Ryan Miller seems to be the beneficiary of Sidney Crosby’s media shyness.

Crosby’s agent has now said Crosby didn’t do Letterman after the Olympics because his schedule was too tight.

I’m not sure if Team Crosby turned down any other high-profile gigs, but it’s hard not to notice Miller is now everywhere and Crosby isn’t.

Miller did the TODAY show this week.

Plus, The Wall Street Journal just had a lengthy feature on the goalie (and goaltending in general).

I’m not sure if Miller is truly benefiting from the lack of Crosby, but it sure seems to be the case.

Obviously, the true litmus test of Miller’s celebrity status would be the square assigned to him, if HOLLYWOOD SQUARES was still on the air.

Also, over in St. Louis, Doug Armstrong is getting ready to transition into the GM job as current GM Larry Pleau prepares to wind things down.

Armstrong is in a tough position. The Blues have some solid pieces, but they’re definitely a work in progress. He won’t be taking over a finished project, which will make for a more challenging take-over. I’m sure Pleau will still have a voice in decisions, whenever Armstrong assumes the GM role, but it seems like there will need to be a lot of communication for things to work well for the Blues.

Why NHL teams locking down players into long-term contracts really could be an even bigger problem:

Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal.

Suddenly 10 years for a goalie or 12 years for Mike Richards seems positively restrained.

Also, what’s up with Sidney Crosby not doing Letterman?

You can talk about Crosby needing to do a late-night talk show for the good of the league, but I would think as someone who makes some money doing endorsements, he’d want to go on just to promote his own personal brand.

It was another strange move from a guy who seems to love being an NHL star (especially the calls that come his way), but also seems oddly uncomfortable in the spotlight.

Yesterday’s trade deadline was one of the quietest I can remember in years.

There just weren’t any really big moves. Teams like Pittsburgh and Phoenix made a couple of moves to get better, but none of them were exciting blockbuster trades that make you gasp.

My theory is that the Olympics suppressed any huge trades. GMs just didn’t have a strong sense of where their teams were and how other players were doing.

The Olympics only ended on Sunday. It’s tough to make a big, cap-implicating call with information that could be two weeks old.

One of yesterday’s bigger moves was Edmonton’s Lubomir Visnovsky for Anaheim’s Ryan Whitney. I don’t think it’s a coincidence both were last seen playing in the Olympics (although you could also make the argument both were in the Olympics because they play at a certain level and so, in general, are more desirable to GMs).

Both GMs had recent looks at how each player was performing. It took some risk out of the trade.

The weirdest move of the day was Washington’s re-acquisition of Milan Jurcina. Not only had the Caps traded him earlier in the season, but he’s scheduled to be out for four to six weeks with a sports hernia.

Did Jurcina owe someone in Washington money? Is he just a fun guy to have around?

If the NHL does decide to move forward with the 2014 Olympics, I hope they remember today and decide to make the trade deadline either a week later or two weeks earlier. But the league needs to give GMs time to gather information to pull the trigger on bigger, more exciting deals.

So the past few weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for Thrashers fans.

Before the Olympics, the team traded away Ilya Kovalchuk. That was a little sad.

Then, GM Don Waddell said the team would be buyers at the trade deadline, rather than sellers. And that had to make the fans happy.

But then, the Thrashers signed Chris Chelios, age 48. And that had to be a huge disappointment.

Chelios is basically injury insurance, but I can’t believe there wasn’t a player of similar quality available for a similar salary, but at half the age. Or even less than half the age.

It’s just a very odd signing. Like instead of making a big move to substantially improve the team, Waddell decided to make a big move everyone would talk about.

Of course, he succeeded. But he would have been just as successful if had signed someone from the Braves to an NHL contract.

Speaking of GMs, it’ll be interesting to see what Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman does at the trade deadline.

Last night’s loss to the Islanders seemed to be Olympic fatigue meeting shaky goaltending.

Will the Blackhawks try and upgrade their goaltending? Will they stand pat (they traded for defenseman Nick Boynton but sent him straight to the NHL) and hope that everyone gets rested?

One theory is the Blackhawks will use their defensive depth to make some big deadline deals. But without a significant goaltending upgrade, and I’m not sure there’s anyone available who’s much better than goalie Cristobal Huet, any defensive sacrifices are going to pretty much lead straight to goals.

THE BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is the incredible true-life story of Attila Ambrus, a “professional” goalie by day and a bank robber by night (and sometimes day).

The book is an exciting page-turner, as entrancing as any piece of fiction you’ll pick up. But it’s also a nice snapshot of post-Communism Hungary. It was one of the best books I read last year. Julian Rubinstein, the book’s author, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the book and about hockey.

PuckUpdate: What was your relationship to hockey before writing the book? Were you a fan? Are you now a fan?

Rubinstein: I was a sportswriter for five years at the Washington Post and Sports Illustrated. I didn’t cover hockey as a beat, but I a few times I was out there, with the Caps in particular, if our beat guy was off or something. It wasn’t really my sport though, and to be honest, now I barely watch anything. I did enjoy watching UTE practicing in Budapest though, just imagining Attila out there in the net, screaming his head off.

