Sometimes it's hard to remember within our community, but prior to this
past Olympics, 95% of the *women* in this country didn't even know women
played hockey.  Now they know they play hockey, and not only that but in
playing it they attend the finest universities in the country.  And they
get to make neato commercials (if there was a better ad during the Olympics
than Granato's spot for <insert_phone_conglomerate>, then it was the
immortal "We're not really the favorite", also featuring women's hockey.
 
The coverage of the gold medal US and silver medal Canadian teams can't
hurt women's hockey, and it will probably help spread the word, bump up
attendance, etc...
 
Another thing is that coverage was apparently superior in some places.
Here in Boston, for example, every US women's game could be seen *at some
point*, and though games were often on late night, enterprising parents of
young players could of course have taped the games (considering all the
other crazy things hockey parents put up with, this is hardly beyond
expectation).
 
Finally, just having Granato carry the flag in the closing ceremonies says
something.
 
The CBS/TNT coverage of these games was typically infantile,
lowest-common-denominator, in a word: network.  The co-anchors on CBS made
Martha Stewart look like a Rhodes Scholar, and the coverage of all of the
events revolved around stroking the collectively insecure US phallus.
But... (paradoxically enough :-) ... the best thing to come out of these
games was a rise in exposure of women's hockey from zero to *something*.
All-in-all, we couldn't have asked for more.
 
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