NHL won’t participate in the 2018 Games
THE Nat i o n a l Hock e y L e a g u e announced on Monday that it will not shut down its regular season to allow top players to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The NHL had sent players to the past five Winter Olympics, starting with the Nagano Games in 1998, interrupting the season to do so.
But the break was unpopular with club owners, and the league said attempts to negotiate a deal with other interested parties including the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the NHL Players’ Association had failed.
“A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized,” the league said in a statement. “Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018.
“And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs,” it said. d.
“As a result, and in an effort to create ate clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will cononfirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular season son schedule without any break to accommmodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officiallyally closed.”
The decision likely means many top players such as Pittsburgh Penguins ins star Sidney Crosby, who sparked Cananada to gold in 2010 and 2014, won’t play lay in Pyeongchang.
Some, like Russia’s Alex Ovechkinkin (pictured, AFP), have vowed to play y in the Games regardless of what theirheir clubs think.
The NHLPA issued a statement callalling the decision “shortsighted”.
“Any sort of inconvenience thehe Olympics may cause to next season’s schedule is a small price to pay compared to the opportunity to showcase our game and our greatest players on this enormous international stage, stage,” the players’ association said.
“The League’s efforts to blame others for its decision is as unfortunate as the decision itself. NHL players are patriotic and they do not take this lightly.”
‘Opportunity wasted’
New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who won Olympic gold in 2006 with Sweden, was among players criticising the decision on social media.
“D i s a p p o i n t i n g news [the NHL] won’t be part of the O l y m p i c s 2018,” he tweeted. “A huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage is wasted. But most of all, disappointing for all the players that can’t be part of the most special adventureadven in sports.” The NHL originall originally opted to interrupt its season to accommodate the Games in a b bid to raise the profile of the gam game internationally. But ow owners have long di s l i ked the idea of exposin exposing their stars to the risk of mid-season injur injury and crammin ming more NHL gam games into a shorter time span. In 2 2014, the I OC agreed to cover insurance and travel costs for the playe players, which were aroun around $14 million. But the I OC has ref refused to cover co costs for 2018.