Canadian and more generally North American hockey is really strong now compared to Europe. Outside of Russia all the other major hockey powers (Czech, Finland, Slovakia, Sweden) have basicly had to rely on the same stars ever since the nineties. The Swedes have got a little more going for them, but still I think we're looking at a decade where Canada, US and Russia will be the only real competitors year in and year out.
Also, one thing to note: once again when in North America, we had both Canada and US in the finals. In Turin both went home without medals. in Salt Lake City, both playd in the finals. In Nagano, once again no medals for North Americans.
I think that does raise the question, do the North Americans really care about olympic hockey if it's not played in North America?
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