There was a time when I was a die-hard hockey fan. I used to play in an adult pick-up league. A bunch of us used to rent ice time at 2 in the morning.

This was back in the heyday of the Flyers, the legendary days of the Broad Street Bullies, when the orange and black were winning back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Somewhere along the line my passion for the game fizzled. Of course, I don’t skate anymore.

It’s still a great game, but the Flyers, and for that matter the NHL, don’t ignite my passion the way they once did.

I’m more of a playoff fan now. It seems to me the league plays a million meaningless games to eliminate a couple of teams.

But playoff hockey is something else again. It is among the best sports has to offer.

But even that pales compared to what we saw Sunday.

Two teams of professionals put aside their paychecks to play for nothing – except their countries – and the chance for an Olympic gold medal.

It took almost two weeks, but the Olympics finally gathered my interest with as good a hockey game as you will ever see.

USA vs. Canada.

It was a grudge match, with the Americans having already stunned Team Canada in an earlier round.

While it would have been a big story if the U.S. had won, in Canada it would have been anathema if their guys had lost.

This is their game, their birthright. It would be like the USA losing in basketball. Yes, I know that has happened once before.

But there was something else that was special about yesterday’s game.

Not the fact that this millionaires were playing for nothing. Not that they were playing for their countries. Not that they shut down their sport for two weeks for this Olympic tournament.

It had more to do with how we watched.

Usually TV simply is an aggravating detraction from sporting events.
Yes, they allow us to view the games. And promptly destroy them with their inane chatter and endless commercials.

Not yesterday.

Somehow NBC managed to work with a sponsor, Direct TV, to limit commercial interruptions during the game.

The result was something special, something we rarely see. A televised sport allowed to unfold at its own frenetic pace, without the constant interruption of commercials.

The result was magical. At a couple of points during the game, I was actually hoping for a pause, if only for a bathroom break.

Hockey is one of those games that lends itself to non-stop action.

Yesterday TV they took that concept and ratcheted it up a bit. The result was what “Wide World of Sports” used to refer to as the “drama of human competition.”

There are very few things in sports that can match overtime in ice hockey.

Add in playing for a gold medal and the pride of your country and you have one of those sports moments that does not come around very often.

It was, in a word, riveting.

Now that’s what I would call “must-see TV.”