The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang

That, or they are sent to spy.

Really looking forward to the Games, of course, but I won't be able to watch much of it live as most of the action will take place in the late night (some would call it early morning) or during working hours. I guess it's the same for our friends in North America when the games are held in Europe ...
 
Brigantium said:
Seriously?
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Yes, seriously. The NHL isn't interested in stopping play for two weeks so their best players can go off and get injured elsewhere. They certainly aren't interested in trying to sell hockey tickets with all their star players not present.
 
Forostar said:
Slavery. Well not quite. The players signed the crappy contracts.
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I'm sure their bank accounts disagree that the contracts are crappy, but the NHL has a player's union whose job it is to negotiate with the NHL, and this union hasn't really done much in the way of negotiating to assure participation in the Olympics, which the players pretty clearly want. That's business.
 
Forostar said:
Crappy for their countries and for not being able to play at the best tournament in hockey.
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Don't forget the issue with The World Cup of Hockey, which the NHL arranges. The NHL does not want to have any real competition with other international tournaments from the IIHF side. Basically, screwing up the Olympics is in their best interest. The World Championships was never a true competitor, since it already was mostly played without NHL-players (still a quite popular tournament in Sweden though).

Making sure The World Cup is the only tournament with the best NHL-players is not only possible, it's a reality now.

And don't get me started on the difference between IIHF international rules and NHL's rules of the game, which is also an issue which prevents ice-hockey from ever being unified across the different regions.
 
LooseCannon said:
The NHL players wanted to play. The NHL refused to release them for the games.
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That's the best short answer regarding the issue. The NHL wasn't going to shut down for two weeks and some players were still going to go (OVECHKIN), but then the IIHF and the IOC said, "NO!" So it wasn't just the NHL.


Maturin said:
Don't forget the issue with The World Cup of Hockey, which the NHL arranges. The NHL does not want to have any real competition with other international tournaments from the IIHF side.
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That's not exactly true. The board of Governors, most GMs and owners didn't want to shut down for two weeks and send their best to go get injured, tired or just not perform. It all came down to the IOC not wanting to pay for travel and insurance on the players, which they've always done. So it isn't that the NHL doesn't want competition. People running these teams wanted to protect their assets, the IOC didn't cooperate and everybody acted like 5-year-olds about it. "Well I'm not going to play with YOU anymore!"
 
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@LooseCannon
 
Indeed a 1-2-3 in an event. I wonder if the IOC will change the rules for number of competitors per country like they did for the track cycling when the British cyclists won everything.
 
The order was a surprise, at least for the press. In the Netherlands Irene Wüst is seen as the Queen of the Winter Games. No one thought Achtereekte would win this. This day was a good start, with also a silver medal for Sjinkie Snegt in the 1500m short track. He almost had gold! :/
 
Black Wizard said:
Indeed a 1-2-3 in an event. I wonder if the IOC will change the rules for number of competitors per country like they did for the track cycling when the British cyclists won everything.
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I bet @Forostar would be fuming at that proposition, because it would make Holland a nobody in the Winter Olympics. 23/24 of their 2014 medals came from speed skating. The other one was from short track speed skating, and it was only bronze.
 
Not really. First people need to understand the details and comparisons of these sports (and the performancers etc.) better, if they wish to be bothered about that question. Perhaps the rules have already changed in the past. And countries can already have their own strict Olympic qualification limits.

Actually, my own country has too strict limits imo. E.g. look at some non skating disciplines. Africans can easily compete with crap personal best times while a Dutch person would not have a chance to qualify, even if they are better.
 
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Well, the "fuming" part was meant more tongue-in-cheek, I was actually more expressing my amazement at the complete domination not only of one nation at a discipline, but also the domination of one discipline for a nation.
 
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