Best Hockey goal ever. FINLAND FTW

While I agree with Rob that there are other tournaments more important than the Olympics in soccer, boxing, tennis, etc. I think hockey doesn't fall under that.

Hockey is ALL ABOUT the Olympics. Kids don't grow up dreaming of scoring the winning goal in the World Championships. They grow up dreaming of scoring the Stanley Cup winner or the Olympic winner.

Guys like Ovechkin and Malkin have said that even if the NHL does not participate in the 2014 Sochi games, they will go anyways. I wouldn't see them skipping the Stanley Cup playoffs to go to these World Championships.

Fact is, Olympic hockey has been engrained into hockey culture, and after the Stanley Cup, it is the second most prestigious award in the sport (to some even more important than the Cup). The point is, we don't have any international tournament that's big like the Super Bowl, or the World Cup, or the Grand Slams in Tennis. All we have are the Olympics and the Stanley Cup, so it is an unfair comparison to make to those sports. However, for sports such as diving, or skiing, or track and field events, where they do not have a separate ultimate prize (least not to my knowledge), the Olympics hold a certain prestige and honor to them.