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Welcome to Hockey in Society’s Weekly Links post. This feature highlights articles or blog entries that are related to Hockey in Society’s areas of interest and that may be of interest to the site’s readers. Please check out some of the great writing that is happening in the hockey media and blogosphere!

Editor’s note: Not surprisingly, most of the hockey world is focused on the Winter Olympics currently underway in Sochi, Russia. However, there is still great hockey writing being done about non-Olympics issues. This edition of the Weekly Links is thus divided into two posts: on Friday we posted non-Olympics links, while this post is devoted exclusively to writing about the Sochi Games. We hope you enjoy both posts!

• There has been a great deal of discussion about whether NHL players should continue to participate in the Olympic Games. Ed Snider, owner of the Philadelphia Flyers, offered outspoken comments about the NHL’s participation in the Olympics, calling it “ridiculous.” [Broad Street Hockey]
• Nick Cotsonika offers a good take on the dilemma posed to the NHL by Olympics participation, particularly given the popularity of the event with players like Zdeno Chara, who missed two Boston Bruins’ games to carry the Slovakian flag at the Opening Ceremonies. [Yahoo! Sports]
• And Harrison Mooney also discusses whether the NHL should send players to the Games, arguing that the current situation “create[s] a situation where players have to serve two masters” – their club and their country. [Puck Daddy]

• And not surprisingly, the International Ice Hockey Federation is keen to have the NHL involved in future Olympic Games. [Sportsnet]
• Meanwhile, the debate about whether women’s hockey will survive on the Olympic program continue to rage. Ryan Lambert argues that the dominance of the US and Canada may make the sport untenable in Olympic competition. [Backhand Shelf]
• Germany’s women’s national team has apparently lost its funding, which was contingent upon the team finishing in the top six at the Sochi Games. The future of the program is now in jeopardy. [Hockey in Sochi]
• On the opposite side of the discussion, Chris Johnston sees the performance of the Swiss and Finnish teams as a good sign for future competitiveness in women’s hockey. [Sportsnet]
• In other Olympics writing, Kerry Fraser discusses being a referee at the 1998 Nagano Games, the first Olympics at which NHLers (and NHL officials) participated. [TSN]
• Remembering the Toronto Granites, who in 1924 won the first ever Winter Olympics men’s hockey competition in Chamonix, France. [Torontoist]
• Chris Peters looks at the large number of NCAA alumni playing in the Sochi Games – and not just on the US team. [United States of Hockey]
• David Backes of the St. Louis Blues and Team USA, who works with dog rescue shelters in the US, discusses the cull of stray dogs in Sochi that occurred ahead of the Games. [Puck Daddy]
• Ollie Williams of the BBC reflects on the significance of the men’s hockey tournament for the Russians, with a discussion of the historical rivalry (i.e. the Miracle on Ice) between Russia/USSR and the United States. [BBC Sport]