So much about NHL players in the Olympics makes no sense:
• The NHL is releasing its assets to play. Those assets are at risk to injury. If players get hurt, their salaries must still be paid by their employers, who gain nothing by their assets’ participation.
• About that last part: Involvement in the Olympics does the NHL zero tangible good. Hockey’s profile isn’t heightened because of the Olympics except during the Olympics. When the NHL resumes play after the Olympics, the league’s television ratings do not rise. That’s held true whenever the league interrupts play for international competition. Olympic hockey is a stand-alone, a self-contained phenomenon.
• It’s odd that the NHL facilitates and promotes a product that’s far superior to its own, making the resumption of their season and subsequent playoffs seem lame by comparison. Olympic hockey is burnished by being played in February, as a winter sport should be. The players are relatively fresh for the Olympics, exhausted by the playoffs. The Olympics are single-game and intense. The playoffs drag on forever. The playoffs wrap up just shy of summer’s official start. The kids are out of school, not riding sleds. The gold-medal game in Milan will seem like the end of hockey season. The NHL shuts down for the Olympics right after football ends but before baseball starts. When its only real competition for eyes on product is basketball.
• The result is negated, or at least minimized, because Russia isn’t participating. Russia trails only Canada when it comes to hockey’s mega-powers. Russia wouldn’t be favored to win, but could. It’s dumb to mix politics and sports. Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin aren’t fighting in Ukraine, so it’s stupid to deny them one last kick at the Olympic can. By the way, what’s the U.S. doing in Venezuela?
• The Olympics doesn’t much care about hockey, especially when it’s in a non-hockey country like Italy. As evidenced by the rink being 3 feet too short and still in construction with the start of the tournament less than six weeks away. To the Olympics, hockey is just a small fraction of their event.
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• The NBC Sports ad with actor Jon Hamm speaking to the U.S. team features the brawling that occurred in the round-robin game between the U.S. and Canada at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, when three fights took place in the first 9 seconds. But the 4 Nations tournament was contested under NHL rules, where fighting is a five-minute penalty. Fighting is prohibited in Olympic hockey. If you fight, you get ejected and face suspension. Some NHL officials will work the Olympics. But NHL-level physicality is unlikely to often occur. NBC Sports is doing a bait-and-switch. Hamm should talk about tariffs.
• The time difference between Milan and the U.S. Eastern time zone is six hours. So hockey games will air at wacky times on this continent, often in the middle of the workday.
Here’s what’s good:
• It’s an easy bargaining chip in CBA negotiations. Give players the Olympics, take something else away. The NHL Players Association eagerly accepts, even though less than 15% of the rank and file participate in the Olympics. The stars and their agents run every sports union. NHL stars want the Olympics.
• It helps the Penguins. Malkin has missed 13 games due to injury and is 39. Bryan Rust has only missed two games but has mostly played dinged up. Rookie Ben Kindel looks to have lost a few pounds, understandable for an 18-year-old playing in the NHL. The Olympic break gives Malkin, Rust and Kindel time to rest and re-charge.
• Sidney Crosby gets a legit chance to win something, not just squeak into a playoff berth. He craves winning. I’m rooting for him.
• I’m going to watch. It’s a bad idea that produces great hockey.
• Everybody gets to wave the flag. Oh, wait, that’s a bad thing. The high-octane false patriotism of sports is sickening. Herb Brooks always said that, first and foremost, the 1980 Miracle on Ice was “a hockey tournament.” If Auston Matthews wants to truly represent the U.S., he should join the military.
