First of all, let me just say that the two-week Olympic hockey tournament in Vancouver had some of the most exciting hockey games I have ever seen. With that being said, the NHL doesn’t belong in the Olympics.

In 1980, the Miracle on Ice took place with players that had been developing chemistry for months prior to Lake Placid. It is hard for a team to develop chemistry when they convene a day or two before their first game of the tournament, as is the case when NHLers play in the Olympics.

As exciting as it was to watch the gold medal game between USA and Canada, it was just an All-Star Game that actually mattered. I’d rather see national teams comprised of players who have been training together for months come together as a nation to capture a gold medal. Let’s face it, while obviously they would love to win a medal at the Olympics, most NHL players are more focused on winning the Stanley Cup.

As Kurt Russell said in the movie Miracle, “now that we have Dream Teams, we seldom ever get to dream.”

As long as NHLers continue to play in the Olympics, there will never be another miracle.

The debate continues to rage about changing the NHL points system to include three points for a win, two points for an overtime win, and one point for an overtime loss.

Well, an easier way to solve everything would be to switch to a strict wins/losses system.

Revolutionary, I know.

“We should reward excellence, teams going for it and trying to win,” one NHL executive told ESPN.com last week. “We shouldn’t reward teams doing the rope-and-dope and waiting for overtime to get at least a point.”

Exactly! How about giving a team zero points for losing in overtime? The incentive for getting a ‘W’ instead of an ‘L’ should be enough motivation for the players, don’t you think? Plus, it would reward teams that consistently find ways to win, as opposed to a team with 20 overtime losses that would still get 20 points for those losses. Is there really that big of a big difference between losing after 60 minutes and losing after, say, 63 minutes?

For example, the top four teams in the East are Washington (18-5-6, 42 pts), Pittsburgh (20-9-1, 41 pts), Boston (15-9-5, 35 pts), and New Jersey (19-7-1, 39 pts). With a wins/losses format, the top three teams would be Pittsburgh (20-10), Washington (18-11), Buffalo (16-10), and New Jersey (19-8).

The shootout was created to stop games from ending in ties. By changing to a wins/losses standings format, wins will finally be rewarded. While every other pro sport goes by wins and losses, non-hockey fans continue to be confused by our already-confusing sport.

It’s time for the NHL to finally switch to an easy format that rewards winners and punishes losers.