Without NHL players, Olympics a losers bracket
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — There’s no Cold War intrigue, no “Miracle on Ice” in the making, no chance of relishing the best players in the world.
Men’s hockey is in limbo at these Winter Olympics.
The NHLis sitting out the Games for the first time since 1994, which left the 12 teams to cobble together their rosters from a hodgepodge of European professionals, minor-leaguers and college players.
The U.S. opened the tournament with a dismal 3-2 loss to tiny Slovenia in a minor-league-sized arena. It could have passed for a midweek game in the American Hockey League.
The big-money professionals produced one of the most memorable Olympic finals at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Canada’s Sidney Crosby scored the gold-medalwinning goal in overtime, setting off a national celebration in the birthplace of hockey after the U.S. tied the game in the waning seconds of regulation.
Crosby was back in Pittsburgh as the Olympic tournament began, just a few hours removed from doling out three assists to help the Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 6-3. He should be in Pyeongchang, trying to lead Canada to its third straight gold medal.
Unfortunately, when the NHL owners demanded a bigger piece of the financial pie, they ran up against a group that’s just as greedy as they are: the International Olympic Committee.
“It’s bad that the NHL guys are not here,” said Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk, one of the few recognizable names in the tournament, before his team — supposedly the favorite — lost 3-2 to Slovakia. “All the best players should play here because it’s a big event. But it is what it is.”
What is it, anyway? Really, nothing more than a mediocre gathering of has-beens, never-weres and maybe-somedays.
Less than a third of the 300 players have gotten any ice time in the NHL. The U.S. roster is composed mostly of players from five European leagues (all of which, unlike the NHL, shut down during the Olympics), augmented by four college players, three minor-leaguers and another guy currently between jobs.
The 2022 Winter Games in Beijing may provide hope. The NHL would love to make inroads in the world’s most populous nation, so it’s a pretty safe bet the NHL will return to the Olympics in 2022.
That’s the way it should be. No one wants to go through this again.