“The National Hockey League announced Monday that it would not be sending its players to the Olympics in South Korea in 2018, ending months of debate over the issue of participation in Pyeongchang.
The league had been looking for conciliatory offers from the International Olympic Committee and/or the NHL Players’ Association in order to placate an ownership group increasingly unhappy with the league shutting down for weeks to take part in the Olympic tournament every four years.
That didn’t happen in recent weeks, and the league made good on its promise to resolve the matter before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin April 13.”
Interesting. Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of the Olympic hockey experience, it seems like a glorified All-Star game that goes on for two weeks, but I understand why it is important to many of the players who want to represent their country and play for a gold medal. What will be interesting to watch is if anyone goes to the Olympics anyway, and how their owners, teammates and fans react to a player dropping out for a couple of weeks right when the push to the playoffs is getting going. Would the Caps really support Alex Ovechkin if he left the team to play for Russia? So far he’s said he would like to do that, but when push comes to shove, is that going to happen?
And god help us if he gets hurt. Twitter will melt down.
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