Hockey returned to the NHL this week after the Olympic break, our national loyalties reverting to regional ones, as the players against whom we rooted over the last few weeks once again become our home team.  Whether NHL players will return to the Olympics in PyeonChang, South Korea, in 2018 remains to be seen; injuries to the Islanders’ John Tavares, the Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello, and the Red Wings’ Henrik Zetterberg have strengthened the call for pros to stay home and play for what really matters, which isn’t Olympic glory but a Stanley Cup, and the revenue that a playoff run will bring to team owners.

After the tournament’s most intense games, most notably the USA-Russia shoot-out on February 15, social media timelines were full of the predictable calls for Olympic fervor to spill over into the NHL’s regular season. That would be nice, but also unlikely.

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