Two different types of athletic contests have occurred this month. The games have two markedly different speeds of play and flow. One dominates the news cycle and its national organization makes sure to dominate at the sports news cycle in almost every month of the year. The other sport is well known, but does not dominate the news cycle as the other. The first event was football with the Super Bowl played on Feb 8 in San Francisco, between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The second involved two Olympic hockey games between the US and Canada, for both men and women. The games are treated somewhat differently in news, but also in how they move.
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| 2026 Olympic US Women Hockey Team |
If you collapsed an NFL game, which takes over three hours and closer to thee and a half, to just the time played, such amount actual play time is said to be between 11 to 18 minutes; that would fit within the standard 20 minute hockey period. NFL games seem to plunder along, while hocky is fast moving, with line changes often occurring during play. NFL games, with so much time between plays, is well suited to having a beer during the game. You can sip, or get up and get a beer without missing much if any action. In a hockey game you may not be as fortunate.
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| Good friends Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey (UW Player) |
I know of people who turned the Super Bowl off at half time because they found it, well, boring. The score was 9-0 Seattle, three field goals. It was a two score game at that point, and while defenses dominated many people found the game boring. The NFL is perhaps its own worst enemy. It has changed the rules to make play more favorable to the offense. Many years ago, they moved the hash marks closer to the middle of the field, they altered rules to favor the quarterback, and have made rules for blocking much more favorable to the offensive player. When I played football you could not use your hands, and we were told to essentially hold onto our jerseys with our fingers. A flailing hand would get the attention of a zebra and a penalty for holding, even if you did not hold. Today, it is common for a lineman to push off with their fists or hands, and one could probably find a hold on every other play. That is why today the length of a lineman's arm is important--no T-Rexes on the O-line.
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| Caroline Harvey was MVP of the Women's Hocky |
People have been conditioned, by the media and even the NFL to find low scoring games boring. Roger Goodell probably put out a bulletin at half time to make sure the game got more exciting. The second half saw a combined 33 points scored, with Seattle winning 29 to 13. Except for a few long passes by New England at garbage time, the game really was probably not as close as the indicated by the score.
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| Missed wide open shot by a Canadian player and the guy with the quote |
Both the women and men gold medal games were won by the US over Canada, 2-1, with both teams tied at 1-1 after three periods, they went to overtime with three on three play. People seemed excited about the results. Perhaps influenced by the US beating archrival Canada in each game, but also by how exciting the games were. Like the Super Bowl, they were defensive battles, but in hocky a defensive battle seems to be thought of as good, where in the NFL it is not.
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| Great goalie play, this puck was kept out of the net |
Shots on goal is one example of how a game is played, and in the women's contest, the US goalie had 30 saves on 31 shots. It was a closely matched contest as the Canadian goalie had 31 saves on 33 shots. For the men, it was a different story, leading one Canadian player to claim, regardless of score, that he will let people judge who was really the better team. The US goalie was probably the best player in the game as he had 41 saves on 42 shots. The Canadian goalie had 26 saves on 28 shots. The offensive players for Canada were the best the NHL has to offer. The US, however, had the better goalie. The US team, however, had 93 seconds, due to penalties, when they were playing with three to the Canadian five players. Canada did not score with that two man advantage. The final score is what matters, not shots on goal. The last time the US men won Olympic gold was in 1980, on the same day as gold was won this year, February 22. Earlier that year, they beat the best team in the world, the Soviet Union, 4 to 3. In that contest, the Soviets had 39 (US 36 saves) shots on goal, while the US had a total of 19 shots on goal (Soviet goalies 15 saves). Complaints about the current OT rule of playing three on three (with a goalie), well, it is the same for both teams.
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| Here is the net size Canada wants to shoot at |
The US women had a generally easy path to the championship and their is little contest that the two premier programs for female hockey are the Canada and the US. Each of the two gold medal contestants in the men's division had prior overtime games in the medal rounds, showing that other men's teams are chomping at their skates.
A fun fact is that the MVP of the women's tournament was Caroline Harvey, who plays defense for the University of Wisconsin. The coach of the University of Wisconsin Women's team is Mark Johnson who was the MVP in 1980 for the Miracle on Ice team. One person commented that all of the Canadian and US Women's team members played college hockey in the US. The UW is a power house in female hockey, having won 8 NCAA National Championships since 2006, the last just under a year ago. For the 2026 Winter Olympics, 12 current and former University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) women's hockey players are competing. This includes 6 players on Team USA, 5 on Team Canada, and 1 on Team Czechia. The Women Badgers had four current players on the US roster, and 2 alumni.
Some analysts have said that the Canada men's team was without their captain, and would have won if he had played. It is like Badger fans always coming up with complaints about a loss, and a bunch of could've if this was different. Others point to the fact that the US seems to now be developing better younger hocky players than Canada. This was shown particularly in the women's contest. The wins may now galvanize more young athletes to the sport. What it does do, is intensify the rivalry even more between Canada and the US. As for football, the NFL has done its best to make sure games have a great deal of points, meaning, that low scoring games are now thought as dreadful, when such a low scoring game in hockey is thought of as great play, leading to a great game. Two different games with two different intents.
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