The NHL is the pinnacle league in the world bar none. A meaningless two week tourney every 4 years doesn't change that very fact. The Olympics are far better served by having amateurs only competing. Likewise, the NHL is far better served not risking its players in the Olympics.
"Meaningless"
Olympic viewership makes the SC playoffs look like a minnie mouse tournament. The Stanley Cup is pretty damn meaningless to 99% of the entire planet. You've got rogue players majority of whom have lived a pretty privileged life at the outset (unlike soccer stars, many of whom were born poor) chasing big paydays so they can buy monstrosity homes and Lamborghinis - or in other cases allegedly gamble it away while their children are starving for formula - and billionaire owners who don't give a damn about the average joe in their city buying and selling them like stock commodities for their vanity project so they can brag to their billionaire friends on their yacht (or on shark tank to googly eyed pitches hoping for investment) that they own a winning team.
Tell me about meaningless.
On the other side of the coin you have athletes training their entire lives, often on small subsistence salaries on various programs mostly for the love of the sport and its technique. Say what we all will about the corruption of the IOC but most of these Olympic athletes have way more heart, story and struggle than the average NHL player.
Then take the international ice hockey tournaments. These guys want to be there. These countries' taxes, and by that nature the populace supported them through public programs, rightly or wrongly. It's often part or a byproduct of a nation's sport development program. It's not purely entertainment, it's not a billionaire's toy (well, perhaps in ROC's case it's Putin's pride and joy). It might be a bit political, but international tournaments will always be the most significant thing on the globe.
Also, a properly outfitted and practiced best-on-best Canadian or USA team would probably beat the living snot out of the Tampa Bay Lightning, so don't talk about the "world's greatest team/entertainment". I'd even bet on a healthy best-on-best team Sweden for the national camaraderie - jury's out on Finland and the ROC.
Tampa's just what the owner happened to buy with money, manage through good GMing and luck into through draft picks and lotteries. The people of Tampa had NOTHING to do with their team. There wasn't even anyone from the state of Florida on their team. Shit, there wasn't even anyone from within
1,000 miles on their team. There were double the amount of Europeans as there were Americans on that team. Only 3 players from USA played meaningfully in their Stanley Cup run even. Maybe Canada should be celebrating it as national win since the vast majority of the team is Canadian too?
I mean I get the risk to the player from a business perspective entirely, and they should be compensated or insured appropriately, but that's only if you own or receive stock options or some other benefits in the venture. I also totally get fans' concerns for players to get injured - I'm a fan of an NHL team and personally I don't care because I know perfectly well they can get a season ending injury in practice one night, or playing those very same two weeks in league play.
IT'S RANDOM. They might have even avoided a possibly injury at home by going, who knows.
I just find it completely asinine to declare something as "meaningless" because you deem it as so yourself when the very thing you project as "meaningful" is so to only a small proportion of the world and doesn't really stand up to any sort of serious scrutiny.
The most ridiculous take ever. Please understand that most Europeans don't give a damn about a competition between cities on a foreign continent overseas. But they do care about the Olympics and the World Championships.
