Olympics: NHL participation in the 2022 Olympics

[Namejs]

The IOC themselves have stated that the treatment of athletes in quarantine is unacceptable.

Calm down...breath...relax.

The issues in Tokyo were even worse. Seriously, just look it up.

This has nothing to do with the fake ass campaign Bettman pulled off. It's got nothing to do with the health and safety of athletes, but rather is an inherent side-effect of holding the Olympics during a global pandemic. And one you cannot avoid, because the logistics of it are ridiculous. It's exactly why an authoritarian country like China is at an advantage here.

Pointing the finger at this whole situation and telling 'I told you so' is mind-numbingly dumb and lacking any perspective.

 

[lawrence]

The IOC themselves have stated that the treatment of athletes in quarantine is unacceptable.

no one made these athletes go. They could have stayed home. They want to go to Beijing they follow their rules as an athlete.

 

[Silky Johnson]

The issues in Tokyo were even worse. Seriously, just look it up.

This has nothing to do with the fake ass campaign Bettman pulled off. It's got nothing to do with the health and safety of athletes, but rather is an inherent side-effect of holding the Olympics during a global pandemic. And one you cannot avoid, because the logistics of it are ridiculous. It's exactly why an authoritarian country like China is at an advantage here.

Pointing the finger at this whole situation and telling 'I told you so' is mind-numbingly dumb and lacking any perspective.

You seem like a very angry person. Its clear engaging with you is pointless. Good bye

 

[jj cale]

It's cute how much you underestimate the importance of national teams in Europe and the necessity for fans to actually see their best players play for their teams.

It's important for THEM yes......it's not important for the NHL,at least at this period of time. I find it cute you don't understand that.

And no, it is not a necessity, no one is going to die if they don't see their players playing for the national team, getting food when you are starving is a necessity.

Not only that but you make it sound like poor Europe is never getting to see it's national teams play when they are playing right now at these olympics and will be playing again this summer at the WHC and again possibly at the world juniors, I'm sure you must be aware of this, if not maybe watching the national team isn't as important as you make it out to be.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Seems like a pretty miserable experience for a lot of the athletes, even those that haven't been quarantined. The optics of these Olympics are terrible all the way around.

 

[Dofs]

It's important for THEM yes......it's not important for the NHL,at least at this period of time. I find it cute you don't understand that.

You think I think that NHL cares about European fans because...

And no, it is not a necessity, no one is going to die if they don't see their players playing for the national team, getting food when you are starving is a necessity.

No one is going to die, true. Just less people will watch hockey and play hockey.

Not only that but you make it sound like poor Europe is never getting to see it's national teams play when they are playing right now at these olympics and will be playing again this summer at the WHC and again possibly at the world juniors, I'm sure you must be aware of this, if not maybe watching the national team isn't as important as you make it out to be.

It's cute how you think that Europeans don't know and care who their stars and best players are.

 

[NotCommitted]

Seems like a pretty miserable experience for a lot of the athletes, even those that haven't been quarantined. The optics of these Olympics are terrible all the way around.

Yeah, this was the reason I thought it was not going to be nearly as bad as some people made it seem. And it probably isn't as we heard some pretty ridiculous claims, but it's still pretty bad and terrible PR for China, I really thought they'd be thinking more about it in terms of appearances. Usually the games held in dubious locations, the organizers and host country do everything to make their country look like a great place, to show everyone it's actually awesome and <insert wannabe dictator here> is a great leader. China is looking bad.

The biggest problem seems to be with the rise of omicron A LOT of athletes have had covid recently and with the standards China uses many of them might have "positive" tests occasionally for weeks or even months despite being completely asymptomatic and non-contagious by most available scientific data.

My uninformed guess is China is less concerned at this point by how it looks to the rest of the world and more interested in their own domestic policies and how the Olympics serve those interests.

 

[Czechboy]

It didn't seem to, what did I miss?

I wanted the nhl players there too, we all did, but what did Nagano do to increase the nhls popularity internationally?

Let's just be honest here, none of us really think it will do much for the nhls popularity around the world. we just want the nhls best players going at it on the biggest stage for our own selfish entertainment reasons.

Fans here really have to start calling it like it is regarding this growing the game stuff, we all know hockey is never going to be a huge sport in the world for a variety of reasons no matter how many times they play in the olympics. No offense but This altruistic bullshit is hard to listen to on here anymore.

