I don’t think that I have ever seen this much excitement all around for hockey in the Olympics as there is this year. Is it me or is there really a buzz going around this time more than ever?

It is pretty exciting and I am looking forward to watching some great hockey! Of course I would love to see the United States somehow get a medal and as we know from 1980, it could happen. The favorite for a lot of reasons though is Canada and a big reason is because of Sidney Crosby. How well he plays will determine a lot about how well Team Canada does in the 2010 Olympics, when it comes to hockey anyways.

So will Sid be the best player on the ice in the Olympics? Of course this is all just a matter of opinion and there will always be some debate whether he is or isn’t. The Olympics will have the best of the best from all countries, but in reality so does the NHL. It’s not like there is a bunch of talent from other countries that choose not to play in the NHL. So if you believe that Sidney Crosby is the best player on the ice during any given night of the NHL schedule, you have to at least consider the same in the Olympics.

There will be a lot of pressure on him to succeed and bring the gold medal to Canada, but he is not alone. Sid will be alongside many other great players and will also have Martin Brodeur in goal, which will also be a big part of whether they win the gold or not. The goaltending is going to be key no matter what team we are talking about. This is one of the reasons that the United States with Ryan Miller in goal may not be as much of a long shot as people think.

Either way, I am looking forward to watching some of these games and more than that, looking forward to it being over and getting back to normal in the NHL. Hopefully once this is over, the Penguins can regroup and make a run for the cup like they did last year. We will see how it goes, but I just hope that they quit imitating the Steelers and get back to actually winning some of these games that they have a lead in. Isn’t it kind of a weird coincidence that the Pens and Steelers have been great this year and getting the lead and then blowing it at the end of the game?

We won’t have to worry much about that with the Pirates though. They are usually good for giving up 5 or 6 runs in the first inning so we can give up early and get back to doing more entertaining stuff, like watching paint dry. Funny how it starts off talking about how great Sidney Crosby is and ends with how bad the Pirates are. The life of a Pittsburgh sports fan!