PuckUpdate: Do you think any position other than a goalie could have led a double life as a robber and an athlete? Is there something about the solitary nature of the position that would lend itself to this kind of thing?

Rubinstein: That’s probably a good point about the solitary nature of the goalie. Not to mention the mentality it takes to stand as a practical target for flying pucks, some sort of fearlessness perhaps. But Attila was also not exactly a classical goalie. Remember, he once gave up 23 goals in a single game. He was probably a better Zamboni driver, which as you know was his first job with the team. But actually, he was a very good athlete, and extremely quick, and without that it’s unlikely he would have outrun the police so many times.

PuckUpdate: Why aren’t there more Hungarians playing in the NHL? Right now, there are none.

Rubinstein: There was Levente Szuper, also a goalie, who I think played with the St. Louis Blues, but not much (Ed. note: He never made it to the NHL). Hockey really isn’t nearly as popular in Hungary as it is in the Czech Republic or even in Romania.

PuckUpdate:Is there an update on Attila Ambrus? Is there any chance he’ll be released early? Is he still a folk hero in Hungary?

Rubinstein: Well, Attila is still in the max security prison in northeast Hungary. I visited him with a documentary filmmaker (Nina Davenport) and we put together a clip of the day that gives a sense of how he’s doing and what his life is like behind bars.

He is apparently going to be moved to a lower security prison soon in advance of his release, which could come in the next two years.

PuckUpdate: Ultimately, did capitalism improve life in Hungary or make things worse?

Rubinstein: Hmm. Well, that depends on who you ask. To me, there’s no simple answer. Let’s say things didn’t go as planned.

Rubinstein is finishing his second book and is working on a short documentary series called One Day Project.

Just some Olympic odds and ends:

Gary Bettman went on FOX Business Network and seemed to have a little bit of an Olympic high:

The most interesting part? He doesn’t rule out Sochi 2014 out of hand. It seems to be something he really wants to consider.

That gold medal game was pretty miraculous. It transformed Bettman from anti-Olympic to possibly pro-Olympic in just three periods (and an overtime).

Going to the other Olympic extreme, Salon’s Allen Barra has one of the most ignorant hockey stories I’ve ever read.

The only redeeming aspect to that mess? Barra gets pounded in the comments. And the comments are all very well-tempered, well-reasoned, and articulate, which has to make them sting even more.

Barra getting called on his many misconceptions about hockey and the gold medal game almost makes reading his misguided article worthwhile.

Thanks to Mrs. PuckUpdate for the Salon link.

What can you say about yesterday’s gold medal game?

It was awesome

And it was awesome because of the discipline shown by Team USA and Team Canada.

Both teams stuck to their game plans. There was no panic. The US didn’t panic when they went down by two goals and Canada didn’t panic when the US tied it up.

Instead, Team USA continued its aggressive forecheck and Team Canada played a restrained game, waiting for the US (and American goalie Ryan Miller) to make mistakes.

It made for a great game because things never got out of hand. Canada and the US never seemed ready to run away with the whole game.

But it was also a great game because it was smart hockey executed well. It wasn’t about star power, so much as it was about teamwork and support on both ends of the puck. And that’s what people were responding to when they talked (or tweeted) about how incredible yesterday’s game was.

NBC made Sidney Crosby a storyline, especially once he won the game, but he wasn’t a huge factor in the Olympics.

Ryan Miller had an incredible game, and his goaltending certainly made the game more exciting, but the excitement was helped by the performance of the team playing in front of him.

Today you’ll read a lot of stories about how good the Olympics will be for the NHL and how the gold medal game was great because it was played by the NHL’s best players. But the fact of the matter is, the game was great because the NHL’s best players accepted roles and executed those roles perfectly.

The Olympic gold medal game was exciting, but no more exciting than any number of big games you’ll see during the NHL post-season played by normal, non-star-studded NHL teams. Well-played hockey with something at stake is just an inherently exciting activity. The Olympics were exciting because a gold medal was on the line. But two normal NHL teams playing to get into the next round of the playoffs wouldn’t necessarily be less exciting than yesterday’s game.

The NHL doesn’t need the Olympics or stars to produce great hockey. The NHL already produces great hockey. All the NHL needs is fans to care about great hockey. The Olympics simplifies the caring mechanism. If you’re American, you know to root for Team USA. If you’re Canadian, you know to root for Team Canada.

For everyone else outside of those two populations, the gold medal results are probably more academic than anything else.

In the NHL playoffs, though, things are more complicated. Like if you don’t follow a team, you’re probably not going to sit and watch them play. And once your team is eliminated, you’re probably not going to follow the playoffs as closely.

And that’s where you lose the critical mass of hockey-watching seen yesterday with the gold medal game.

So yesterday’s game was great, but not because it was NHL stars playing in the Olympics. Yesterday’s game was great because it was NHL players doing their thing.

The NHL doesn’t need the Olympics to produce great hockey. The NHL produces great hockey.

Let’s not forget what made USA/Canada a fantastic few hours of hockey.

