The NHL is not sending players to the Winter Olympics over concerns that the pandemic will impede the league’s ability to finish off a full season. According to two people with an immediate understanding of the conversations, the league notified the NHL Players’ Association on Tuesday that it was exercising its right to revoke from the Winter Olympics to a material disturbance to the season.
The person within spoke to The AP on the condition of anonymity. Because a declaration is to be made. The conclusion is a sharp contrast to the September agreement reached by the NHL, union, International Olympic Committee, and International Ice Hockey Federation to reintroduce the world’s best players to sports’ biggest stage after they skipped the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Those proposals had to be ditched due to the rapid stretch of the omicron coronavirus variant. The NHL attempted to halt the spread of the omicron variant a week ago by reinstituting more severe COVID-19 protocols, which included daily testing and limiting player meetings, especially on the road.
These are opportunities and experiences of a lifetime
Then, this season, a sudden rash of postponements brought the total to 50, a daunting number to reschedule. And finish an 82-game season while taking an Olympic break for more than two weeks in February. The NHL’s bottom line is at stake. As the league and players obtain no direct monetary advantage from competing in the Winter Olympics. The decision comes well before the league’s January 10 deadline to revoke without financial penalty. As a result, for the second time in a row. The men’s Winter Olympics hockey tournament will be go without NHL players.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby already was bracing for the possibility of the NHL not participating. “These are opportunities and experiences of a lifetime that you don’t get very many of as an athlete. And you may only receive once,” said Crosby. He is Olympic gold winner with Canada in 2010 and 2014. “It just might happen to fall in your window and if it doesn’t happen to work out, it’s unfortunate.”
