The NHL players’ union released a statement on Monday condemning the NHL’s “short-sighted” decision. Swedish defenceman Erik Karlsson was blunt in his assessment: “Whoever made that decision obviously had no idea about what they’re doing.”Įrik Karlsson: not impressed. Maple Leafs and Canada coach Mike Babcock and Buffalo Sabres and USA star Jack Eichel voiced disappointment on Monday night, while Canadian goaltender Carey Price and Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist said similar. How do players feel about not going to the Olympics? But even that was met with disdain from players, coaches and executives. In a league that’s skewing younger, this can be especially taxing on players who have not acclimatized themselves to the late-season grind.įurthermore, the NHL also gave each team a “bye week” this season to deal with the schedule changes, meaning no practices or games for five days. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, will have 11 games in their final 19 days of the regular season. To allow for the NHL-sanctioned World Cup before the season, the latter-half of the NHL season has featured a cramped schedule. Have there been any recent issues with the NHL’s schedule?īig time. Had NHL players gone to PyeongChang, similar changes to the 2017-18 season schedule were expected. In 2014, the NHL halted play between 9 and 25 February to allow their players to travel to Sochi for the Winter Olympics. But that’s not the way the league sees it. That’s what you can sell, and that’s what third parties like those in South Korea and China would buy. But nothing says rivalry in hockey like Canada-USA, USA-Russia and Sweden-Finland, all of which would feature the world’s biggest stars. You see, many hardcore hockey fans know that some of the best players in the world have vanilla-type personalities, and shrug off the notion that any kind of league rivalry could be built between McDavid and Matthews. These are players that the league will eventually try to make the faces of the game and PyeongChang, would have been a perfect place for them to begin their ascent as hockey’s next Crosbys and Ovechkins. Since the 2014 Olympics, the NHL has welcomed a crop of generational players, including Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. These tournaments have routinely provided some of the best hockey we’ve seen in recent years and it’s exactly the type of hockey that the league is moving towards: fast-paced, all skill and no fighting. The NHL is still light years away from being a globally recognized league similar to the NBA, and the Olympics are the perfect opportunity to increase professional hockey’s exposure. But that’s not the way this league sees it. Unless, of course, you deem exposure of its stars and the game at its best as a profit. The NHL and its owners don’t profit from the Olympics the way they do the World Cup of Hockey. The IOC is not offering the same deal to the NHL that it did in 2014 in terms of travel and insurance costs – and this is at the centre of the NHL walking away. After Canadian and New York Islanders star John Tavares was injured at the 2014 Olympics and missed the rest of the regular season, team owners and executives realized they were putting their assets at risk. So while hockey fans are definitely missing out, it’s possible that the NHL could end up suffering in the long-term as well. With last year’s gimmicky World Cup of Hockey drawing mixed reviews, and the annual world championships still not bringing out the world’s best players, NHL players participating at the Olympics for a true best-on-best tournament has become a celebrated and anticipated event on the hockey calendar. And even though a decision has been reached, that doesn’t mean the debate won’t continue. Olympic participation has been a hot-button issue among fans and players. We now consider the matter officially closed.” The NHL said in a statement: “In an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular-season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games.
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