U-S-A! U-S-A!

Watching Olympic hockey is great. Not only is the U.S. winning, including tonight's epic win over Canada. (An awesome game that I'm guessing a lot of people didn't see because it was on MSNBC, while NBC showed bobsledding. Is it any surprise the Winter Olympics are by far the less popular of the two in our country?)

Brian Rafalski has been huge, scoring two goals for the second straight game and adding an assist tonight. He's the oldest and probably most decorated player on the U.S. roster, but he's been the best player in the tournament. And he lives in Waupaca in the offseason.

Dany Heatley scored for Canada tonight, second straight game that's happened. And Joe Pavelski and Ryan Suter had assists in the last U.S. game.

What other college hockey program can boast of success like this in these Olympics?

A word on hockey

Good news on the hockey front: the Badgers went undefeated in their weekend series against Minnesota. The kicker: Minnesota isn't very good right now, at least not as good as they've been since I've been paying attention.

Both Todd Milewski and Andy Baggot did a good job in their Saturday gamers describing why these teams have fallen off a bit from their pace at the beginning of the century. The reason: the NHL's collective bargaining agreement has made it more logical for teams to sign their draftees, which keeps them out of the college game.

I'm not an expert on these things, but off the top of my head I can think of these guys who have left Madison prematurely in the last couple years: Robbie Earl, Joe Pavelski, Jack Skille. The Gophers have been hit just as hard, if not harder. It's even money that Kyle Turris, who Wayne Gretzky made the #3 pick in the last NHL draft for Phoenix, will leave after this season.

So why is this hitting the Badgers and Gophers harder than, say Colorado College, Denver, or North Dakota? I can't say for sure, but it's probably a parallel to college basketball programs that recruit Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, and Michael Beasley types - you hope to get one great, transcendental year out of them a la Carmelo Anthony. Meanwhile, programs recruiting three- and four-year guys are just consistently solid, like Badger basketball.

It seems that the Badgers, for all their struggles this season, are still in good shape to make the tournament, where anything can happen. Here's hoping Turris gets to raise a championship banner in Madison before putting on a Coyotes jersey for good.