It could be argued.. since Nagano, that the sport has gotten smaller and not bigger.

For the first few Olympics, the Czechs were legit contenders. Slovaks were too (they got screwed in Nagano but that's another story)... Neither today is a best on best threat. Went from 7 contenders to 5 within 12 years of Nagano.

 

[johnsic]

I admit I was wrong. NHL did the right thing by not going to Olympics. The quarantine treat is real and with Canada and China being in bad terms something bad might have happened.

 

[Hanji]

You're nuts if you think multi-millionaire NHLrs would be receiving the same treatment as other athletes.

If NHLrs participated they undoubtedly would be living on their own island over there, with their own quarantine area, imported food, etc. The NHL isn't gonna mess around with Covid.

What's occuring with a handful of Joe Shmoe regular athletes changes nothing in regards to the situation.

 

[Urbanskog]

It could be argued.. since Nagano, that the sport has gotten smaller and not bigger.

For the first few Olympics, the Czechs were legit contenders. Slovaks were too (they got screwed in Nagano but that's another story)... Neither today is a best on best threat. Went from 7 contenders to 5 within 12 years of Nagano.

That's only if you consider the number of teams able to win a best-on-best tournament to be the metric to go by. Otherwise, the number of hockey players in the world has grown significantly.

However, with the way the NHL terrorizes the international aspect of the sport, it's not impossible that countries eventually start investing less in the development of the sport in their countries as the best players barely ever get to represent their countries — the reward is simply getting smaller.

Similarly, no one outside NA starts playing hockey because they have been watching the NHL and want to make it there. Instead, it would be the international tournaments which spark their interest. If that side of the sport is in ruins, so might be the overall future state of the sport.

 

[Sentinel]

I cannot begin to tell you how sad I am that NHL is not there. No best-on-best, last chance for Ovechkin, etc...

 

[jj cale]

That's only if you consider the number of teams able to win a best-on-best tournament to be the metric to go by. Otherwise, the number of hockey players in the world has grown significantly.

However, with the way the NHL terrorizes the international aspect of the sport, it's not impossible that countries eventually start investing less in the development of the sport in their countries as the best players barely ever get to represent their countries — the reward is simply getting smaller.

Similarly, no one outside NA starts playing hockey because they have been watching the NHL and want to make it there. Instead, it would be the international tournaments which spark their interest. If that side of the sport is in ruins, so might be the overall future state of the sport.

You have a valid point here.

 

[jj cale]

I cannot begin to tell you how sad I am that NHL is not there. No best-on-best, last chance for Ovechkin, etc...

I wonder how the Russian team would have done, as usual great wingers, centremen were maybe a but dicey but looked to be capable, possibly an upgraded defense and of course sometimes the ultimate tie breaker, the goatending where Russia was as good if not better then anybody.

Preparation and coaching is another matter, your guess is as good as mine.

They could have won gold, I would have given it a 4 out of ten chance.

 

[jj cale]

It could be argued.. since Nagano, that the sport has gotten smaller and not bigger.

For the first few Olympics, the Czechs were legit contenders. Slovaks were too (they got screwed in Nagano but that's another story)... Neither today is a best on best threat. Went from 7 contenders to 5 within 12 years of Nagano.

Which leads us to the question, aside from state funding, what has caused the decline in Czech hockey? possessors of some of the greatest talent I've seen. Hasek is my call for best goalie of all time and Jagr possibly was the best 5 on 5 player offensively i've ever seen. It's not as if they don't have it in them, what's wrong?

 

[Czechboy]

Which leads us to the question, aside from state funding, what has caused the decline in Czech hockey? possessors of some of the greatest talent I've seen. Hasek is my call for best goalie of all time and Jagr possibly was the best 5 on 5 player offensively i've ever seen. It's not as if they don't have it in them, what's wrong?

Hockey was free in communism. The entire 1998 to 2005 crew and Slovakian teams had communist money.

 

[jj cale]

Hockey was free in communism. The entire 1998 to 2005 crew and Slovakian teams had communist money.

So it's simply no longer affordable, quite a pity.

 

[Czechboy]

Otherwise, the number of hockey players in the world has grown significantly.

I'm not disagreeing but what are the numbers? And where is the growth?

