Well kiddies, spring break ends today in the NHL. Gotta start thinking about more than just having fun. The Olympics were fine for that, but now its time to hit the books again, so to speak.

Of course, lots of NHL folks have been working right through, and not all of them are nerds. In fact the general managers around the league, yes those same guys who complained so much about sending their players to the Olympics found the break to be pretty useful because it let them get a lot done without the constant prying of local and national media.

Most NHL beat writers and high-profile media types around the league were off in Turin, so GMs didn’t have to answer any distracting questions about the final 25 games of the schedule, or the last trading period which begins when the roster freeze expires at midnight tonight. In other words, it was a great time to make some sober evaluations and decisions.

The upshot is that the next 10 days leading up to the March 9 deadline should be very busy because so many teams still have a shot at playoff spots or more, and probably just as many are trying to how to handle salary cap concerns going forward.

Look for things to heat up by the weekend, when every team will have played at least a couple of games and given their bosses a chance another look before they leap, and don’t be surprised if the activity level rivals what was seen after the new CBA was signed last summer.

Let the real games begin.

So it took a little longer than it should have. Four years, to be precise, but good things are supposed to be worth waiting for and in Sweden’s case, that means finally getting the Olympic gold medal they should have won in 2002 at Salt Lake.

The Swedes were the best team in that tournament – yes better even than the Canadians who did win the top prize back then – but they blew their shot by turning in a half-hearted effort against a Belarus team they took for granted in the quarterfinals and then getting eliminated on a late fluke goal. In Turin, there was no such letdown, even if they ‘managed’ a lucky first-round playoff draw by getting to face Switzerland.

That too was a mismatch on paper, but this time the Swedes took the upstarts they were facing seriously, bringing their ‘A’ game and then honing it in increments as the playoff round progressed. Sweden peaked at the perfect time, playing a very smart and energetic game against a stunning Finland team that had dominated everyone it played until the gold medal game.

The Olympics finale was a superb battle between two small nations that take its hockey and its rivalry very seriously. In a way it’s a shame that the winning goal scored by Sweden’s Nicklas Lidstrom seconds into the third period was a stoppable shot, one of the very few that Finland goalie Antero Niitymaki actually flubbed in this tournament. Nittymaki was Finland's third choice to play goal because Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff and Atlanta's Kari Lehtonen both begged out of the Olympics, and was considered one of his team's bigger question marks coming in. He ended up being named the MVP of the tournament.

Still, that goal is going to haunt him. It gave Sweden the 3-2 lead it would protect the rest of the way, thanks in no small part to the play at the other end of New York Rangers rookie Henrik Lundqvist, who was outstanding over the final 15 minutes as Finland mounted a desperate push to get the equalizer.

It’s going to be a bitter pill for Finland to swallow after getting so close to its first-ever gold in Olympic hockey, but they have nothing to be ashamed of after coming together so quickly and playing such a great tournament in difficult circumstance. And in the meantime, the Swedes get the recognition they deserve as having the best collection of hockey players in the world.

Looks like Tomas Vokoun redeemed himself and the Czech Republic caught a break by facing the Russians for the bronze medal.

The Czechs never have a problem getting psyched to play the former East Bloc superpower and it made a difference in a game featuring two teams that have played eight games in 11 days and were both in downer moods after failing to get a shot at gold.

Vokoun, the Nashville Predators star goalie who had been surprisingly ineffectual in Turin, started fast with a couple of big saves in the first six minutes of the game, settling himself down and let his teammates do their thing with the puck.

The Czechs had much better skating legs in this game and once they took the lead, were able to settle back into a tight-checking game that kept the Russians’ attack off balance and frustrated enough to take penalties that started hurting them.

Personally, I thought it was the ugly uniforms that did Team USA in. Really, who can shine when they don’t look fine?

Now it turns out that attire wasn’t the big problem. No less an authority that Mike Modano says Team USA was tossed out of the Turin tourney because it was impossible to find a good travel agent before the Games. The guys had to book their own flights, find rooms for the wives and actually make sure that they and their equipment got to Italy on time. I mean how can pampered millionaire athletes get all that together, and then be expected to win some hockey games?

