Actually, this brings up another point that hasn't gotten a lot of attention in these Olympics except for some interesting commentary about the Russians. These Olympic teams aren't really teams at all, and I think it has showed a lot in these particular Olympics. When the U.S. won the gold medal in hockey back in 1980, the team had begun training and practicing in June of 1979 -- nine months earlier. They then went on a long tour of exhibition games against mostly AHL and European teams, starting in September 1979.
I think some of the low-scoring games in this tournament reflect an inherent weakness of a selection process that basically cobbles a team together just a few weeks before the Olympics and doesn't allow the players to develop any chemistry at all.
Bingo !! NO pros in the Olympics. Period.
Some teams in hockey have a great many players who have played on national teams together. As to your 1980 point that Russian national team had been together even longer than team USA by several years.
I just have an issue with a selection committee picking players on prior merit, aged merit if you will, for an event 6 months in the future without caring who played how well in the 4 months of season before the selection had to be in. If it’s a meaningless all star game that comes around once a year and someone gets in on rep and a better player has to wait a year its not the end of the world. This was to represent the nation in an event that occurs every 4 years. They didn’t have the luxury to make lazy picks. They did however and the laziest picks were the weakest links.