Another great Olympic hockey tournament came to an end yesterday with Canada and Sweden, which were definitely the two best teams in the tournament, meeting for gold. The Canadians came away with their second straight gold medal in what might've been the last Olympic hockey game in which NHL players participate. I hope it isn't.
The NHL hasn't committed to sending its players to the 2018 PyeongChang Games (that's going to be fun to write over and over again for the next four years), and doesn't seem to be in any sort of rush to do it. The players want to go, and the fans obviously want to see them there. But Gary Bettman (who sure seemed to be enjoying himself in Sochi) and the owners are a little more reluctant. And, unfortunately, they're the ones who ultimately call the shots.
We know where plenty of higher-ups in the NHL feel about the Olympics. Islanders GM Garth Snow, who lost his best player, John Tavares, for the season to a knee injury suffered in Canada's game against Latvia, has made it perfectly clear what he thinks. Snow wants it to go back to being amateurs, seemingly ignoring the fact that the Olympics haven't been the domain of amateurs in many years. It should also be noted here that Snow was an Olympian himself in 1994, the last time before the NHL started sending its players to the Olympics.
Injury concerns are one thing, and I guess they're somewhat valid (after all, Tavares wasn't the only player injured during the Olympics who's going to miss time for his NHL team), but season-ending injuries can happen in NHL games, too. But there's never any mention of injury concerns during the World Championships, which take place during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and only feature NHL players from teams that have already been eliminated. That's not the real problem here. The real problem is that the NHL doesn't make any money off the Olympics.
Make no mistake, this is completely about the money. 100 percent. The NHL doesn't want to shut down its season so that the players can participate in a tournament where there's nothing in it for them. That was one of the sticking points that almost kept the NHL guys out of Sochi. The NHL isn't against international competition...as long as they profit from it. That's why we can expect to see the return of the World Cup of Hockey at some point in the near future.
What the NHL owners fail to see here, though, is the big picture. The NHL benefits more from the Olympics than the Olympics benefits from the NHL. It's worth shutting down the league for two weeks so that the best hockey players on earth can play on the biggest stage in sports. (Not to mention the hypocrisy of the owners, who are the same people that are willing to shut down the league for months on end every few years. And, unlike the lockouts, there are no games actually missed because of the Olympics, so they still get the revenue from 41 home games.)
In the U.S., the NHL is fourth in the pecking order of most popular professional sports leagues. It probably ranks behind both college football and college basketball, as well as maybe NASCAR, as well. But in the Winter Olympics, the NHL players are the biggest stars. They're the most recognizable athletes there. They're the millionaires that everyone, including the other Olympians, wants to get a picture with. Best of all, people actually make it a point to watch the games. The NHL couldn't ask for better exposure (which is free), and it's exposure that the NHL doesn't get outside of the Olympics.
Remember the first tournament in 1998? It was the talk of the Games. Unlike basketball, where the U.S. has a team full of NBA players, with some NBA guys scattered among the other teams, the Olympic hockey tournament has NHL stars representing each nation (all 12 teams in Sochi had at least one active NHL player). It shows how global hockey really is, and it truly is anybody's tournament. Case in point, Slovenia beat Slovakia in pool play and Latvia almost upset gold-medalist Canada in the quarterfinals.
NHL owners need to stop thinking about their wallets and nothing else. Especially since NHL players in the Olympics only enhances their brand. The owners are unwilling to admit it, but their players representing their home countries in the Olympics is the best thing for the NHL. And I think they know that.
Furthermore, the fact that the players want to go should say something. In fact, it should say everything. While the NHL was still waffling about Sochi, Alexander Ovechkin said he was going to play for Russia regardless. Zdeno Chara was Slovakia's flag bearer in the Opening Ceremony...and the Bruins let him miss two games so that he could do it. For players like Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews, those two Olympic gold medals are a career achievement that ranks right up there with having their names etched on the Cup.
And the IOC has been more than accommodating, as well. Why do you think the men's tournament didn't start until Wednesday? It was so the NHL could still play on the opening weekend of the Olympics before shutting down. The NHL didn't want the first round to be more than three games, so they changed the format from the two groups of six they had in Torino to the three groups of four that they've had in the last two Olympics.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that NBC/NBCSN is the NHL's broadcast network in the U.S. and CBC/TSN is the NHL's broadcast network in Canada. What channel broadcasts the Olympics in those two countries? Oh, that's right. NBC and CBC. NBC and CBC don't want to be put in that situation where they have to make a choice between broadcasting NHL games and broadcasting the Olympics. Especially since they can do both at the same time, and utilize the same crews to do it. (I was in Buffalo during part of the Olympics and my hotel didn't get NBCSN, but that was OK, because it meant I got to watch two Canada games called by the "Hockey Night In Canada" broadcast crew.)
There's a compromise to be reached here. It would be unfortunate if they can't figure one out. Because it would be a shame for everyone involved if the NHL doesn't shut down for two weeks to go to Korea in 2018. The players want it and the fans want it. It's in the best interest of the game. Hopefully we don't get this quadrennial song-and-dance, and we see the NHL in PyeongChang and 2022 and all Winter Olympics after that. That's what everyone wants, except for maybe a few NHL suits. And if they get their way, it'll do more harm than good.
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