Can the NHL get this right?

The ratings are in and the news is all good. The gold medal match between the USA and Canada grabbed a share of 17.6. It is the second highest non-NFL program for 2010, next to the BCS Championship Game. That ought to be good news for both NBC and the NHL, right?

For NBC it is, but what about the NHL? What direction? How will NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the rest of the league handle the potential surge of interest? Will there even be a surge of interest?

Well, for starters, the NHL already received from free publicity from NBC and may not even realize it. During every Olympic men's hockey game, the announcers went out of their way to acquaint you with players and the NHL team for which they played. You would hear "Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks" or "Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks" or "Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins" in every game. That is excellent work by all involved.

But NBC's role is by far over. They can capitalize on the very Olympics they just finished covering. In their NHL promos, refer to certain players and the Olympic team they played on. Flip the field used in the Olympic braodcasts. If a Blackhawks/Sharks game is to be aired, use Kane or Marleau or any other Olympian in the promo and state the fact that they played in the Olympics and the country they played for. Versus could do the same for its weekly broadcasts as well. There is a crossover of announcers and analysts between the networks. Each of the NHL's 30 teams should implement a similar strategy in its home market.

Get Reebok more involved. Reebok currently provides authentic gear for the league. Imagine a Reebok commercial airing in prime time with video of Sidney Crosby scoring that overtime goal to win the gold or Ryan Miller (right) making one of his many spectacular Olympic saves.

One of the biggest complaint I hear from the non-hockey contingent is the excessive number of TV timeouts compared to the Olympic coverage. There is a way to correct that, but a deal between the NHL, the teams and the advertisers and sponsors must be agreed upon. Here's my solution and it's simple.

For those that have watched an MLS soccer game, you know where I'm going here. On all MLS broadcasts (and some international matches carried by other networks), you will notice the graphic showing the score and the time remaining. Also, within that graphic is also a logo for certain companies. Those companies are sponsoring uninterrupted play. You can limit the number of commercial interruptions this way. This is an issue I have with the beloved NFL. A team scores a touchdown, kicks a PAT and the network airs a commercial. No big deal. Return from commercial for the kickoff and then...another freaking commercial. It usually makes me switch the channel bacause I don't want to see another commercial since I just saw one not even a minute ago. Plus, it's frustrating.

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.