 

[Maestro84]

I just looked at China's roster for hockey and my goodness, not a single person on there is actually from China. Some of them are straight up exports from North America or Russia, while others are Canadian players who had a grandma that was Chinese lol

 

[Czechboy]

So it's simply no longer affordable, quite a pity.

That's most of it but we are also run a lot like the Oilers minus the billinaire.lol

Our president Kral is like Nicholson.

Old boys club that keeps hiring former NHLers. I'm really not sure what Petr Nedved did to be a GM? Our coaches are usually former NHL players too (Straka and Spacek from Nagano are on the bench here).

Strong on wings usually but not enough D or C.

Skating is falling behind.

Our Domestic league only used 4 guys (rightfully so) out of 25 I think. Those owners don't care about development but winning only.

Most our best young talent, rightfully, leaves for CHL, Finland or Sweden (eventually DEL too).

Hopefully things turn around (the goalies are encouraging as they seem to be rising).. it is encouraging to see Jiricek and Kulich may be high draft picks from Extraliga. Or Vlejmelka coming straight from there to NHL which is totally unheard of.

Also, I don't believe the Czechs have one a single medal at any level with those new ugly jerseys. I think it'd be hillarious if we won a medal here in the traditional gorgeous ones.lol

 

[Albatros]

I'm not disagreeing but what are the numbers? And where is the growth?

I don't have that old numbers at hand right now, but we can compare the most recent IIHF survey results to those from 2010/11:

United States +61,121
Russia +37,121
Canada +35,540
Czechia +28,927
Sweden +11,290
China +8,893
Great Britain +6,247
Finland +5,812
Hungary +5,715
Switzerland +4,489
France +4,201
Norway +4,093
Kazakhstan +3,755
Latvia +3,036
Slovakia +2,690
Lithuania +2,003
Australia +1,949
Poland +1,478
Mexico +1,436
Korea +1,234
Kyrgyzstan +1,210
Belarus +1,151
Romania +1,137
Netherlands +1,043

On the other hand a couple of countries also took a deep dive:

Japan -1,585
Italy -1,903
Austria -2,819
Germany -7,596

The IIHF Survey of Players is of course a flawed metric in several different ways and these raw numbers in themselves tell only little, but at least it can serve as an indication.

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

I just looked at China's roster for hockey and my goodness, not a single person on there is actually from China. Some of them are straight up exports from North America or Russia, while others are Canadian players who had a grandma that was Chinese lol

?
10 of the players on their roster are domestic Chinese players

 

[Pandaman11]

There is NHL participation after all! The Swiss are playing in Florida Panthers jerseys

 

[LaCarriere]

It didn't seem to, what did I miss?

I wanted the nhl players there too, we all did, but what did Nagano do to increase the nhls popularity internationally?

Let's just be honest here, none of us really think it will do much for the nhls popularity around the world. we just want the nhls best players going at it on the biggest stage for our own selfish entertainment reasons.

Fans here really have to start calling it like it is regarding this growing the game stuff, we all know hockey is never going to be a huge sport in the world for a variety of reasons no matter how many times they play in the olympics. No offense but This altruistic bullshit is hard to listen to on here anymore.

This is sort of how feel.

The problem for me, is its hard to measure what Nagano did internationally for the game. I was 13 years old at the time, and carry the perspective of a Canadian. It would take some international/European insight from an older generation to better measure how much it truly did.

The biggest problem from the leagues/NHLs perspective will always be shutting down for 2.5 weeks or whatever it is, followed by the risk to players (and the teams paying them millions) of injury.

An off season (summer) tournament would make more sense from an injury/risk perspective, as long as the majority of the top players would participate. However I have my doubts as a standalone tournament jusy doesnt have the same "feeling" as being part of the Olympics, and some guys will choose rest or downtime over playing

I haven't been following the politics of the Olympics, the quarantine conditions, etc... so I can't comment on that, or if that really played into the NHL decision.

I sort of take the NHL at face value - the last 2 years have been massively disrupted, and playing a full 82 game schedule with fans in arenas (for the most part) should be priority.
2 years ago the season finished with teams playing unequal amounts of games, and to hockey purists that's just not right. Last year the whole league was realigned for one year with a 56 game schedule.

 

[Namejs]

Let's just move on and hope for better days ahead.