Great day for international hockey

How could it have been any better for hockey fans?

With all the usual complaining about judges to the debate over the Whistler sliding track, everyone must agree that yesterday presented us with possibly the greatest day ever for international hockey. The last three gold medals games were "replayed".

First was the rematch of the 1998 Nagano final between Russia and the Czech Republic. That was followed by host Canada against the United States in a rematch from the 2002 final in Salt Lake City. The last game, which I thought would actually be the best because of the fierce rivalry, was Sweden and Finland. That was the final at the last Olympics in Turin.

I would say to thank the schedule maker of these games, but the schedule was partially determined well in advance and based on the participating countries overall world ranking by the IIHF's 2008 World Ranking. The top 9 from that ranking were automatically included (Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Unites States, Switzerland, Slovakia and Belarus). You could somewhat view yesterday's games as being the luck of the draw.

But one thing that should not be missed was the large number of NHL players that were on the rosters of the six teams that competed on Sunday. It would be an extreme shame if this inclusion of NHL players ceased. The "use" of NHL players in the Olympics help promote the NHL just as much as having regular season games played in Europe.

Sure, the Olympics are only held every four years, but the impact of those games reverberate for extended periods of time. Some of those "memories" still do. No player should be deprived of adorning the sweater of his native country, yet the possibility exists. The IOC, IIHF, NHL and NHLPA have to all agree to allow these athletes to participate. As of these Olympics, that is in jeopardy for 2014.

Without NHL players, the days of amateurs playing would, in some form, be back in play. That's how it used to be. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, IOC President Jacques Rogge and IIHF President Rene Fasel are critical in the process of continuing to use NHL players in the Olympic Games.

Even if an "agreement" cannot be reached, we will never witness another "Miracle on Ice", which occurred 30 years ago today.

What we would witness is a decline in the quality of play.

Hockey fans all around the world would suffer.