Now that the Winter Olympics are over and we are starting slide back in to our old routine of watching Sportscenter for hoops highlights, I feel that I need to address an issue that kept coming up during the games.

During the Olympics, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman talked about possibly stopping NHL players from participating in the 2014 Winter Games.

My immediate response to hearing this was, "IS HE NUTS?"

If you didn't watch the Olympic Hockey tournament (and my guess is that you did), it was nothing short of spectacular. In pool play, the young Team USA beat the heavily favored Team Canada on their home ice and went undefeated in the group play. The two teams would later meet in the gold medal game where Sidney Crosby put the puck past goalie Ryan Miller in overtime to finish what was one of the best games in international ice hockey history.

It was truly a tournament to remember. Miller won the MVP and made a huge name for himself in the states. Crosby became a national hero...again. And Russia's Alexander Ovechkin, who played very well, went home empty-handed...again.

But as I watched this all unfold on NBC, something stuck in the back of my mind. And that was commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman expressing his concerns about letting his players play in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

Now that I've had time to rethink the situation, I can see where Mr. Bettman is coming from.

The NHL had to completely shutdown for two weeks because so many of it's best players and coaches left to compete in Vancouver. Having no games or income for half a month probably did not sit well with the commish. In an interview during the Olympics, he explained his thoughts. “The value of the contracts of our players who are here: $2.1 billion. To be at these Olympics we must basically hand over control of our most important asset, our players.”

Fair enough. HOWEVER, I think Bettman needs to look at the big picture.

Overall, these Olympics did more good for the sport than bad. In an age where football dominates headlines and sports conversations, I have never seen so many people get into hockey. You couldn't turn on a TV or a radio in America and not hear something about Ryan Miller and Zach Parise and the rest of Team USA. On Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, everyone had something to say about Olympic Hockey.

27.6 million American viewers watched the finals on NBC, the most watched hockey game since the 1980 Gold Medal Game (the game after the Miracle on Ice). But it didn't stop there as coverage of the tournament continued for a few days after the torch was extinguished in Vancouver.

Now, people are starting to get pumped for the NHL games. Even the hockey haters at ESPN have acknowledge the hype that the sport is attracting.

In what can only be described as fate, Ryan Miller's Buffalo Sabres and Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins met in their first game back. Miller (the visitor) got a louder welcome back cheer than Crosby did in his own house, proving that America cares about their hockey just as much as the Canadians do. (....Well that might be a stretch.)

If Gary Bettman was sitting across from me now, this is what I would say to him:

Let's face it. Ice hockey hasn't been this popular in a long time. The Olympics drew untapped interest to the sport and sucked in fans who already loved the game, but had better things to do. That interest will eventually turn into profit for you and the NHL.

Besides, you probably make more money in a year than I will see in a lifetime. Will it really kill you to take two weeks off every four years?

Now, I am in no way a businessman but I am really struggling to find a downside to letting the pros compete for their respected countries. Granted, this was a spectacular tournament and interest may not be as high as it is right now if the tournament had been more one-sided. But I think Bettman would be guaranteeing a boring tournament by not letting NHL players play in Sochi. And absolutely no good could come from a situation like that.

Lucky for hockey fans, Bettman has four years to think it over before he makes a decision about the future of his players. For now, let's just enjoy our hockey fever while it lasts and the fact that the sport is growing with each new goal.