As you may know, I am a rabid hockey fan. My team is the Columbus Blue Jackets, but I have come to appreciate good hockey as a whole. Last night, I hunkered down with my wife and brother-in-law to watch the USA take on Canada in the Olympics. What a game. Some are calling it the biggest upset since 1980's Miracle on Ice. I will play into the hype, although these were pros versus pros and anything can happen.

That said, I have to express a few opinions about the game. First, let's start with NHL Commissioner (or should I say uber-villain) Gary Bettman. Bettman believes that NHL players shouldn't compete in the Olympics because it takes away from the NHL itself. Really? The fact that your games are on Versus and once a week on NBC doesn't? How many times can the American public be force-fed Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin? Great players, but there are other players in the NHL.

Apparently, even Pittsburgh Penguins phenom Sidney Crosby hasn't been enough to revive stagnant interest in hockey. Nike (NYSE: NKE) is reportedly looking to unload Bauer, a market leader in hockey equipment. The company is expected to get less than half of the $395 million it paid for Bauer parent Canstar Sports -- in 1994.

According to the New York Times, "Player registrations for USA Hockey, the governing body, rose last season by 3.3 percent over the previous period. But the increase was largely caused by previously unregistered adult players who joined for insurance reasons. Youth memberships, the indicator of the sport's future, fell 0.5 percent."

Bauer has been a lackluster performer since it was acquired and recent efforts to incorporate the Nike swoosh into a new logo for the company (shown above) met with consumer resistance.

Unloading the brand might not be so easy, although Nike says it is profitable but does not break down the unit's income in its financial statements. Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK) recently hired JPMorgan to attempt to sell its Rossignol ski business which it acquired in 2005 and has struggled with ever since.

The market for slow- to no-growth winter sporting goods manufacturers would seem to be a buyer's one.