gary p wrote:
Halvard wrote:
My guess is that NHL have chosen not to be part of the olympics due to doping tests. NHL is a full out doping sport and the chances for some of their stars to be caught would look bad.
It couldn't possibly be because shutting down the NHL season for ~3 weeks in the narrow window of time where, against the 4 major North American Sports, they only had to compete with the NBA for TV eyeballs (NFL season is over, MLB hasn't yet started), ran counter to the league's financial best interests.
Nor could it be that putting the leagues players at risk for injury (7 NHL players sustained injuries in Sochi which caused them to miss subsequent NHL games, including 4 who were lost for the remainder of the season) ran counter to the individual team owner's financial best interests.
Nor could it be that polling indicated 53% of Canadian NHL fans and a whopping 73% of American NHL fans were against a mid-Season shut down to allow the leagues players to compete in PyeongChang. Yes, even in Canada, the majority of NHL fans were against the interruption, despite the fact that it would put their National Team at a huge disadvantage in their attempt to defend their gold medal performance from Sochi.
It couldn't possibly be that the NHL couldn't find any tangible evidence that their accomodation for the last 5 Olympic games had resulted in any gains in the profile of their league, either domestically or internationally.
Nope, it was all a doping dodge.
Please.
NHL is still a free for all doping sport. So not having NHL players in the olympics will actually keep the olympics cleaner.
Good for us that like clean sports.
So it is a win win. NHL fans get to watch drugged goons, and hockey fans can watch clean players.
