Olympics definitely are out

The NHL is heading to Asia next season. Just not the Olympics.

Commissioner Gary Bettman emphatically reasserted the league will not take a break next February to participate in the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea next February. The league previously announced it would skip going to Pyeongchang earlier this spring, a point Bettman bluntly reiterated on Monday just hours before Pittsburgh and Nashville met in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

“(We've seen) a number of comments from the (International Ice Hockey Federation) and player reps suggesting it was still an open issue, it is not and has not been,” Bettman said.

IIHF President Rene Fasel said the governing body was touching base with the NHL Players' Association two or three times per week, hoping to work out a solution. Lee Heebeom, head of the Pyeongchang Organizing committee, said in London earlier this month he was “ready to cooperate” with the NHL to make sure the best players in the world could participate in the games as they've done in every Winter Olympics since 1998. Nope. While saying the NHL is not “anti-Olympics,” Bettman said league owners are no longer interested in having their arenas go dark in the middle of winter while some of their best employees traveled to the other side of the world, particularly if the International Olympic Committee wants no part of picking up the insurance cost.