MILAN – Decades from now, grizzled old puckheads in the United States and Canada will still be telling tall tales about a hockey showdown destined to go down in history as the Breakfast Brawl.

Set your alarm clock, pour a beer and buckle up.

The Yanks versus the Canucks, with Connor McDavid facing off against the brothers Tkachuk, is bigger than a battle for the Olympic gold medal.

This is a huge moment for a sport that’s jealous it doesn’t get the love of football.

And the buzz of bragging rights would be sweet for North American next-door neighbors who have recently been bickering over the fence.

“It’s going to be a big boy game,” predicted Canadian forward Tom Wilson.

But, hockey, you’ve got a problem.

The USA playing Canada as North America rubs sleep from its eyes might be the dumbest great idea in NHL history.

“This is as good as it gets … a rivalry that’s as good as it gets,” American forward Matthew Tkachuk declared Friday, after Team USA advanced to the championship by knocking the snot out of Slovakia. “There will not be one TV without this game on, in the United States and Canada.”

OK, hold it right there, Tkachukster.

While I’m as capable of hyperbole as any inked-stain wretch, it’s dumb to start this important tilt way too early for its hardcore audience.

The puck is set to drop at 8:10 Sunday morning in New York, before the coffee’s brewing in Denver and 90 minutes prior to sunrise for Canadian snowbirds in California.

Far more TVs will be asleep than tuned to the gold medal game. 

That’s beyond stupid. It’s absurd.

And it didn’t have to be this way.

If the NHL only had a brain, plus the negotiating skill to be expected from a savvy league commissioner, Coloradans could watch this burgundy-and-blue hullabaloo between Avalanche teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson without sleep deprivation.

“The rivalry with Canada is a tough battle, with a long history,” Nelson said.

His uncle (Dave Christian) stunned the Soviets in the Miracle on Ice back in 1980, which is the last time any American male has taken a hockey gold medal home as a souvenir from the Winter Games.

“It’s been a minute since USA Hockey won a tournament like this,” U.S. center Jack Eichel said.

This was a moment for hockey; had the scheduling for the gold medal game been smarter, that had the unheard of potential to draw a TV audience in the tens of millions across the United States and Canada.

It’s a moment that has been a generation in the making, since the NHL first sent the pros to the Olympics, way back in 1998.

On the eve of that tournament in Nagano, I was present as the saki began to flow in a zashiki, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman fidgeted on a floor cushion, looking like he would rather be anywhere but there, representing his league at the Winter Games.

In the ensuing three decades, it’s fair to say Bettman has been ambivalent, at best, about the NHL’s relationship with the Winter Games.

He has bristled at the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to be a full partner, severely limiting the NHL’s ability to share video content.

“What (the Olympics) does give us every four years, if we choose to participate, is a platform on a worldwide basis,” Bettman said during an interview with the CBC earlier this month.

Wait … what?

Did Bettman really say if the NHL chooses to participate?

Stop playing so hard to get, Gary.

And quit your fussin’.

Economic squabbling and COVID restrictions that kept NHL players from participating at the last two Winter Games in South Korea and China was a damn shame for the game.

I’ve had a front-row seat for all three of the Avalanche’s rides to the Stanley Cup Final and been rinkside at every Olympics where the NHL players laced up their skates.

Both the NHL playoffs and the Winter Games make for spectacular hockey.

But watching Avs veteran Artturi Lehkonen fight back tears after a heartbreaking 3-2 loss against Canada in the semifinals was proof that it just means more when the pros play for love of country rather than the pursuit of money.

“How much (hockey) means to the nation of Canada makes it a matter of pride for all of us,” said defenseman Cale Makar, whose day job is with the Avalanche.

Now, this is only the 14th time I’ve worked at the Olympics.

So I don’t know nearly as much about hockey as Canadian coach Jon Cooper, but I do understand a thing or two about how to attract the largest audience for NBC when the Olympics are staged in Europe.

It would make far more sense for the Winter Games, the NHL and diehard hockey fans in North America if this tournament schedule had been set up to play the gold medal game on Saturday night in Italy, rather than the final hours before the closing ceremony a day later.

“We have an opportunity to grow the game,” American Brady Tkachuk said. “Make it a better sport for a future generation.”

I hear you, brother.

Instead of whining about the Olympic experience, if Bettman had long ago persuaded the IOC to drop the puck for the Canada-USA tilt at 9 p.m. Saturday in Milan, then it could have been a shootout at high noon in North America instead of a Breakfast Brawl.

Hockey is beautiful.

Why does it have to be so stupid?