As most people know by now, the U.S. Women's National Ice Hockey team has won their first gold medal since 1998 on Wednesday night. The U.S. Men's National Ice Hockey team, on the other hand, has not done the same.
In my opinion, the men's Olympic tournament this year has been far less exciting, and we all know why.
The National Hockey League chose to keep players from competing for their home countries in the 2018 Olympic Games. With this decision, it was the first time in the past five Olympic Games that NHL players did not compete.
They may have made a poor decision, causing viewership to go down for the sport altogether during this Olympic Games.
But if there is one thing I can say, the women's games were way more enjoyable to watch than the men's games.
During the men's tournament of this Olympic Games, you could see the sloppiness in play; the men were not able to complete passes, gave up easy scoring opportunities and was overall just not as exciting.
When you flipped over to the women's games, however, you saw a completely different game.
You saw the precision of their skills executed to perfection on the ice. You witnessed them fight for their wins (sometimes literally). You felt their passion for the game in every second they played on the ice.
After this Olympic Games, I only hope that women's ice hockey continues to grow in popularity. Currently, the National Women's Hockey League has four teams, all within the Northeast region of the United States.
It took too long for these female athletes to just receive equal pay from their male counterparts who do not have near the same qualifications that they do. It's time to make a change in the sport for the better.
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