After Vancouver, NHL Should Make Olympic Exit
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↵In Minneapolis for the Lester Patrick Award Luncheon earlier this week, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had this to say to Star-Tribune columnist Sid Hartman about the league’s future participation in the Winter Olympic Games following the 2010 games in Vancouver:↵↵⇥A top concern, Bettman said, is interrupting the regular season. “There are problems that flow from that,” he said. “The issue is whether or not the benefits are worth the problems and that’s something we’ll have to reason together with the players’ association after we participate in the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.”↵↵The biggest reason that the league has stuck with the Games through Vancouver is that its U.S. broadcast television partner, NBC, has such a huge stake in the games.↵↵But as much as I might rack my brain, I’m having a tough time coming up with many reasons for the NHL to stick around after Vancouver either. Does anyone really believe that the league has somehow stoked its popularity in the U.S. -- or anywhere else for that matter -- by interrupting league play for two whole weeks in 1998, 2002 and 2006?↵
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↵Out of those three Olympic tournaments, how many real lasting memories did hockey fans get to enjoy? Outside of Canada's historic victory in the Gold Medal game over Team USA in Salt Lake City in 2002, there just aren't all that many -- and seeing Tommy Salo get bonked in the melon against Belarus doesn't count.↵
↵↵Instead, as I’ve argued elsewhere before and vigorously, the NHL needs to sit down with the International Ice Hockey Federation and convince them to cancel the World Junior Championships once every four years, and instead contest that title as part of the Winter Olympics. Unlike their NHL counterparts, the national squads that go to the World Juniors every year are teams in every sense of the word, not All-Star squads hastily constructed to play in a tournament that’s nothing more than an exhibition before it reaches the medal round.↵
↵↵And because these are real teams, the level of play and the passion of the participants is truly unmatched. Outside of the World Cup of Hockey -- which is more or less in a deep freeze -- the World Juniors is the best tournament hockey has to offer, and it deserves to be played on a far larger stage.↵
↵↵The game of hockey -- and the NHL -- would be all the better for the change.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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