National Post (National Edition)
NHLers will not play in Olympics
For the first time since 1994, NHL players will not attend the Winter Olympics.
The league released a statement Monday saying it “considers the matter officially closed” and that it won’t participate in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Negotiations between the league, the NHL Players’ Association and the International Olympic Committee have stalled in recent months.
In the statement, the NHL said it was open to hearing from the parties involved but that “no meaningful dialogue has materialized.”
“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,” the league said. “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.”
If you are reading this and are not a member of an International Olympic Committee or an owner of a National Hockey League franchise, understand this: No one — not the moneybags television networks, not the players involved, not the sponsors who are watching potential revenues evaporate in front of their greedy little eyes — will suffer more than you are right now.
It is you, the hockey-loving public, who are being stripped of the privilege of witnessing once again the very best the sport has to offer.
Yes, it’s official — or so the league says. In a release sent out to news agencies Monday afternoon, the NHL announced the decision not to attend the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, was a fait accompli.
“In an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games,” the statement said. “We now consider the matter officially closed.”
Excuse our skepticism. We’ve heard these drop-dead proclamations before from the league, notably during countless CBA negotiations during work stoppages. Somehow, a resolution is always reached.
As Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price noted Monday night upon hearing the news: “I think there’s probably going to be maybe a little bit of tactics involved, but we’ll see. The Olympics aren’t here yet.”
Having said that, it doesn’t look good. And the initial reaction among fans — one that figures to snowball with every passing day — was to lash out at commissioner Gary Bettman, who is perceived to be the villain who drew the line deep in the sand.
But according to an NHL executive involved with one of the national teams in past Olympics, such logic is misguided.
“Gary’s going to take the heat on this, but people need to remember that he represents the owners,” the executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Postmedia Monday night. “He’s just doing their bidding.”
Behind closed doors, the owners will claim they’re tired of the revenue losses associated with shutting down the league for almost three weeks. And should you respond by claiming they are being short-sighted, the probable answer would be: Well, it’s not your money.
And that’s what this seems to be about: the Almighty Buck. Of course, the IOC, an organization that is no stranger to scandal over the decades, cannot wash its hands of the blame here either.
What the NHL was looking for was to get the same type of treatment the IOC gives to many of its top sponsors, one that would allow a marketing deal in which the league could use live videos of Olympics past to promote the upcoming Games instead of just still photos.
Seems like a fair request — only the IOC reportedly refused. And despite the stories coming out of South Korea that a lucrative company like Bridgestone — a major sponsor of both the NHL and the Olympics — was trying to broker a deal, it seems nothing had changed.
Moreover, the IOC recently warned that if the NHL did not take part in South Korea, they shouldn’t count on being included in the Beijing Games in 2022, in a market the league considers to be an untapped frontier to grow the game.
In saying that, did the IOC conveniently forget the fact the host Chinese have elicited the NHL’s help in putting together and developing a national team for the hockey competition five years from now? It was less than a week ago that Bettman was in China announcing an exhibition game between the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings will be played there in September.
We won’t use the word blackmail to describe the IOC’s tactics. We’ll let you connect the dots on that one.
Aside from you fans out there, the players are the ones who are absorbing this kick to the gut. As Connor McDavid said at the all-star game two months ago in Los Angeles: “One hundred per cent, NHL players should be there. I couldn’t really picture an Olympics without it, to be honest.” Start picturing it, kid. McDavid’s comments echo those of players around the league. And now that the Olympic door appears to be shut on them, count on NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr to seek retribution.
In an interview with Postmedia’s Michael Traikos last month, Fehr said the players’ negative reaction at a potential decision not to go to South Korea “is not going to be a good one, and my guess is it’s going to last for a very long time.”
Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is on record as saying he will let Alex Ovechkin still participate for Russia in South Korea. On the other hand, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk will not give the green light to Erik Karlsson to do the same for Sweden. All the while, the league internally is trying to work out this situation with the teams.
Perhaps Price put it best when asked if he understood the position the owners were taking here.
“Sure … It’s dollar signs … I get that. Security against injuries and whatnot,” said the 29-year-old from Anahim Lake, B.C., who won gold with Canada at the Sochi Games three years ago.
“But at the same level — at a human level — this is a big worldwide event that the world takes part in, and we want to shine our light too.”
Unfortunately, the owners and the IOC are doing their best to shut off the light switch — and, in the end, it is you fans who are getting screwed the most because of it.