Paul Guggenheimer: Olympic hockey is better without NHL players

There were a lot of hockey fans who lamented the National Hockey League’s last minute decision to keep its players home instead of allowing them to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The league had given its blessing to a plan to have NHL stars return to the Olympics after sitting out the 2018 games in Pyeongchang. But with covid on the rise again, having the likes of Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and Auston Matthews competing in Beijing was deemed too risky, especially considering the way the Omicron variant was spreading at the time the NHL finally made up its mind.

Also, the rate at which the league was postponing games led it to conclude it couldn’t afford to wait through a two-week Olympic break to start making up the backlog.

Best thing that could have happened.

The scramble to fill rosters, especially for the United States, has provided an opportunity to a new generation of up- and-coming American players to strut their stuff. And they’re playing like it’s 1980, which is to say, miraculously!

The 2022 U.S. squad includes four 19-year olds, led by goalie Drew Commesso of Boston University who had two of the three wins in the Americans’ sweep of the preliminary round. Commesso shut out China in the U.S. opener, and then made 24 saves, many of them stellar, in a 3-2 win over Germany on Sunday that clinched the top spot for the U.S. in the Group A standings.

Despite having the youngest team in the men’s field with 15 NCAA players, the U.S. now has a bye into the quarterfinals and is the top seed in the elimination round.

The U.S. made its biggest statement by beating perennial power Canada, 4-2, in the preliminary round, the Americans’ first Olympic win over Canada in 12 years. One of those NCAA players, 20-year-old Brendan Brisson of Michigan, scored what proved to be the winning goal for a U.S. squad that overwhelmed the Canadians with its speed and skill.

Sean Farrell, another 20-year-old from Harvard, leads all men’s Olympic scorers with six points while Ben Meyers and Andy Miele were sixth and seventh, respectively, with four points apiece.

Never heard of them? Well, had anyone heard of Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione or Mark Johnson before the U.S. upset the Soviet Union and went on to win the gold medal at Lake Placid 42 years ago?

The best part of that win was seeing U.S. amateur players hold their own against Soviet professionals (members of the military who were paid to play hockey) and eventually beat them in an upset for the ages.

It’s not the same now. After all, the best Russian players now play in the U.S. and Canada. But like 1980, the U.S. roster is made up mostly of college players while the Russian Olympic Committee (competing under the acronym ROC due to the nation’s doping violations) is made up entirely of guys playing in the KHL, the Russian domestic league considered second only to the NHL.

If the U.S. plays the Russians in the medal round, most likely in the gold medal game, it would have a similar David vs. Goliath feeling.

To be sure, having NHL players in the Olympics has produced memorable games, especially the two gold medal matchups between the U.S. and Canada in 2002 and 2010. There are few moments better than when Crosby scored the overtime winner for host Canada a dozen years ago in Vancouver.

But who can blame U.S. fans, especially those in Pittsburgh, for feeling conflicted when a career defining moment for Sid the Kid led to a disappointing loss for the American squad. Or a thrilling shootout win for the U.S., led by former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, over Russia in the 2014 Sochi games, made Penguins fans feel sorry for Evgeni Malkin, a member of the losing Russian squad.

We don’t have to worry about such conflicts now. Crosby is back home continuing to pursue his 500^th career goal which could come as soon as a home game against the Flyers on Tuesday night.

And if you’re desperate for a former NHLer to root for in the Olympics, there’s always former Penguins forward Tom Kuhnhackl whose German squad plays Slovakia Tuesday for a quarterfinal berth against…the U.S.