Why hockey doctors in Sochi speak in code

Like something out of a top-secret spy mission from the Cold War era, two American doctors will send coded messages on special mobile phones back to the United States and Canada following every injury to an NHL player during the Olympic hockey tournament.

Peter DeLuca and Gary Dorsheimer are employed as team doctors for the Philadelphia Flyers, but the Philadelphia Inquirer reports they're in Sochi this week to act as representatives for the various NHL teams that own the professional playing rights to hockey players competing in the Olympics. 

When a player gets hurt, the doctors will send a coded message back to their respective team in North America. Once deciphered, the message will reveal the name of the injured player, the injury he suffered, and how long he'll be held out of action.

Why all the secrecy? NHL owners want to protect the millions of dollars they have invested in players like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and the other NHLers competing for gold.

There is a fear that national team doctors, desperate for their home nation to win a medal, will push players to play when they really shouldn't. After all, what's to stop a Russian team doctor from advising a player like Ovechkin to play in the gold medal game, even if doing so would threaten his long-term health and availability for the Washington Capitals in the future?

There's also a fear that Russian authorities will try to intercept information about injured Canadian and American players and use it to their advantage in the Olympic hockey tournament. That's where the coded language and untraceable phones come in.

The James Bond tactics may sound overly dramatic, but they are a necessary precaution if fans want to continue seeing professional hockey players -- the world's very best at the sport -- competing at the Olympics.