I Am Once Again Begging The NHL To Just Have Their Own Olympics Here In North America
Minas Panagiotakis. Getty Images.The Chiclets boys broke the news we all feared the most last night--that the NHL will not be sending their players to participate in the Olympics this upcoming February.
Now personally I don't hate the decision. It was starting to feel like the inevitable conclusion. I hate that it seems the decision was made due to Covid and not just the fact that China sucks. But either way, the longer we went without NHL players coming out and saying they're officially playing in the Olympics, the less likely it was becoming.
Which sucks because it'll now be 12 years at the very least since we'll have seen the best possible international hockey tournament. You think about the all-time great teams we could have seen in Pyeongchang and now this year in China. The league is flooded with young talent and now most of these guys will be on the back half of their careers before they get to suit up at the Olympics. Matthews, McDavid, Eichel, MacKinnon. Pretty much that entire Team North America roster at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. All superstars who, to not fault of their own, won't have a chance to play in the Olympics until they're at least 28-30 years old.
You can say all you want about how the Olympics should revert back to the ways of showcasing amateur talent. In theory it's easy to think you'd appreciate seeing guys who don't get the same recognition as NHL stars have a chance to compete on the world's largest stage. But that box has already been opened. You can't go back to caring about amateurs in the Olympics after we've seen how incredible Olympic hockey is when it's the world's best vs the world's best. I've said this before and I'll say it again--you don't remember any part of the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament unless you were there actually playing in it. And I know the World Juniors is the perfect example of how great an international hockey tournament can be without current NHL players participating. But the issue is that there's a large group of guys out there who are better than the kids playing in the World Juniors but not good enough to be playing 82 games in the NHL. I've got nothing but respect for those guys and they're nasty hockey players compared to 99% of the world. But it's just not the same as that top 1% and you know it. Maxim Noreau was Canada's top point scorer in the 2018 Olympics. You've never heard of Maxim Noreau until this very moment.
Which is why, again, the NHL owes it to hockey fans all across the world to make the World Cup of Hockey a regular thing. And not just as an NHL sanctioned tournament, either. Let KHL players participate, Liiga, SHL, you name it. The exact same teams and rosters that would be in the Olympics, but now the NHL just gets to put it on and probably put a little extra coin in their pocket in the process. Will it be a logistical nightmare? Maybe. But Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League have been doing everything in their power to make the Arizona Coyotes work for the past 20 years, so clearly they don't mind logistical nightmares.
I honestly have no idea why it's not a regular thing already. Maybe the league feels like there's not enough interest in the World Cup of Hockey. But maybe there would be more interest if it wasn't so sporadic. 1996, 2004, 2016. Pretty tough to get invested into a tournament when you don't know if it'll be the last one for the next 10 years. Just put it in place of the All Star break once every 4 years since nobody gives a shit about the All Star Game anymore anyway. I know the easiest decision that makes the most sense is never the one the NHL makes. But it seems like enough players wanted to go back to the Olympics this year that getting robbed of that opportunity for a 2nd straight tournament could be enough to push their hand.
By the way, this is slightly off topic but I didn't want to write a totally separate blog on this. Just wanted to say that Stevie Y is making a ton of sense here. Feel terrible for guys who are getting punished by protocols even after they have done everything they've been asked to do. Whether it's losing a few games with a shorthanded roster or losing out on the chance to represent your country. Brutal break for these guys.