Do goalies face a post-Olympic hangover?

The word 'hangover' is never something usually associated with positive thoughts.

Of course, when it refers to the effects of alcohol-related activities the previous night, the pain you feel the following morning might be worth it, depending on how much fun was involved. And the headache/nausea/vomiting tend to dissipate after a day or two.

However, when it comes to sports and the hangover that results from a multi-week event such as the Olympics, World Baseball Classic and World Cup, the impact can be much more extended and ugly -- especially for Fantasy folk.

With the 2010 Olympic men's hockey tournament winding down, I decided to take a look at how goalies from the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy fared before, during and after the tournament.

I limited my research to goalies that played four or more times for their country during the event and were getting a decent amount of starts for their respective NHL teams in the 2005-06 season.

We'll go in alphabetical order just to keep things simple. That means starting with a future Hall-of-Famer.

As you can see, Brodeur's numbers on either side of the Olympics in 2006 were pretty even. That's not too surprising though, as Brodeur is obviously one of the best to ever play the position. His career Olympic GAA is 1.89, just 0.01 above his best NHL season of 1996-97.

Unless he gets dinged up, Brodeur's Fantasy value shouldn't take a hit during his trip to Vancouver. Continue to start him in all formats as an elite Fantasy option.

Next up is a goalie who was actually healthy back in 2005-06 and made the most of his Olympic trip.

Give the oft-injured DiPietro some credit where it is due here, as he clearly built on his trip to Torino with the most improved post-break stats out of any of the goalies in this list. And it wasn't like he was showing any signs of life right before the break, as he'd allowed three or more goals in six of his seven starts before flying to Italy.

Unfortunately, it's a shame that DiPietro is the only goalie in this column who isn't back representing his country this year in Vancouver. Continue to view him as a No. 3 Fantasy goalie and flier in leagues that use average points per game.

Next is the 2006 Olympic gold medal-winning goaltender, who understandably had a bit of a post-Olympic hangover four years ago.

King Henrik was in the middle of his first NHL season when he led Sweden to Olympic gold. He ended up with a Rangers rookie record 30 wins in 2005-06, but his numbers clearly suffered once he returned to Manhattan.

Every season since then Lundqvist has been a much better goalie in the second half though, so his owners shouldn't be worried by any stretch of the imagination. Of course, the Rangers aren't exactly an elite NHL squad so wins might be sparce in March and April, but he remains a No. 1 Fantasy option in all formats.

When a goalie has his worst NHL season to date during an Olympic year, you have to be worried. He wasn't completely horrible before Torino and actually played superbly during the Games, but the Russian finished 2005-06 with an awful 3.11 GAA and .885 save percentage. His numbers were so bad after the break that he lost his starting job to Vesa Toskala, who ended up making 19 starts the rest of the way compared to Nabokov's seven.

Of course, considering Nabokov currently sits as the No. 1 Fantasy goalie this season and has been a stud pretty much every year since his disappointing 2005-06 campaign, his owners shouldn't be too worried. It's still worth keeping in mind just in case he gets off to a slow start in March, however.

Next up, we have the 2006 silver medal hero.

Niittymaki was just the backup to Robert Esche in Philly to start the 2005-06 season, and only made the Finnish team because of injuries to Kari Lehtonen and Miikka Kiprusoff. However, he proceeded to lead his country to the gold medal game, where they fell to Sweden.

After the break in 2006, Niittymaki's stats were pretty similar to his post-Olympic stats, and he didn't manage to pick up a win in two playoff appearances.

Niittymaki, who is the No. 3 goalie for Finland in Vancouver, really hasn't been able to capitalize on his 2006 Olympic glory. He was shipped out of Philly this past offseason and started 2009-10 as the expected backup to Mike Smith in Tampa Bay, but has put up some decent numbers in his 34 games. He will head into post-break action as a nice sleeper No. 2 Fantasy goalie in deeper formats.

The final goalie is someone who could have used a two-week break with all the shots he faces in South Florida, but is surely proud once again to be representing his country.

Vokoun actually gets a break when he plays for the Czech Republic, as he faced just 136 shots in seven Torino games, while Niittymaki faced 164 in just six contests. On average for the Panthers, Vokoun faces a league-high average of 34 shots a night.

As you can see, Vokoun's stats before and after the Olympic break in 2006 were pretty comparable, so continue to view him as a low-end No. 1/high-end No. 2 for the last month-and-a-half of the season. Just don't expect many wins, especially if the Panthers clean house before the trade deadline. Unless, of course, he gets dealt himself.

For your reference, here are the other NHL goalies competing in Vancouver:

Niklas Backstrom (MIN) - Finland's No. 2
Peter Budaj (COL) - Slovakia's No. 2
Marc-Andre Fleury (PIT) - Canada's No. 3
Thomas Greiss (SJ) - Germany's No. 1
Jonas Gustavsson (TOR) - Sweden's No. 2
Jaroslav Halak (MON) - Slovakia's No. 1
Jonas Hiller (ANA) - Switzerland's No. 1
Miikka Kiprusoff (CGY) - Finland's No. 1
Ryan Miller (BUF) - USA's No. 1
Ondrej Pavelec (ATL) - Czech Republic's No. 2
Jonathan Quick (LA) - USA's No. 3
Tim Thomas (BOS) - USA's No. 2
Semyon Varlamov (WAS) - Russia's No. 3