And if it weren’t enough, Team USA had to deal with a coach who had the temerity to bench a guy like Modano for much of the finale’s third period just because he was playing like, well, crap. Coach Peter Laviolette, whose Carolina Hurricanes by the way are the best and most surprising NHL team this season, decided to go with his youngest and strongest legs for an ill-fated comeback attempt Finland. All it got the Americans was a late goal and a chance to tie things in the last minute.

Modano, of course, didn’t see it the rationale in that. Instead, being the seasoned, reasoned and classy veteran that he is, Modano went public with his personal frustrations, taking aim at USA Hockey’s organizational skills, its brain trust's roster choices, and last but not least, its coach for calling a timeout in the first period when his team was being steamrolled to oblivion by Finland instead of waiting until late in the game. What a guy. What a leader.

What Modano should have done was look in the mirror and admitted that in spite of being a key part of the American international program for 15 years, he is like several mainstay players of his era, past his prime and not really great any more. He was at the Olympics because Team USA has a lot of young players coming through the pipeline who were not quite ready, which gave vets like Modano one last chance to appear on the biggest world stage.

There wasn’t much in the way of expectations surrounding Team USA and the team lived up or down to all of them, but for a 35-year-old presumed example-setter like Modano to pop off is as immature as the American players who threw hotel furniture out the window in Nagano after losing there, and as diametrically opposed as possible to the responses of Canadian players, who to a man accepted blame for not playing well enough to deserve victory.

Funny thing is that Finland might not have deserved a win against Team USA either, at least according to Teemu Selanne, who described his club’s effort as inadequate. But that wasn't Selanne's most telling observation about his opponent.

“I don’t think we played good enough to win tonight,” he said. “(But) we didn't even have to play that well."

Oh, and one more thing. Finland over Russia and Sweden over the Czechs in the semifinals Friday.

The bright side, which no one in Canada will look at until, oh, maybe, December 2009 (when they'll announce the rosters for the next Olympics), is that now there’s a chance to reclaim the gold at home four years from now.

Makes for a nice story line, doesn't it? Canada could re-assert itself as the world’s top hockey power in Vancouver when the NHL likely makes its last appearance in the Olympics and then live with that victory forever going "Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah." It just won’t take away the sting now being felt north of the border from the embarrassing effort of its men’s hockey team. And it shouldn’t.

Team Canada was putrid from the beginning of the tournament, its star-studded lineup failing at an epic level. They’ll be maligned for days and weeks to come back home, and boss Wayne Gretzky will have yet another public relations headache to deal with.

All of which is entirely appropriate. Really. Canada didn’t even deserve to get into the playoff round, and when they did, they were exposed as nothing more than a paper tiger. Russia won the quarterfinal game 2-0, a score that doesn’t come close to describing the territorial dominance enjoyed throughout by the winners. Canada looked as lost as they have been throughout the tournament. The Canadians were tentative, a step behind in most cases and unable or unwilling to play with the kind of desperation everyone else they played managed.

What is hardest to understand is how a team with this many good players could be so bad. Obviously the absence of Scott Niedermayer and Ed Jovanovski on the blue line hurt, and maybe there’s a lot more to having the leadership of players like Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Joe Nieuwendyk, as Team Canada did in Salt Lake, than most people realize. But there was definitely a chemical imbalance this time, one that makes second-guessing of choices made by Gretzky and company pretty easy.

Their big picture approach was flawed this time. Canada tends to rely on players they know and who have international experience and size, and in many cases this time, it meant leaving off younger guys who despite having great seasons. Sorry Sidney Crosby, Eric Staal, Alex Tanguay, Dion Phaneuf and even an “old” war horse like Paul Kariya. No room for you guys, cause there’s Todd Bertuzzi, Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, and Bryan McCabe among others to bring along.

Then again, maybe a different set of players wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. After Canada beat Team USA in the 2002 gold medal game, Jeremy Roenick said the Americans really wanted to win, but he could see in the eyes of Canadian players that they “had to win.” Not this time.

There’s no reason to be disappointed with Team USA’s quick elimination from the Olympics. The Americans, who were not expected to go far, never mailed it in and fought right to the end before losing their quarterfinal to Finland.

