So after a couple of days of coverage, here's my take so far.

First, we're apparently back to the Memorex Games. Most of last night's coverage was taped, with the possible exception of the second run for men's luge.

I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, taping does allow us to see events at a more convenient time, rather than missing stuff because we have to work or otherwise can't be in front of a TV all day.

On the other hand, the way NBC uses tape is the real problem. Consider that last night they crammed luge, speed skating, the men's downhill, speed skating, and women's halfpipe into 3.5 hours of coverage that also included interviews will all three US women figure skaters (as NBC continues to build the hype for the last event of the Games, which won't start for at least another 10 days), a preview of tonight's pairs final (featuring a North American pair seeking to end Russian dominance, because why say Canadian when you can get the word America in there in some context?), and taped bits from Jimmy Roberts and Jim McKay.

At least some of this could have gone in during the afternoon, when NBC gave us exhaustive coverage. From 3 to 5 PM. Consider that the ski jumping started at 10:30 AM Eastern. I don't know what you saw where you live, but in the Boston area you got infomericals from noon to 2 PM. Why show live Olympic coverage when you can see the wonders of the Paint Stick?

So my main beef with taped coverage is that it allows NBC to package coverage as it sees fit, showing whatever portions of an event they want. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat is now the thrill of edited for time competition that best fits our programming model. I suppose it should be noted that NBC is at least showing events the US doesn't win, but given American lack of prowess in many of the winter events coverage would be sparse otherwise.

Going to the studio, Costas is in his better element as host, as his excess verbiage is kept in check. The taped pieces by Roberts and McKay aren't bad, as they at least touch on sports, rather than the True Confessions sort of crap that's dominated such segments in the past. I still don't care for Roberts much, though I'm less clear about what my problem is with him. It could just be his tone of voice and delivery make me want to sucker punch him. His piece on the "next wave" in British ski jumping after Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards was fine.

McKay is clearly better with the taped segments, and his piece on US downhill champ Bill Johnson was tremendous. For those of you who don't know the story, Johnson was attempting a comeback to make the US downhill team at the age of 41 and after being out of competitive world class skiing. He wiped out and suffered a serious brain injury, serious enough that he was not expected to live. As you might expect from a former Olympic champ, he fought through and survived, but his injuries had a profound effect on him. Most of his post-1984 memories are gone, and he has to go through a full regimen of therapies to regain his abilities to walk, talk, remember simple words and phrases. The story was moving and sad, with a little bit of hope, and is the sort of story that should be shown during the Olympics, rather than stories on how a current athlete overcame the heartbreak of psoriasis.

The best coverage for the first two days, though, comes from CNBC. They've been showing Olympic hockey, two games a night. At first you'd think that watching games like Latvia versus Austria would fairly suck, but rather it's been fun to watch. Unlike the NHL, the emphasis in Olympic hockey is skating and passing, rather than 60 minutes worth of neutral zone trap and dump and chase. There's less hitting, but hitting nevertheless (especially in the Germany v. Austria grudge match last night).

The story here is that Latvia, the last team to qualify for the Olympics, and Germany, who lost their top player, Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig to injury, are in contention to move on to the medal round, while Slovakia, with its raft of NHL stars, is done.

How did this happen? For Germany, it's been the play of goaltender Marc Seliger, who doesn't even start for his club team in Nuremburg. He shut out the Slovaks and held on against Austria to lead the Germans to a 2-0 record. For Latvia, it's been gritty play without its best player, goalie Artus Irbe, who is stuck with the Carolina Hurricanes until tomorrow.

Which leads me to a problem. The NHL, unlike Nagano, is not shutting down during the Olympics. Or, rather, not during the prelims, making it very difficult for countries with only a handful of NHL players to have them in the fold for these important qualifying games. The Slovaks would like to have a word with Gary Bettman, I'm sure, given that the bulk of their talent missed the first game against Germany, and were barely off the plane before they had to suit up against Latvia.

It's not a fair tournament when the best players are only available at the whim of their NHL clubs. The league should either shut down for the entirety of the Olympic tournament, or not shut down at all.

Looking at the overall picture, NBC's coverage has been satisfactory. Let's hope they better utilize the weekends, and give the tape machines a rest.