After 2010, you'll probably have your wish.
This Olympic tournament can only be classified a failure, partially because of the compressed schedule, which was a consideration thrown to the NHL, who wanted to play games right up to Monday. The Olympics using NHL players will always have problems if the NHL treats it like a red-headed stepchild.
Having said that, Olympics with the amateurs has more or less sucked throughout the years. The really memorable events (Miracle on Ice, Forsberg shootout) have been few and far between, and good luck getting the coverage we're getting now without NHL players.
I like to see the world's best compete on an ideal international stage.
This could easily be solved by the NHL allowing the teams to play from the moment the Olympics start, which would have eliminated the back-to-back games.
The other change that should be made is allowing only the top three from each group to qualify and giving the top team in each group a bye, which would make the preliminary games more meaningful. Would we have seen the U.S. and Sweden ease off in the third period if it meant one of them could be out? Heck no. Would the Swiss-Czech upset have been a heck of a lot more meaningful? You bet.
As it is, with the compressed schedule and the qualifiers very likely determined by the end of the day today, no team is going to try very hard on Tuesday. What's the point of bringing pros to play if they're more concerned with avoiding getting hurt than winning the game?