Should the Olympic Hockey Tournament have been hosted in North America due to the ongoing pandemic?

[GaboriklessWild]

Nah, the list of covid symptoms really is quite long, and diverse... it's far more than just the two you've listed.

They check the symptoms of athletes who have two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart. Not people who are in intensive care.

 

[Voight]

Never said safer... but rather, less disruptful in achieving the goal of hosting a "best on best" hockey tournament (within the recent, ongoing context of the omicron variant), considering that most of the best hockey players in the world are already in North America, playing in the NHL.



Hosting the tournament in North America at three "bubbles" could have been done safely.

and Yeah, I get that China has much lower reported covid numbers, but the issue about NHLers going to China is primarily about the possibility of extended quarantines for players travelling to China...and how that could mess with continuing the NHL season tho, right?

In terms of the "safer option", postponing the Olympics full stop, is probably the safer option at this point... I wouldn't hold my breath on that happening, though.

Those are probably fake numbers, given the source.

 

[aemoreira1981]

I would say maybe not, unless there is a permanent Winter Olympics site for the individual sports (the hockey portion can alternate between Canada and Europe).

 

[Jumptheshark]

Here is the thing

While the NHL is not going, Ice Hockey is still being played in the Olympics and is their big draw---So countries would need to ice two teams at the times. Not many teams can do that

The assumption being made here is that NHL players would be making up the MAJORITY of all teams and this is incorrect.

 

[canuckster19]

The difference between FIFA and the IIHF though is that FIFA itself is an authoritarian regime disguised as a not-for-profit, that has a monopoly of power over world footy, where every other continental and domestic association branches off of and is basically subject to it.

The IIHF is a joke and has zero power over the NHL. As much as I would love to see what you are suggesting, asking the NHL to play nicely with the IIHF is a rather lofty goal I don't see happening anytime soon.

Yup, it'd be awesome if they could organize something where we get 32 teams into the tournament. Now I know a lot of people will say that 16+ teams have no business being in it, but at the same time if we want to expose those countries to the sport, the bigger teams need to be more accessible to the smaller ones. Yeah you could say the winner will likely come from a group of 6 or 7 teams but at the same time, it's pretty much the same for every Fifa world cup, they've only ever had what? 8 different winners?

Brazil
West Germany/Germany
England
Argentina
Uruguay
Italy
France
Spain

Best on best hockey has given us
Canada
USA
Sweden
USSR/Russia
Czech Republic

Not that far behind really considering football has only had two new winning countries in the past 40 years.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Kinda sinophobic since there's a pandemic in North America too.

 

[FerrisRox]

So you think the hockey tournament (even in the context of a global pandemic ) must be in the host country no matter what then, or what?

Yes.

 

[chauron]

Sure is
More money more greed more b.s

Bring it back old school styles. All Olympics to be done in Greece and only Greece. F everyone else.

Everyone was naked and poetry was a sport

 

[robertmac43]

I'm at the point where I think the NHL should bring back the World Cup of Hockey and go all-in on it.

Just find a way to ditch the IOC entirely and start your own thing.

 

[FerrisRox]

I think this kind of scenario was your only realistic chance at NHL involvement.

There is absolutely nothing realistic about the notion of Olympic hockey being played on a different continent where the Olympics are being hosted.

 

[SeanConn]

There is absolutely nothing realistic about the notion of Olympic hockey being played on a different continent where the Olympics are being hosted.

What’s realistic or normal during a global pandemic, though, really?

 

[kthx]

What if all countries cared about yearly world championship for Ice Hockey?
We would have good games every year, or every second year. Rather than this gigantic farce the holy olympic thing has been lately.

 

[FerrisRox]

What’s realistic or normal during a global pandemic, though, really?

The Olympic Games happening, in their entirety, in the country that won the bid to host them.

 

[Harvey Birdman]

There is no way it would happen. This is a prestige thing for China. There is no way the Chinese would let any part of the games be taken out of Beijing without them making it an incredible pain in the ass for the IOC. And I’d be willing the bet the IOC has zero interest in that. They just want to kick their feet up and count their money at this point.

 

[DoyleG]

Not a chance.

The minute the NHL tries this stunt, they can expect a hard time finding teams. They can't have a real international competition when other international leagues, who actually provide the bulk of the players, won't agree on participation.

If the NHL was "concerned" about COVID, they would cancel the games already postponed and rework the schedule.

 

[Metroid]

Everyone was naked and poetry was a sport

The good ol' days

 

[Machinehead]

That's just, like, not how the Olympics work

 

[member 305909]

Some people seem to take this very hard even though it was always going to be this way as soon as those postponed games started to pile up.

After two consecutive ruined seasons it is non-negotiable for the NHL to have a full season which includes a 82 game regular season which is already impossible to finish within the schedule even without any breaks.

 

[BLNY]

It's a GLOBAL pandemic.

 

[DoyleG]

Some people seem to take this very hard even though it was always going to be this way as soon as those postponed games started to pile up.

After two consecutive ruined seasons it is non-negotiable for the NHL to have a full season which includes a 82 game regular season which is already impossible to finish within the schedule even without any breaks.

Except the NHL had options galore to avoid the PR mess.

They didn't want to take them.

 

[AndreRoy]

North America = extremely high numbers of people infected with Covid
China = Zero Covid policy and very low number of Covid infections.

So why not hold Olympic hockey games in North America??? You can only laugh at the logic of some people.

If you believe a word of what the totalitarian communist regime that caused the pandemic in the first place says then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

 

[Czechboy]

Are the women's hockey players not going?
Biathlon teams?

I'm being serious. Have any other athletes said they can't make it but the NHL ones? Did the NHL athletes have a different set of restrictions than the curling teams?

This was an NHL thing, not a China thing IMO.

Canada can send their awesome ladies but not their awesome men? I don't think so. I think the ladies aren't owned by the NHL. The difference is NHL owners and Bettman don't run the curling, women's hockey or any other sport.