Rich Chere says Mike Babcock is over-coaching Team Canada, changing lines and goalies too frequently.

Just about everyone watching last night’s Germany/Canada game had the same thought: ‘I could successfully play goal for Team Canada against the Germans.’ Germany just wasn’t much of a threat. Babcock probably could have safely given Brodeur another start without much risk.

But I get that Babcock was probably thinking more about the upcoming matches against much tougher opponents like Russia. He lost faith in Brodeur and since this is now a single elimination tournament, there’s not a room to stick with a goalie who might be struggling — even if that goalie is one of the best in the game.

In terms of over-coaching, I see Chere’s point, but I’ve also seen some under-coaching by Babcock. Watching Team USA in the Olympics, Babcock had to know they were playing a very high-risk, offensive game. Team USA has basically used a defenseman as a forward the entire tournament. Seeing that, if Babcock had played Team USA tighter, taking away their space, he could have contained Team USA and let Canada wait for their spots.

Instead, Babcock let himself get sucked into a shootout and wound up stifled by an incredibly hot Ryan Miller.

Babcock shouldn’t have overestimated Team Canada’s offensive abilities, especially once he realized Brodeur wasn’t having a great night and Miller was having a career game.

If Babcock is smart, he’ll clamp down on Russia early and try and forecheck them off of their game. Team Canada hasn’t played anyone defensively yet but today against Team Russia is probably a good time to start.

I’m glad to see NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman admit the Olympics does very little for the NHL.

Yesterday, I watched Russia-Czech Republic on NBC and USA-Canada on MSNBC, both games moderately-to-negligibly hyped, and both games played with a ton of NHL players (or former NHL players, in the case of Russia-Czech Republic).

I wouldn’t have watched if so many NHLers hadn’t been playing. And I’m sure a lot of other people were watching for the same reason.

So basically, you have the NHL loaning talent and prestige to an event, bringing viewers to the matches, yet not really enhancing the NHL.

In fact, more than loaning talent, the NHL goes an extra step and actually shuts down its own product in order to participate in someone elses.

And what exactly does the NHL get out of its Olympic participation? Certainly not promotion of the sport.

Larry Brooks agrees the NHL doesn’t get much out of this Olympic partnership, but thinks fans are overreacting to NBC’s treatment of Olympic hockey:

I have never quite understood why people who love hockey are so consumed with validation from the masses who simply do not appreciate the sport. Of course NBC isn’t devoting three hours of a preliminary-round hockey game between the U.S. and Canada on its prime commercial network.

To expect otherwise is lunacy, and to protest the network’s decision by playing the lack-of-respect card is counter-productive.

I’m not sure if people are upset by a perceived lack of respect, so much as they’re upset the sport is being stopped for the Olympics, yet not really promoted or grown by NBC. Basically, the NHL is getting ripped off by NBC and the Olympics and a lot of fans are upset by the crime.

I don’t know of any NHL fan who thinks hockey is a mainstream American sport. But when the sport does find itself in the mainstream, like with the Olympics, it would be nice if the league could capitalize on the exposure. I would argue that’s what upsetting fans, not networks and time slots.

Having said all that, how great was it seeing Jaromir Jagr holding his own against some of the NHL’s best players? Russia played him tight and he didn’t have much support, but he still managed to show there are very few players that are stronger on the puck than he is.

It’s a shame the match wasn’t taking place in some kind of heavily-hyped, well-promoted NHL-KHL interleague game, rather than buried in a Sunday afternoon Olympics.

Is anyone else embarrassed by Olympic hockey so far?

Watching U.S./Switzerland yesterday, the American team seemed content to nurse a three-goal lead most of the game. The Americans didn’t go for the throat and in general, seemed to be trying to find their Olympic footing.

Basically, it was a super-talented team not executing in a super talented way. Or at least, not to the team’s full potential.

Canada/Norway had a similar start for Canada, but Canada quickly found its footing in the second, and wound up winning 8-0.

So basically, after two Olympic matches, we’ve seen NHL professionals are superior to non-NHL professionals.

And that’s what Olympic hockey has become: a contest to see which group of NHLers is the best. But for countries without a strong NHL contingent, showing up for the matches is pretty much a waste of time.

Even as a viewing experience, there’s just something wrong about watching these mismatches. Watching Team USA struggle against Switzerland was frustrating, because the Americans couldn’t seem to find their stride. You kept waiting for the USA to dominate and it never happened.

But watching Team Canada destroy Norway was also embarrassing, like watching a team of professionals throttle a team an amateurs, which the game was to a certain extent.

This effect should disappear as we head into the medal rounds and the games become more NHLer on NHLer, but for now, I’m not sure what’s enjoyable about watching these preliminary matches.

The Olympics are supposed to be for amateurs. Why not let the amateurs compete in Olympic hockey and let NHLers compete in an international tournament? This way, the NHL can leave its season intact and people watching Olympic hockey can get competitive matches.

Right now, the Olympics are making the All-Star Game look like an excellent use of NHL time. And that’s a scary statement.