O Canada

It was a classic, too bad the USA was on the wrong end of it. But overall it was a game for the ages, or at least for the next four years. Sid Crosby now joins the ranks of other great Canadien players like Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux who have ben raised to immortality in the eyes of Canadien hockey fans. To the Canadien and their fans, congratulations on a well earned victory.

To the Americans and their fans, congratulations are also in order on a well played game and a well played tournament. Zach Parise's game tying goal will be a memory we will cherish a lifetime and Ryan Miller's heroics in goal will set a standard for goaltending in a pressure packed tournament. It was truly a magnificent tournament played at a highly competitive level.

Now back to the NHL, and as one fan put it so succinctly in Newsday this morning, back to the clutching, holding, and I might add trapping of the NHL. I would also say that I doubt that the success of Olympic Hockey means that hockey will become more popular in the US. Certainly not NHL hockey and more certainly not Ranger hockey.

Now we will see what kind of shape the Ranger players return in, especially Gaborik and Lundqvist. Gaborik was injured again and Lundqvist may be going to the well once too often. We will see. anyway, the excitement is over and we will now pause as we return to the same boring NHL hockey. Let the trappings begin.

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ICINGS: If you stayed up and watched the closing Olympic ceremony you would have fallen out of your chair when the Canadian band Nickelback came out and played their grunge rock anthem "Burn It To the Ground!" Those Canadians are a rowdy fun loving bunch.

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