News – Olympic Games: No NHL players in Beijing?

Olympic Games

The NHL is asking questions

Various not very encouraging sources from North America suggest that the National Hockey League is considering no longer interrupting its schedule to allow its players to reach Beijing and thus participate in the next Olympic Winter Games. The evolution of the pandemic obviously explains this about-face which would be a terrible blow for the next Olympic competitions.

In any case, the participation of NHL players in the Olympics is increasingly uncertain. Due to the situation due to Covid-19, several NHL games may be postponed (we have seen this in recent days already with those of the NY Islanders), so that the NHL schedule could not take a break during the Beijing Olympics.

Suddenly, it is a small revolution which is being prepared within the federations which must prepare a plan B for their selection. This is perfectly feasible since it must be remembered that the Pyeongchang tournament in 2018 also took place without a large share of NHL stamped elements. The teams presented themselves with players only playing in Europe.

A withdrawal of players playing in NHL would also have significant consequences for the European championships, forced to release more players than expected for the Olympic tournament, which would not fail to pose a lot of logistical difficulties. So, NHL or not at the Olympics? A date has even apparently been set for a final decision to be taken, namely January 9.