Olympic questions

[GKJ]

1- I see there are 12 teams who get in, now. I am pretty confident that not too long ago that they were going to have 14 teams get in (the way it was before). I know that they changed the format, but I am still pretty sure that they were going to have 14 get in...when did this change?



2- The whole tourney lasts 11 days, so why do we need 3 weeks to take off from the NHL? I can see needing 16 days but 3 whole weeks?

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[12# Peter Bondra]

I dont know anything about the 14 format. It was qualification in Salt Lake + group stages + playoffs, now its only group stages+playoffs, cutting down the Ice Hockey tourney time from 16-17 days to 11.

3 weeks are probably needed for the players to get used to the timezone change, different climate and to get to know the other players on the team.

 

[GKJ]

Bah, they should have stayed with 14 teams. The country who finished 4th last time around didn't even qualify.

 

[missK]

2- The whole tourney lasts 11 days, so why do we need 3 weeks to take off from the NHL? I can see needing 16 days but 3 whole weeks?

There's 12 days of Olympic hockey competition. It takes 2 days each way minimum for travel, possibly longer for players coming from the West coast. The players will have to be in Torino at least 24 hours to obtain their credentials, etc. before they can begin the competition. The first Men's hockey game is February 15th.

At the BARE MINIMUM, timeframes could be something like February 11th last NHL game, February 12-13 travel, February 14 credentials, February 15 games start. February 26 hockey games end, February 27-28 return travel, earliest re-start for the NHL would be March 1st (which is a 17-day league shutdown) Now that's a very condensed schedule, I suspect the NHL would like to pad at least one day pre and post Olympics so as not to sabatoge West coast play upon return from Italy and to offer time for any travel snafus that might arise. Adding two days on either end brings the total to 19 days, which is pretty darn close to 3 weeks.