12 Reasons To Be Excited For Olympic Hockey

The Super Bowl has ended, so it's time to look forward to the next great sporting event. This year that means the Winter Olympics, and the best Olympic team sport. Sorry curling.

1. It's actually competitive

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The Summer Olympics are great, but baseball has the WBC and soccer has the World Cup. Olympic Basketball is pretty much dominated by the US.

2. It's the only sports tournament in February

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A nice bridge to March Madness, and the NHL and NBA playoffs

3. It's basically an All-Star game

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...except it actually matters

4. We get to reminisce about this

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Quite possibly the greatest sports moment in US history

5. And this

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It wasn't in the medal round, but it sure was fun to upset Team Canada in Vancouver

6. On a related note, you can root against Canada

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There's nothing better than beating Canadians at the one sport they claim to be better at.

7. Russia too

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...real easily

8. The goalie masks

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Goalie masks are always pretty cool, but all the national themes just make them so much better.

9. And the jerseys

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10. Even if some are just a flag with sleeves

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Still looks kind of cool

11. Ryan Miller will be in net again

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All he did last time was upset Canada IN Canada, and forced OT in the Gold Medal round. Oh and he won Tournament MVP.

12. The inevitable increase in national pride

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U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A