parking instructions were quite clear, took about 3 hours from Geneva. The signage for the parking area itself was a little sparse almost missed it.

2. Staff at the information kiosk were pleasant and helpful as they gave directions on how to get to the Official Ticket Center...

3. Official Ticket Center (Otherwise know as Hell)

- The process for purchasing tickets on site was less than ideal...

- Two women behind computers doing there best with a system that was obviously not up to the task (they would click away and stare intently into their screens, but very few tickets would come out

- One of those take a number dispensers - we pulled 53 and the counter was showing 24 when we arrived (talked to another person who had waited over two hours before his number was called)

- There was not any listing posted of which events were available and which were sold out

- We only waited 30 minutes or so, since there were tons of no-shows who had apparently given up hope, before securing two € 100 tickets for USA-Finland. Hooray.

- I cannot descripe how awful this experience was for anyone who was trying to buy tickets through the Official Ticket Center. Yes, later we found plenty of scalpers in front of the arena selling tickets for less than face value but we wanted to be sure. And oh by the way, there was also an offical booth selling tickets in front of the stadium that none of our Offical Information Sources had mentioned.

4. Katie and Matt.

Stumbled across the live broadcast of the Today Show. Katie really is that cute. Lots of people really want to get their face on TV for 10 seconds. The crew seemed really happy to be doing the show at 1:00 PM instead of getting up at 3:00 in the morning like they must at home. The looks of relative to total incomprehension about what was going on and why this was a big deal by tourists of other nationalities was the best part.

5. Had lunch in a pizzeria next to a table of Finns. Good pizza and very playful atmosphere. Lots of "May the best team win" etc. Interacting with the fans from other countries was really fun. No hooliganism just plenty of smiles and laughs. It felt really Olympicky if you know what I mean. As skeptical as I am towards Olympic "movement" there were enough examples of people from different parts of the world interacting in a positive way to make me think that if NBC is willing to keep footing the bill then the games are a good thing..

6. USA - Finland

Our 100 euro seats were four rows up just to the side of one of the goals. 6700 spectators - nearly a full house by the middle of the first period. Great game. Better team clearly won. Finland was just faster and sharper.

7. Took one taxi to save time. The driver spoke French but not English. He was very pleasant and gave us a mini tour on the way to our destination. He was rather philosophical about the games and lamented the fact that we wouldn't have time to see any of the other things Torino has to offer.

8. I'm not sure if they sold out already of the good stuff, but the merchandise that was still available was crap.

9. Overall it was well worth the trip.

I believe his name is Don Chevrier, not Don Chevrie. He used to do Blue Jays and Senators games.

One of the many nice things about living in Vermont is that our local cable includes three Canadian channels. That means two more channels to watch the Olympics - one in French (if we feel like not understanding anything being said) and the CBC. All Olympic fans should have a chance to watch Olympic coverage on the CBC, just to appreciate what a bad job NBC does with its coverage. CBC has much more ongoing live coverage, ignores human interest stories, only uses elaborate graphics if they help understand the event, and has a dandy-dressed Don Cherry ranting about how the European-cartel of the IOC wants to eliminate hockey from the games!

How does the CBC deal with hockey being played in the morning/afternoon in North America? They show the games live in the day, and then offer really nice summary broadcasts in the evening. More than highlight reels, they compress a game to around 35-45 minutes, stringing together the most interesting & exciting 2-3 minute stretches of a game. You can get a feel for the game, without needing to dedicate two hours of prime-time to one game. Then, being Canada, they replay the whole game in late-night. Why can't NBC offer such compressed hockey coverage in prime-time? Because they need to feed their imagined female audience a steady stream of tales of woe & redemption, catfights between athletes, and wall-to-wall badly-dressed skaters. It boggles my mind that NBC would rather show bobsledding (which the Canadians call "bobsleigh") than hockey.

If only CBC had Dick Button, I'd never watch any NBC coverage at all!