The Weekend Lowdown with Jon Marthaler: Hard to wait four years for hockey revenge

Game of the Week: The Olympics, NBC Family of Networks

Until Thursday, I was enjoying the Olympics immensely. Even the struggles of the USA curling teams didn't bother me, because hey, curling is on TV again! The same was true of skiing, and sliding, and all of the other enjoyable sports that hardly ever make it on the TV except during the Olympics.

Then came hockey, on Thursday and Friday, and I was reminded of the most terrible thing about the Olympics, the thing that's true of it and the World Cup and any other quadrennial event: if your team loses, you have to wait four whole years for redemption. And the truly awful thing is that, if you had already been waiting four years for redemption, like both USA hockey teams against Canada, and it doesn't come - then your four-year wait becomes eight, and can become twelve, sixteen, a lifetime, all quite easily.

I abhor the idea of the NHL pulling its players out of the 2018 Olympics; there's just nothing better than Olympic hockey, and whatever NHL-run World Cup of Hockey event would replace it just would not, could not, be the same. However, the only good thing I can think of is this: I'll bet the Bettman-led money-grubbers would probably have it every other year or so, and then I wouldn't have to wait whole huge chunks of my life for the USA to get another shot at beating Canada.

Anyway, there's a whole bunch of stuff today and tomorrow, including the closing ceremonies tomorrow night if that's your sort of thing. All that's left for me, though, is this: I sure hope Canada loses at hockey.

What else to watch this weekend

5pm today: Gophers at Ohio State, BTN. Speaking of disappointing teams who lose at the worst possible time... Anyway, I suggest pairing this struggling local basketball team with another this evening:

9am Sunday: Daytona 500, FOX. Sure, you might be one of the multitudes who are far too cool to ever watch something so absurd as NASCAR. That said, though, this is NASCAR's biggest spectacle, in a sport that is America's leading purveyor of spectacles, and so I recommend flipping it on.

1pm Sunday: Accenture Match Play, CBS. There are people playing golf right now, even as I type this and you read it. They are playing golf, and their cars are not covered in a two-inch layer of icy snow, and they can drive on the interstate without their cars going sideways with little provocation. Imagine that you might be one of them. Lying to yourself might be the only way to get through this week.

What to read this weekend