NHL in Olympics in 2018?
It has been a hot topic for a while now with this being an Olympic year, should the NHL break for three weeks and let their stars go play in the Olympics in 2018? Some of the owners do not think so and that is understandable. For one thing, there is the injury factor, like the Pittsburgh Penguins are dealing with now that Paul Martin is out of action, suffering a broken hand while playing for Team USA in Sochi. They have millions invested in these players and watching them get hurt while playing for someone else, even if it is their country, has to be a bit maddening. What if this affects the Penguins playoff run?
But owners should think long and hard about refusing to send their stars to the Olympics. Teams in markets where it never snows, such as the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes need the attention. I live in Florida. I’ve never seen snow and I’ve been on ice skates once in my life. But I was getting up at 7:30 A.M. on Saturday and Sunday to watch the hockey games. I’ve got to admit, it was good stuff. I could see myself watching some NHL the rest of the season. If I feel that way, how many others do too? All of this is due to the Olympics.
Oh sure, we will always have the “Miracle on Ice” story, but that was more of a political story than an NHL story. The Soviet hockey teams has been broken up. So now even if we start fielding college players for the Olympics, that will have to do the same over in Russia because their best players are playing in the NHL now. That 1980 run is something that just can never be duplicated again regardless.
With or without the NHL, the playing field will be level in the Olympics. So with that in mind, the NHL needs to decide if the league needs the publicity enough to risk injury to their best players. maybe they will feel it is just too high of a risk. Somewhere the bean counters will crunch the numbers ad determine whether the Olympics eventually put more money in the NHL owner’s pockets. If it turns out they did, then the NHL players will be back in 2018.
But if not, it will be unfair to compare this to the NBA refusing to send their players to the Summer Games of 2016. That would be ridiculous since basketball is not nearly the physical sport that hockey is and also the Olympics take place in the off-season. If the NBA pulls out of the Olympics they should be embarrassed. The WNBA would likely be very upset at that move, and they do have to stop their season to send players.
We at bettingsports.com hope that the NHLÂ and NBA players will continue to be allowed to play in the Olympics. At the end of the day, we all think it is a pretty coll thing to see these guys playing for their countries.
