This news just came down, likely so it doesn't overshadow the playoffs.
Apparently the IOC said that pros participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was a condition for being in next year's Olympiad, and the NHLPA objected to that.
This news just came down, likely so it doesn't overshadow the playoffs.
Apparently the IOC said that pros participating in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was a condition for being in next year's Olympiad, and the NHLPA objected to that.
"We've got a lot to cover. The good news is...I've got the time and I ain't going anywhere." -CM Punk, AEW Rampage, 8/20/21
"I see things in black and white and I have a zero tolerance policy for ****ty people." -Jon Moxley, AEW Dynamite, 1/6/21
Not sure how I feel about this. As an NHL fan, it's very disruptive to the season and it pushes the finals so far into the summer.
As a fan of quality hockey, I think it sucks. The US, Canadian, and Russian teams are always all-star squads, and the Swedes and Fins aren't far behind. Remember 2010 when the gold medal game came down to Crosby scoring on Miller? Not the outcome I wanted, but it was a spectacular game. Hockey's a tough sell anywhere south of the Philly market. No one in Baltimore gives a **** about hockey. People in DC like the Caps when they're winning. Other than that, the only people in that area who care about hockey are the transplants who root for the team from their original hometown.
Stuff like that game gets people interested in hockey and wins fans. No amount of money can buy that type of advertisement.
Having the pros in the Olympics doesn't do one damn thing to help the sport of hockey.
Apparently the NHL told them they couldn't shut down the league for three weeks to do this.
Disagree. The people who don't usually watch hockey are the same people who are easily influenced by some nationalistic pride. Most don't care after the Olympics, some get sucked in. And hockey needs all the fans it can get in the US.Originally Posted by coastal
This isn't the 1980 Olympic hockey team.
Fans aren't created by the Olympics.
swiper (04-05-2017)
Agreed, and I honestly think it hinders it.
Olympics should be about amateurs, plain and simple.
Why would the rest of the world want to watch professional Canadians (and some Americas) kick the **** out of their national teams?
2022... I'll be dead by then... so there's that.
Fans are created by getting people who don't normally watch hockey to start watching hockey. A lot of people who watched that gold medal game probably went right back to not giving a **** about hockey as soon as it was over, but I'm sure many people also realized they liked it and started watching regularly.
People who don't normally watch hockey will tune in to see an all star team of Americans take on another all star team of Russians or Canadians. They aren't going to watch a bunch of college kids and minor leaguers get schooled by Russian professionals.
It’s unclear how the NHL would prevent owners from making these choices beyond punishments such as fines or taking away draft picks, but it’s apparent the league will view players who go to the Olympics as being in violation of their professional contracts. The league may even try to take these decisions out of teams’ hands entirely.
http://www.secondcityhockey.com/2017/4/4/15171206/nhl-owners-2018-olympics-star-players-status-pyeongchang
Time to tell these over paid athletes to STFU. They already have the world by the tail. Big money, the Stanley cup, and world hockey. And the big kicker is, they are Professionals. Olympics are for the amateur, someone that will have to get a job when it is over. And the Olympics is the last hurrah for some of these people. I have no problem watching hockey with amateur players, and it can even be better to watch. .
Political correctness ( or cancel culture as it is called today) is a doctrine fostered by a delusional ,illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by MSM which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Harry S Truman 1941.
I've always viewed the Olympics as being competition between countries and we should send our best. I've never understood the notion that they need to be amateurs.
That is what the Olympic spirit is all about. It is not about you, but the amateur players.
Well that is your problem as THAT is what the Olympics is all about - a country's best amateur athletes NOT the professionals. THAT is the definition of the Olympics for all time.
What definition? Whose definition? There were no pro athletes when the Olympics started.
Never mind.
Everbody's???
The IOC???
Ok then, what's a "professional athlete?" Does the golf or tennis pro count? What about a personal trainer who's also a bodybuilder?
What about a tae Kwan do or judo instructor who wants to compete? Technically they get paid to do their sport so where do you draw the line?
Last edited by OpIv37; 04-06-2017 at 12:47 PM.
The 2018 Winter Olympics are almost here and hockey fans nationwide are sorely disappointed that the NHL refuses to let its players compete at the games in Pyeongchang.
Don Cherry is definitely not one of those people.
“The games are going to be at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Cherry said. “Who the hell’s going to watch hockey at 3 o’clock in the morning? Maybe the final game and that. I’m glad we’re not going. And I’m glad I’m not going because I don’t enjoy them at all.
http://www.totalprosports.com/2017/0...ckey-at-3-a-m/
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