In fact, they had a very good chance of beating the Finns today, which would have been an upset of large proportions considering Finland has been the dominant team in the men’s tournament so far. Finland went 5-0 with four shutouts in opening round that included wins over the Czechs and Canadians, and dictated things in every game they played.

Actually, they dictated things in this one too, at least early. The Finns started fast and got a quick two-goal lead, but Team USA managed to take control of the play late in the first period and kept it long enough to tie the game at 2-2 early in the second period. The Americans had the momentum and for the first time in these Olympics, Finland looked vulnerable. But Team USA started losing their legs and taking a series of penalties to compensate. That resulted in two power play goals by Olli Jokinen that proved to be the difference.

The Americans didn’t quit though. Finland's disciplined game makes third-period comebacks difficult, but Team USA made a late desperate charge and closed the gap on Brian Gionta’s goal (and by the way, the set up pass by a diving Chris Drury was every bit as spectacular as Alex Ovechkin’s celebrated goal for Washington this year), but it was not enough. Had goalie Rick DiPietro, who had some very strong moments in this game, been sharper on all four Finland goals, it might have been.

This still should be a memorable game though, because it was likely the last in a Team USA uniform for Chris Chelios. He’s 44 and played his first Olympics at Sarajevo in 1984, and he went out in style in Turin. Chelios had an incredible game, not only defensively, but physically, hitting everything that moved and changing the flow of the game on several of his shifts.

A great international goodbye for a great American player.

If goalie Rick DiPietro sharpens up over the final 40 minutes of the quarterfinal game, Team USA has a chance to beat Finland today. The Americans seem to have figured out how to use their muscle to counter Finland’s aggressive forecheck, and they outplayed them over the final seven or eight minutes of the first period, cutting their deficit to 2-1 in the process.

But they need DiPietro to be in game-stealing mode to pull it off. He wasn’t in the first period, which is a bit of letdown for Team USA considering the way DiPietro has played in the tournament so far. Maybe he was rattled after getting bowled over by Jarko Ruutu about five minutes in, but DiPietro could have stopped both goals he allowed and looked shaky another time when a shot that beat him hit the goal post.

But the Americans are skating well and really taking the body, and they’ve taken Finland out of its rhythm for the first time in the Olympics. This is the first time Finland will have to regroup.

After Canada was beaten pretty badly by Finland on Sunday, assistant coach Ken Hitchcock was asked why so many of the other guys seemed to be playing better than they do in the NHL. His answer was simple.

"We're not just playing against a bunch of NHL players, we're playing against a lot of flags,” said Hitchcock, the Philadelphia Flyers head coach. “There's a whole other level of intensity.”

And it gets turned up another notch when the medal round starts Wednesday.

There’s going to be the Slovaks trying to exact some payback against the Czechs aftter years of being second-class citizens in the then-unified country’s hockey structure and internationally in one game, and Canada taking on Russia in a battle of international hockey’s greatest rivals in another.

Finland, meanwhile, believes this could actually be the year their small country wins its first gold medal in hockey, for good reason. The Finns have been the best team in the tournament so far, posting shutouts in four of their five wins, but they can’t look past a struggling American team in a one-game elimination format. Team USA turned in a pesky enough effort in losing to Russia to give it hope that a similar performance (and some goaltending larceny from Rick DiPietro) might spark them toward a mini-version of the Miracle on Ice.

Last but not least, there’s Switzerland, where hockey is bigger than most people realize and the national team has created real excitement by beating Canada and the Czechs in the first round. The Swiss didn’t look nearly as good against weaker group opponents Italy and Germany, but with two NHL No. 1 goalies, they can send a team home very easily in this format. The Swedes have to be mindful of that, especially after the reaction the team got at home in 2002 after Belarus bounced them in the quarterfinals. And they probably didn't help themselves when their coach directed insulting comments towards the Swiss.

My picks to advance are: Finland, Canada, Slovakia and Sweden.

Russian team captain Alexei Kovalev turns 33 on Friday, which might help explain why he seems to be maturing into a leader right before our very eyes.

That’s not a knock on the guy. Kovalev is one of the NHL’s most skilled players and has starred more often than not for teams during his dozen NHL seasons, but if hockey was the Oscars, he’d get nominated in the supporting, rather than lead actor category. Kovalev has never really been the top dog on any of his teams --with the Rangers it was Mark Messier, with the Penguins, Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr and now with Montreal, it is Saku Koivu -- until now.

