What a crapfest.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

1. It was expected.

You don't assemble teams of NHL all stars in the middle of a regular season with the expectation of finishing 3rd (or in this case 4th). As Doc Emrick alluded to during the broadcast, 25 teams are in a race for the post-season, and I can imagine that the players on teams that aren't playing for gold would just rather get back to their clubs ASAP.

It's not like other sports at this level. In basketball and soccer the main world tournaments are held in the off-season, which allows teams to practice and play alongside each other (and in soccer these teams are usually together for World Cup and Euro qualifying). In men's Olympic hockey, the final rosters are announced around January 1, and the last games before the break are only three days before the competition starts. The players then have to be teammates of guys they've been knocking the crap out of for the last four months.

I would be alright if they didn't send NHLers to South Korea...