I agree that the gold medal match was good for the sport of hockey in general. But the basic problem the NHL faces here is that what is good for Hockey as a sport is not necessarily good for the NHL as a league.

The NHL’s top priority is to promote THEIR product, which is NHL hockey. Sure, OLYMPIC hockey had a great success, but OLYMPIC hockey is over now, and the NHL is left with a product that will never compare to the Olympic product, EVEN THOUGH it was NHL players who made the Olympic product such a wild success.

The NHL did all the sacrificing, but will receive none of the reward… THAT’S why it’s bad for the NHL to allow its players to compete in the Olympics.

While yesterday may have been good for the sport of Hockey in general, the NHL (specifically) actually needed the United States to win in my opinion.

The NHL already has a strong Canadian fan base. There was nothing to be gained from an NHL perspective (the key point of the debate) by having the Canadians (most of whom are already national heroes) win Gold.

Consider the NFL – if American Rules Football became an Olympic event, but the Americans continued to win every gold medal (as would be expected), would the sport garner any additional support from those other countries? No. EVEN IF the final match was a very closely fought game between the US and Canada, the only way that Canada would buy more into the NFL is if they WON GOLD by beating NFL stars. Otherwise, the mentality is that America was “supposed” to win, but that’s okay, because it’s their sport. The Canadians would then go back to supporting Hockey.

That’s why the NBA has gained so much international appeal – other nations had proven the ability to beat the US. Nobody wants to play a game that they EXPECT to lose, and nobody will support a game if they are always having to cheer “We’re Number TWO! We’re Number TWO!”

Professional leagues who are hoping to build a fan base need to have some fallibility within their ranks. Despite Babe Ruthless’ opinions, the WORST thing for any professional league is a Dynasty. It kills fan support everywhere EXCEPT in the small segment of the market that actually cheers for that Dynasty.

Just like Argentina and Europe were apathetic towards the NBA until very recently, it is the Americans who tend to be apathetic (generally speaking) when it comes to support of the NHL. Once the learned they were just as good as the NBA stars, they started to follow it more, which in turn has helped the NBA internationally.

The American team was made up of a bunch of NHL stars that very few in the US (outside of the loyal hockey fans already in existense) actually knew of. Today, I guarantee you that most ‘casual’ sports fans STILL don’t know the names of those hockey players (with, perhaps, the exception of Ryan Miller, who was far and away the best Goalie of the Olympics).

The NHL needed those American players to become ‘household names’ in order to create US buy-in for the sport. Had they won Gold, there would have potentially been more post-Olympic interest. Silver Medalists, however, rarely become household names.

While the Hockey final yesterday was indeed an exhibition of the very best that HOCKEY had to offer, it fell WELL short of turning most of those American players into ‘household’ names, and probably HURT the NHL from an American perspective, more than it helped it.