World juniors: NHL musing about 2022 Olympics . . . Crowd mark shattered

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.— NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly met informally on Friday with members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, speaking briefly about future participation of NHLers in the Winter Olympics.

The NHL is skipping the Games this February in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but the door is open for the league to return for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

“It’s very premature for me to go there,” Daly said. “Each Olympics is different. There’s a different value proposition. These particular Olym- pics that are coming up ultimately the negatives outweighed the positives for our owners.

“I don’t know what Beijing will hold. The logistical issues that we have with South Korea will be the same with China, but maybe there are some other opportunities in China that aren’t in South Korea. We will see.”

There have been rumblings that some NHLers would boycott the all-star game at the end of January in Tampa as a means to protest the league’s decision on Olympic participation.

“Certainly there was a sense we might see something like that, and I know there are some disappointed players who won’t get a chance to participate in the Olympics, but from what I’ve seen, they’ve turned the page, they’ve put that behind us,” Daly said. “It will be a regular all-star game. We’re looking forward to Tampa.”

There are rules — including suspensions — if players skip the game for any other reason than a legitimate injury.

“There are standard rules that apply. They apply every year.”

ATTENDANCE RECORD: The snow, cold and traffic issues on the Canadian side of the border didn’t stop the game from setting an attendance

record, at least as far as the world junior championship is concerned.

In all, 44,592 took in the outdoor game, more than doubling the previous high for the tournament. That was 20,380 set on Jan. 5, 2009 for a game between Canada and Sweden in Ottawa.

NEXT TIME: Organizers of Friday’s outdoor game acknowledge that more might have been done to create a better experience for the locals to take in at the home of the Buffalo Bills.

As it was, the Canada-U.S. game was the highlight. The only other event available was pleasure skating.

“The outdoor construction began an hour after the Buffalo Bills finished their game on the 17th. The platforms and trucks came in immediately, and the workers have been working 24/7 ever since,” Mike Bertsch, assistant executive director of USA Hockey, told IIHF.com. “We went through all the options and couldn’t create the time to do anything more.

“The time we have the ice is limited, so we couldn’t bring in other entities. Because this is an Olympic year, for instance, we considered a sledge hockey game and a women’s game. We’ve had lots of inquiries about youth games. Next time we do this, I’d love to have more days of ice time to incorporate more things like that.”