By Rick Stephens, Editor-in-Chief, All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — “The people who like Olympic Hockey annoy me. Because they’re always comparing it to the NHL, which they don’t watch. And NHL hockey is infinitely better.” — Bill Burr, comedian

Burr launched into his rant against Olympic hockey on Tuesday morning on the Opie and Anthony show. He’s a comedian but he wasn’t kidding.

“The rinks are bigger, there’s no fighting, the talent is way less.”

Less talent? Have you watched the Buffalo Sabres, Bill?

“It’s stupid. We’re all hanging on to 1980. It’s not amateurs anymore, the Cold War is over. It’s done. It’s finished. It’s boring.”

‘Boring’ has been the term most used by pampered North-American journalists who, once they realized that readers weren’t interested in hearing about their shower-curtain troubles in Sochi, quickly shifted gears to pooh-poohing the big ice game. No offence, no hitting, no fun.

Even players waded into the fray.

“This is why the NHL should never go to a big ice, it’ll take the scoring out of the game,” said Team Canada forward Matt Duchene.  “You’re able to play way more defensive on the big ice. It makes for less offense. You’ve seen no offense almost the whole tournament. It’s either been a blowout or a real close game. That’s been the nature of it.”

It’s reminiscent of that sheltered neighbour who takes a vacation across the pond and upon his return says, ‘And you know, they speak a different language and everything!’

Yes, Olympic hockey is different: the rules, the strategy, the rivalries.

“Isn’t it refreshing,” asked a colleague when we chatted about this topic earlier today. Yes, refreshing indeed!

It isn’t that we dislike the NHL. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s just that in our worlds, we have plenty of room for different types of hockey.

The best part of experiencing Olympic hockey is getting out from under the Montreal dome to interact with a new set of fans, sportswriters and digital media.

Sure there are a group of casual fans who board the Olympic bandwagon for the duration of the tournament — nothing wrong with that. But what’s interesting is watching committed fans seeing the game from a different perspective and interacting with new fan communities.

There is also the struggle with NHL team loyalty and patriotism that proves to be overwhelming for some. This year it is most obvious with groups of Canucks and Maple Leafs enthusiasts who, despite their nationality, can’t bring themselves to cheer for Carey Price. #ClubBeforeCountry

For our friends in Toronto and Vancouver, here’s a tweet from @NHLJensen : “Of the four remaining goalies to play at least 40% of team’s minutes in #Olympics, Carey Price has best goals-against average (0.99).”

And yes, Price will start the semifinal game against the U.S.

In Montreal, fans have cast away the familiar but tired voices of the mainstream folks like Stubbs, Hickey, Todd who have been muted by their irrelevancy during the Olympics.  Instead, they embrace the messages of Mirtle, Basu, Chesnokov, Johnston, Halford, and Roarke who have been thriving in the broader spotlight.

In the spirit of the Olympics there seems to be a mini cross-border competition for buffoonery between Glenn Healy and Mike Milbury.  No clear winner but broadcasters will have to learn that by the next Olympics, with ever-increasing sources of information, they can’t continue to insult their viewers with such incompetence.

With the Montreal bubble burst, it’s been healthy for Habs fans to see what a $7-8 million defenseman actually looks like.  It’s clear that it doesn’t resemble what we see on a nightly basis from No.76. Shea Weber is a beast and Drew Doughty has been superb.

P.K. Subban has an abundance of potential but he’s not there yet. And despite the folks who do statistical gymnastics to try to make a case for their guy, it’s not even close.

“You’re here to be a good pro and a good teammate and as it’s not about me and it’s not him, it’s about Canada. As long as we all remember that, we’re fine.” — Coach Mike Babcock

Subban will have his chance in Korea in 2018 armed with the lessons of stowing one’s ego and playing a role on a team full of stars. That is, of course, if Gary Bettman and the owners will commit the NHL to participating again. And right now it doesn’t look good.

During the news conference with IIHF chief Rene Fasel, Bettman said, “None of this moves forward, if it moves forward at all, is if the players don’t want to play. If the players ever said, we’re not interested, we’re not going to force them to go.”

I never got the impression that the players were hogtied and dragged over to Sochi. It’s just more of the disingenuous spin that has stained his tenure as commissioner.  If Bettman gets his way, then we’ll see just how open the sportswriters will be to covering Olympic hockey without the NHL’ers.

But for now, this so-called ‘boring tournament’ has yielded compelling narratives with both unexpected successes —  Latvia, Slovenia, Switzerland — and countries like Slovakia and Russia who are now asking serious questions about their programs.

With all the apparent surprises, it is the top four seeds of the preliminary round that are advancing. The semi-final games feature two natural rivals in Sweden – Finland and Canada – U.S.A.  It will also set up a North-America vs Europe final for the gold medal.

Not so bad.

Next week at this time, all will be back to that familiar dome.  And, if one has been open to new perspectives, maybe somewhat enlightened. But before that, treat yourself to watching three Olympic hockey games — I have a feeling they’ll be anything but boring.