Gary Bettman is shortchanging NHLers with short-sighted Olympic plan
Decision to not send players contradicts desire to expand hockey in Asian market
Gary Bettman's legacy as NHL commissioner has a lengthy list of blunders.
To name just a few, there's the two-decade-long soap opera known as the Arizona Coyotes, the 2004-05 cancelled season, consistent attendance woes and a poor record of vetting at the ownership level. Anybody remember John Spano (Islanders) or John Rigas (Sabres)?
But if Bettman follows through on his Monday decree that he won't allow the game's best players to participate in the 2018 Olympics and considers "the matter officially closed," this decision will go to the top with a bullet.
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We get he's in a snit that the International Olympic Committee pulled its financial aid for the league's travel, insurance, hospitality and lodging expenses. But the International Ice Hockey Federation has come up with the cash to cover the costs.
We get there is the threat a player could get injured and miss significant time, like what happened with John Tavares in Sochi.
But the NHL is missing a momentous opportunity in many ways by halting its Olympic participation. The fans love it and they should be rewarded. The players want to be part of it and they should be rewarded.
There also is the fact that the best thing about the return of the World Cup of Hockey last September was that the Young Guns team became the darlings of the tournament and the most exciting bunch to watch.
Pyeongchang would be a wonderful opportunity for the NHL to continue to build off the excitement of Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Patrik Laine and the list goes on.
Wouldn't we all like to watch McDavid play with Sidney Crosby or Matthews skate alongside Eichel and Patrick Kane?
'I feel it's very disappointing'
"I feel it's very disappointing," Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price said. "I feel like we're shortchanging some of the younger players of that opportunity. It's tough to swallow for some of those kids for sure."
Price has a gold medal, won three years ago in Sochi with Canada. He also liked shutting the door on opponents to win the World Cup last fall. But it wasn't the same.
"You're not going to replace the Olympics," he said in a scrum before his game on Monday. Instead, he hopes Bettman and the owners will come to their senses.
"I think there maybe are some tactics involved," Price said. "We'll see. The Olympics aren't here yet.
"It's dollar signs, I get that. It's security against injuries and whatnot. But at the same level, at a human level, this is a big worldwide event that the world takes part in. We want to shine our light, too."
Bettman doesn't agree that going to Pyeongchang will grow the game. But he feels differently about going to Beijing in 2022. However, the IOC has put a wrench into the NHL's plan. The NHL was told by the IOC last week that "the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on [the NHL's] participation in South Korea in 2018."
The timing of Bettman's announcement on Monday was interesting. The IOC recently set an end-of-April deadline for the NHL to decide on its Olympic participation. The NHL didn't want to let this matter linger with the Stanley Cup playoffs set to begin on Apr. 12.
Bettman also was in Beijing last week to announce two exhibition games between the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings this fall.
When Bettman stepped off the plane, one of the first advertisements he saw was a billboard of NBA standout Steph Curry hawking for Samsung.
Bettman must have been kicking himself. His office did nothing after the NHL's first Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 to get a foot in the Asian market. He believes by going to Beijing that will all change.
But the truth is the NBA is 20 years ahead of the NHL. Hockey has a long way to catch up on the Asian sports landscape.
Why wouldn't the NHL want to get a four-year head start on its Beijing ambitions? Probably, because the NHL is stuck in its old-school ways.
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