Going for hardware

The medals are in sight at the Olympic men’s hockey tournament. The United States (with Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson and Jonathan Quick) plays Finland at noon Pacific time — and yes, it’s actually televised live — and Canada (with Drew Doughty) plays Slovakia (with Michal Handzus) at 6:30 p.m. The losers meet Saturday at 7 p.m. for the bronze medal and the winners meet Sunday at 12:15 p.m. for the gold.

As noted yesterday, it’s a delicate situation for the Olympians. The Kings are guaranteed to have at least one player make the gold-medal game — they might have as many as four — so at least one player will have to fly directly to Dallas from Vancouver to rejoin the Kings. It’s not an ideal situation, but Terry Murray has said that even if the U.S. makes the gold-medal game, Quick will start in goal Tuesday against Dallas. Murray also said he’s not concerned that the Kings’ Olympians will be dealing with any fatigue when the NHL season resumes….

MURRAY: “The players coming back from the Olympics, I think they’re going to be energized, rather than be tired. These players that we have there, they’re still playing, and that’s a pretty exciting and a very special time for them. So they’re going to bring a lot of energy back to our team and will, I’m sure, play a high-end game through the whole remaining part of the season.”

Finally, check out this Q&A with Quick, courtesy of LAKings.com, in which Quick discusses his Olympic experience and talks about the mini-controversy regarding the masks of the American goalies.