Kovalev was given the “C” for the national team and has been taking his role very seriously on and off the ice. He's made it clear repeatedly that unlike its predecessors, this team is made up only of guys who want to be there, led the oldest member, and he has been the go-to guy for international media needing quotes from the Russian team. In fact, Kovalev has been approaching the interviews with such steely intensity, he looks like a younger version of legendary Soviet taskmaster coach Viktor Tikhonov when he's speaking.

On the ice, Kovalev has been even better, leading the very dangerous Russians at both ends of the ice. He's taking faceoffs, playing defense, delivering big message-sending hits (hello Chris Drury, hear any bells ringing?) and scoring big goals, like the one in the third period today that beat Team USA 5-4.

Kovalev has actually been one of the best stories of this tournament, he just hasn't gotten all that much attention. If the Russians beat Canada tomorrow, you can be sure he will.

Too bad for the Americans the second period against the Russians had to end. For most of it, they were playing the kind of hockey that could get them to a medal game.

Team USA dominated the first half of the period, but they lost some steam when Andre Markov scored near the three-quarter mark for the Russians. Then Brian Gionta regained the momentum for the Americans with a power play goal that came as a result of Team USA’s desperate work down low and the New Jersey Devil’s right wing’s refusal to cede his position in front of the net. That cut the Russians lead to 3-2 and Team USA kept the pressure up for the balance of the period, nearly getting the equalizer.

If they could play like that for 60 minutes in the medal round, Team USA could make some noise.

The first round of the men's tournament, that is, at least for the 'Big 7' teams that were supposed to be there and are. It's the medal round that counts at the Olympics and makes everything before it a glorified tune-up.

No wonder Finland, which had already locked up first place in its grouping, looked a little bored in its relatively-easy win over Germany today. Still, they went through the motions with as much precision as they’ve shown throughout the tournament and showed how finely tuned they really are right now.

That’s not particularly good news for Team USA, which faces the undefeated, untied Finns in the one-game elimination medal round opener Wednesday, but not as ominous as it sounds. Particularly if American goalie Rick DiPietro, who has been better than expected in Turin, manages to steal a game on his own.

It’s possible and it’s happened so far in an unpredictable opening round. Surprisingly effective goaltending has been the story for several teams, nowhere more than Switzerland where goalies Martin Gerber and David Aebischer have both stolen wins against the two top-rated teams in the world.

Makes me wonder why the coach of the Swedish team would want to face Switzerland in the opener, and even more, how he got so brain-cramped as to say out loud that his team might throw its finale to do so.

Coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson was interviewed on Swedish television and radio, and said the team was thinking about losing the final qualifying tournament game against Slovakia to get the Swiss in the cross-over round. A win by the Swedes means they would face either the Czechs or Canada in the medal-round opener. The two faced each other in a spirited game won 3-2 by Canada today, and both looked to be getting into their highest gear of the tournament at the right time.

Obviously that's not an inviting prospect for the Swedes, but then again, Switzerland beat both in the last few days.

Obviously the Swiss don't play favorites, so after upsetting the Czechs a couple of days ago, they extended the favor to another powerhouse -- Canada -- and knocked them down a peg in the process.

Switzerland's win Saturday might cause a national day of mourning in Canada, not to mention a few calls for investigating the Russian referee Viachaslev Bulanov, but it gives folks down in Carolina a reason to celebrate because of the game turned in by Swiss goalie Martin Gerber. He stopped all 49 shots he faced from a Canadian team that spent most of the game inside the Swiss blue line and kept parking the very big bodies they have playing forward in the net. It doesn't require a giant intellect to understand this was Gerber's win pure and simple.

And for the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes, that's pretty re-assuring. Gerber's been outstanding for Carolina this season, but there have been lots of goalies who found it hard to live up to great regular seasons when the pressure of the playoffs are upon them. The 'Canes have to have that thought at least in the back of their minds, but this game against Canada was a test for Gerber and he passed with flying colors.

Now I don’t usually pay much attention to the women’s hockey tournament, but Sweden's win Saturday is worth noting because they overcame a two-goal deficit beat the U.S. in a shootout.

