The NHL and NHLPA met with the IOC and IIHF on Friday to discuss potential participation in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea. As expected, no firm decision came out of the meeting.
Over the all-star break, there was a board of governors meeting that only briefly touched on Olympic participation, but commissioner Gary Bettman again said the league had more issues about letting its players participate than just money.
During Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday, Don Cherry touched on what a couple of those issues might be.
“It’s so ridiculous. I know all the players want to go,” Cherry said. “I speak as an owner, a coach and a general manager. I remember when I had the Mississauga Ice Dogs (of the OHL), we got our brains pounded out then get a first round draft choice, Pat Jarrett comes and gets four assists the first game, we’re home free. So he goes over to the under-18, breaks his ankle and we’re through. It’s OK for the players to say they want to go. What about the owners?”
In past Olympics, there have been a few injuries to NHL players. Perhaps the biggest one out of the 2014 Games was John Tavares, who crashed hard into the boards in a quarterfinal game against Latvia and missed the rest of the Islanders’ season. Had that happened last season, when the Islanders reached the playoffs and won their first series in more than 20 years, they surely wouldn’t have had the same breakthrough success.
And aside from the injury risk that comes with just playing in the Olympics, Cherry also touched on how the compressed schedule makes it harder for players to make it through an 82-game season healthy.
“Two weeks out of the schedule. They have it congested all now as it is, that’s where you get more injuries. Another two weeks out?” Cherry continued. “It’s absolutely ridiculous for the owners to say they want to go for sure.
“It’s OK for the players to say that they got nothing to lose, they go over, they’re heroes, you remember the goals and everything. As the owners, they lose two weeks, a guy could get hurt, the whole deal.”
But even though Cherry sees lots of downside in NHL Olympic participation he believes that, in the end, the players will go with the owners’ blessing. Even then, with the Olympics happening in South Korea, he wonders who is going to watch the games with such a big difference in time zones.
“Ya they’ll go. And here’s what’s going to happen: The NHL will hold out until the end, they’re not paying expenses or anything, I think they’ll go. But 3 a.m.? Who’s going to watch the games?”
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