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Olympics: NHL participation in the 2022 Olympics

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Shockmaster said:
So if that's the case, then would the back-up schedule the league has in case there was no Olympic participation still be in play?
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If they back out mid-season? Highly doubt the second schedule is in play at that point - it is a lot more complicated and different than just dragging the last 2 weeks of the season in April and dropping it into the February hole and likely involves a lot of dates earlier in the season probably being shuffled around - games which may already have been played.

At worst, the 2 week gap is used in case there are any COVID related cancellations.
 
Swervin81 said:
If they back out mid-season? Highly doubt the second schedule is in play at that point - it is a lot more complicated and different than just filling a 2 week hole with the last 2 weeks in the season's worth of games (i.e. dragging and dropping) and involves a lot of dates earlier in the season probably being shuffled around - games which may already have been played.

At worst, the 2 week gap is used in case there are any COVID related cancellations.
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Actually it's more like a 3-week gap. And if they already created a back-up schedule, they'd be nuts not to keep it in play if they have to back out of participating in the Olympics.
 
I understand all the dismay about "going to China", but unless you're willing to basically split the sports world in two (the West on one side and China/Russia on the other), I see no reason why Winter Olympics 2022 is something more sinister than, say, soccer World Cup 2018 or 2022.
 
garbageteam said:
"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.
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Bro, the Stanley Cup has been competed for long before the idea of wrongful NHL participation in the meaningless Olympics. Your entire diatribe is akin to saying NCAA football is better than the NFL. It isn’t even close. The Olympics were never about pro participation. It’s a meaningless contest for amateurs. It should remain that way. The Cup is the pinnacle, period.
 
edog37 said:
Bro, the Stanley Cup has been competed for long before the idea of wrongful NHL participation in the meaningless Olympics. Your entire diatribe is akin to saying NCAA football is better than the NFL. It isn’t even close. The Olympics were never about pro participation. It’s a meaningless contest for amateurs. It should remain that way. The Cup is the pinnacle, period.
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Team Canada curb stomps any NHL Stanley Cup champion, if you don’t know that I’m afraid you don’t know very much about hockey
 
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Fantastic news, I was about to be sickened if we didn’t get to see Connor McDavid in his prime play in a best-on-best event.

International best-on-best is the pinnacle of the sport.

Does anyone know if it will be played on North American sized ice or European sized ice at the Olympics?
 
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snipes said:
Fantastic news, I was about to be sickened if we didn’t get to see Connor McDavid in his prime play in a best-on-best event.

International best-on-best is the pinnacle of the sport.

Does anyone know if it will be played on North American sized ice or European sized ice at the Olympics?
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North American sized ice
 
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vorky said:
North American sized ice
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Awesome.

The 2002 and 2010 Olympics played on NA sized ice were fantastic.

The passive and boring collapse the middle strategy in the defensive zone European teams like the Finns and Swiss adopt isn’t nearly as effective on NA sized ice.

The game is much faster and more physical on the smaller ice.
 
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snipes said:
Awesome.

The 2002 and 2010 Olympics played on NA sized ice were fantastic.

The passive and boring collapse the middle strategy in the defensive zone European teams like the Finns and Swiss adopt isn’t nearly as effective on NA sized ice.

The game is much faster and more physical on the smaller ice.
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'02 was played on an international rink.
 
snipes said:
Awesome.

The 2002 and 2010 Olympics played on NA sized ice were fantastic.

The passive and boring collapse the middle strategy in the defensive zone European teams like the Finns and Swiss adopt isn’t nearly as effective on NA sized ice.

The game is much faster and more physical on the smaller ice.
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If I know, the IIHF is having the Worlds & Olympics on NA size rink in the future. As for European leagues, many KHL clubs using NA rink size, some using so-called Finnish size. And I believe, there is no KHL club on classic international rink size.
 
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Great news. The escape hatch makes it possible that this could still be shuttered but I am elated.

edog37 said:
Bro, the Stanley Cup has been competed for long before the idea of wrongful NHL participation in the meaningless Olympics. Your entire diatribe is akin to saying NCAA football is better than the NFL. It isn’t even close. The Olympics were never about pro participation. It’s a meaningless contest for amateurs. It should remain that way. The Cup is the pinnacle, period.
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"Bro", you simply don't know what you are talking about and you can just continue to pander and be relevant to a small subset of the world population while the majority of the planet widely disagrees with your incorrect assessment of "meaningless" and "importance". Do you even own a passport? Can you even name more countries than NHL teams?
 
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Agree with notion above... canada could lose all 3 games (including to China) and they'd still be number 1 in hockey for awhile...

having said that.... I've been reading about potential best on best rosters for several years now and cannot wait to see how it goes.

Will the Russian goalies make up for the lack of good C depth?
How can Crosby and McDavid not win?
Will a fully stacked in all positions lineup help the US break a very long gold medal draught?
Will all these new Finns help them get a gold?
How about the Swedes and another fully stacked line in all positions? Only country that can compare D with Canada and US too. Plus some great goalies.

I can't wait to watch those 5 nations battle it out for Gold.
 
garbageteam said:
Great news. The escape hatch makes it possible that this could still be shuttered but I am elated.



"Bro", you simply don't know what you are talking about and you can just continue to pander and be relevant to a small subset of the world population while the majority of the planet widely disagrees with your incorrect assessment of "meaningless" and "importance". Do you even own a passport? Can you even name more countries than NHL teams?
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Don't get it twisted, very few people in the world care about Olympic Ice Hockey. You think people in England, France, Spain, Japan, Brazil, etc. care who wins an Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament?
 
I dunno why people are disagreeing with the guy who says he values Stanley Cups more than the Olympics.

The Stanley Cup requires an 82 game season + 16 wins. The Olympics is 6 games total. The NHL teams play together 82 games per year, these teams are all star teams put together once every four years or so. Each NHL club has relatively equal grounds through drafting, trades and free agents as opposed to a Canadian All Star Team. I remember Blackhawks players in 2010 that participated in both the Olympics and Stanley Cup saying the Stanley Cup was way more meaningful. I get if you're a Russian or Swedish fan it's one thing. To the players from those countries it's close, to the North American players I think the Stanley Cup is a much bigger prize.
 
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