FORGET NHL AT OLYMPICS
‘It’s a done deal,’ Melnyk says
There’s no secret plan for NHL players to go to the Winter Olympics in 2018.
While there has been speculation the league has a schedule in its back pocket to attend the Games in February in PyeongChang, South Korea, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk says that’s simply not the case.
“As far as any chance of anything, I do know it’s a done deal. We’re finished. It’s beyond the point of return because we have our schedule,” Melnyk told The Naz and Wally Show Sunday morning on Zoomer Radio in Toronto.
“And, now, everybody has been working very hard for the last month to (get ready).
“The schedule is set. The dates are set. All of our fan appreciation days are set. For us, especially, we’re going to Sweden and that’s set. We’re going to have an outdoor game. You can’t move that schedule anymore. There are 31 teams that are planning things and have planned things. We’re way, way beyond anything to do with 2018. That’s just not going to happen.
“You asked me if there’s any way of fixing this or doing something with this? You can’t for this coming season. Absolutely not. It’s August. We start training camp in a month. People start coming in and then we start full play in early October. It’s actually technically impossible to do. Think of the television that’s all set. There are a lot of things that have been set in motion that are pretty much irreversible.”
Dick Pound, an IOC member from Montreal, wrote a firstperson column for the Gazette last week criticizing the league’s decision not to attend. He also doesn’t like the fact that individual players won’t be given the right to go if they want.
“He works for them and he gets paid by them and it’s his job to promote the fact that people should participate in the Olympics,” Melnyk said.
Melnyk noted Pound should also be promoting better funding for amateur athletes in Canada, because individual athletes are having to dig into their own pockets to compete. Melnyk has been a supporter of Olympic athletes and understands the difficulties many amateur athletes face in making ends meet.
“I suggest one of the things that (Pound) focuses on is not the NHL — focus on how do you fund these poor amateur athletes that aren’t rich kids,” Melnyk said.
There has been talk that the Washington Capitals will allow winger Alex Ovechkin to attend the Games to play with Russia, but if Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson wanted to go suit up for Sweden, Melnyk doesn’t believe that would be possible.
It’s believed the league will produce a blanket policy on the subject before the season.
“If (Karlsson) came to me, it would simply be a referral to the NHL offices,” Melnyk said. “They take over. I don’t have to make a decision. The decision is made by them.”
Melnyk said the Olympics should be a stage for amateur players.
“This should be amateur, as it always was intended from the beginning of time,” he said.
“It’s an amateur competition. Keep it that way. Now you’ve got boxing matches. You’ve got professionals, making multimillion dollars.”
The concern for Melnyk naturally is injury to the likes of Karlsson or any other star player. The Senators lost goalie Dominik Hasek in 2006 in Turin with a groin injury while playing for the Czech Republic and he never returned to the team.
“That was our year to win a Stanley Cup. We had all the momentum to win a Stanley Cup or, at the very least, get into the Stanley Cup final. We were there,” Melnyk said. “He wanted to go play for the Czech Republic. We let him go.
“The first game he left and he doesn’t play another game for us. We begged him to (play). (Daniel) Alfredsson and I begged him, the coaches begged him ... he said he wouldn’t do it and couldn’t do it, he had a groin injury and that was the end of Dominik Hasek (in Ottawa).”