The thing is, no team is supposed beat the American girls, nor the Canadians for that matter, except each other.

The North American women have been so far ahead of the rest of the world in recent years, it's been almost embarrassing. Maybe the gap is narrowing, but if nothing else, the Swedish girls have pulled off the biggest hockey upset -- men or women -- so far in Turin.

Of course, they'll lose that distinction if the Swiss men keep befuddling Canada they way they did in the first period.

Here are some early impressions of the Olympic tournament.

1. Canada: No reason to question their status as tournament favorites, just no reason to get too excited by Canada's ability to toy with inferior Italy and Germany in its first two games. The Swiss will force them into the next gear they'll need Sunday against Finland.

2. Finland: Goaltending concerns disappear quickly when you get back-to-back shutouts, and for Finland, it’s a sign their tight defensive overall game is already effective. Having Selanne on fire doesn’t hurt either.

3. Russia: After getting stunned in the opener, the Russians got really mad and showed how much firepower they could unleash the next day against Sweden. This team is a lot more physical than expected, and Nabokov looked just as sharp as he has been lately.

4. Czech Rep: So many guys have played together, they should be more in sync than anyone. Not yet though, as they're embarrassing loss to Switzerland shows. Things will improve before the medal round and the Czechs might be better off with Tomas Vokoun.

5. Sweden: Can Peter Forsberg save them? Maybe, but the chances of him playing are diminishing. In the meantime, teams could have gotten a pass in Game 1 because of jet lag, but the Swedes and goalie Henrik Lundqvist can't use that excuse after being blown away by the Russians in the second game.

6. Slovakia: Their ability to score can't really be a surprise to anyone who looks at the lineup. They have sharpshooters who are quick and shifty and they are finding gaps in the ice they can use. As long as they can play with the puck they’re fine, but that gets tougher deeper into the tournament.

7. USA: Being unable to beat Latvia's Arturs Irbe isn’t a crime; Irbe had a decent NHL career and stole games on his own several times. But in the Olympics, gaining a tie against a weaker team could cause a problem getting into the medal round.

8. Germany: Watching them line up four guys across their own blue line brings back some unfortunate memories of hockey in the pre-lockout days, but that's the game they play and it keeps them hopeful.

9. Switzerland: Work hard, keep the game close, rely on good goaltending and anything can happen. The Swiss mixed that formula and upset the Czechs and could pull it off again if goalies David Aebischer keeps playing the way he did.

10. Latvia: The Latvians got a good look at themselves in the mirror and when Slovakia showed what a powerful offense could do against this team. It wasn’t pretty.

11. Italy: They're a pesky little bunch and can ride crowd emotion for a period or two. The problem is that sometimes, that makes the Italians play with more guts than thought.

12. Kazahkstan: Right now, they look like everybody's punching bag.

From what I understand, Wayne Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, made a bet last week.

On the Super Bowl.

And the police said -- IT WAS LEGAL!

Phew! I was starting to worry about that $10-spot I dropped on the game. And you gotta figure all those secretaries who got in on the office pool, well. ...

Anyway, I feel better now. Those same cops say the guys they're investigating for running a gambling ring (that’s how they know about Mrs. Gretzky who once-in-a-while skips buying jewelry and drops 75Gs on a football game) didn’t make bets on hockey or fix hockey games.

They’re NOT RULING THAT OUT though. THEY JUST HAVE NO EVIDENCE at all to indicate that kind of wrong doing.

What they do have apparently, is enough to charge Rick Tocchet with being involved in an alleged gambling ring. He’s been charged along with a New Jersey police officer and another man who has been convicted of racketeering in the past. Tocchet is a long-time and very popular former player and this year, an assistant coach to Gretzky in Phoenix. That connection is what has given this story its buzz.

Apparently Tocchet gave his boss who happens to be his buddy a heads-up about what was going on before the story broke and as turns out, he was wiretapped doing it. During the conversation, Gretzky was heard asking how Janet could be kept out of it. The first time Gretzky was asked by reporters about the matter, he denied any knowledge. How dare he? Really, what a horrible thing it is for a guy to protect his wife.

