games

While NBC is focusing on speed skating and alpine skiing today, the real action is on its other networks, MSNBC and USA, where you can watch live hockey games all day long. The American men will play Finland in the quarterfinals at 11:30 this morning. Also, the American men's curling team is in the semifinal game against Canada. It airs on CNBC at 5 pm.

No figure skating tonight but the ladies will be back Thursday to determine the gold.

Here's the schedule:

That's 17.3 days of Olympics coverage, people. And most of it is going to be focused on figure skating. The Olympics run for 17 days (from February 10-26), but NBC will not be playing the events around-the-clock. Instead, it will spread its coverage out during daytime, primetime, and late night viewing hours on six stations: NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC HD, and Universal HD. In comparison, NBC had 375.5 hours of coverage during the Salt Lake City winter games four years ago.

Bob Costas will return as primetime host for the winter games, his seventh year with NBC Sports. And, to feed the needs of all those ice skating fans, Dick Buttons will host Olympic Ice, a daily report on the games' most popular sport. NBC is also prominently featuring David Pelletier and Jamie Sale in their coverage. The Canadian couple, who just got married, were a crowd favorite in 2002 when they ended up tying for gold with the Russian pairs skaters.