So Gretzky is going through the ringer now not because anyone investigating the matter believes he did anything wrong, but because it grabs headlines. The light shines a lot softer on New Jersey cops when they have the public focusing on the role of Wayne Gretzky’s assistant in the alleged ring rather than on the involvement of one of their own cops who might be dirty.

Good spin control

Some random thoughts as I finish a story about the Rich Tocchet situation. First, isn't it ironic the Gary Bettman's first response came from the Las Vegas area where he and most GMs were meeting. And just what does this do to Vegas' chances of landing the Penguins if they move?

But what interested me more today were remarks by Detroit goalie Manny Legace before he went out and blanked the Predators for his second straight shutout.

Legace has had a very good year for Detroit, but fans and media there openly wonder if he and backup Chris Osgood are good enough to carry the team through the playoffs. And he told the Detroit Free Press he fully understands.

"Without a question, on this team, you look around this room, it is a weak point," Legace said about Detroit's goaltending. "If we have anything to point our finger at, it's this."

Okay, but the thing is Detroit leads the the West, and ranks second in the NHL in fewest goals-against and in penalty killing. So there's really not to much to complain about in goal, right? Wrong and that's the burden of Red Wings goalies, as Osgood knows and as does Legace, who has previously taken a backseat to either Dominik Hasek or Curtis Joseph, sometimes both, in Detroit.

Can't say for sure, but I think what looked like a smile on Jose Theodore's face Sunday afternoon was actually the Canadiens goalie gritting his teeth.

And he had reason to after watching understudy Cristobel Huet pick up his second shutout in as many days, both coming in big games that Montreal obviously didn't feel comfortable enough to trust to their expensive high-priced veteran.

Huet was supposed to be an insurance policy for the Habs the season, but with Theodore on a season-long slide and having been pulled three times in his last four starts, it's getting pretty clear his time in Montreal is almost done.

Theodore has been the subject of trade rumors for at least two months, and it seems inevitable the Canadiens will ship him out as soon as they can a find that can fit him into their salary structure. It's could take a three-way deal to do, but look for Theodore to be out of the red, white and blue soon, maybe even before the Olympic break.

It probably will be a good thing too, since life isn't much fun for French-Canadian players when they don't do well in Montreal.

Atlanta Thrashers general manager Don Waddell has guaranteed his team will make the playoffs this season, a bold move considering his team is outside the playoff picture these days and just snapped a seven-game losing streak by beating Florida on Saturday night.

The Thrashers have been something of an enigma this season, a talented team that added some big-time talent this summer in Marian Hossa, Bobby Holik and Peter Bondra, but for whatever reason, they have just not been able to get it together on any consistent basis. Atlanta has had some injury problems, particularly in goal where they've used six different netminders, but these days, one of the biggest problems seems to be the attitude of superstar Ilya Kovalchuk, who keeps getting caught with illegally-curved sticks.

Kovalchuk keeps saying its no big deal, but the Thrashers have been penalized every time, although the infractions have yet to directly caused them to lose a game. Coach Bob Hartley demoted Kovalchuk to the third line and Waddell says if it happens again to Kovalchuk or any one else, it will result in a suspension.

Guaranteed.

Here’s a little advice for Ottawa Senators goalie Ray Emery. Make sure you’re playing well before you offend anyone. It's a lot easier to get apologists that way.

In Emery's case, allowing 17 goals on 45 shots over his last three games -- a .726 save percentage (eek!) in case you're into breaking down the numbers -- left him primed to be a target of disgruntled fans. So he didn't need to paint an additional bulls-eye on himself, which in this case turned out to be portrait of Mike Tyson on his goalie mask.

Emery wore the head guard for the first time Monday night in a 5-0 loss to Boston and while the team said it didn't receive any complaints directly, there was enough negative buzz in the city's newspapers and talk shows to have GM John Muckler 'suggest' his goalie keep his new gear in a souvenir box at home. Permanently.

Muckler insists he didn't force his young black netminder to get rid of the mask, but merely pointed that Emery's childhood idol was a convicted rapist and might not be the best image for a wholesome family entertainment spectacle like the NHL to present.

Of course had Emery kept up the .800 winning percentage he had as Dominik Hasek’s backup until the end of December, then maybe what he wore on the ice would be considered a matter of personal expression.