December 8, 2017: What will men’s hockey at the 2018 Olympics look like without NHL players?
Winter Olympic hockey without NHL players will be a can-miss event
It won’t be Canada’s B or even C team playing men’s winter Olympic hockey. It’ll be closer to the P team.
In 2018 Winter Olympics Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, the NHL will NOT let its players participate for the first time since 1994, citing potential player injuries and disruption to the league’s regular schedule.
“What people love about the Olympics is that they are watching the best in the world,” says Norman O’Reilly, a professor of sports administration at Ohio State University and a former mission staff member with the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Without the best from the NHL, “it will impact television ratings. It’ll impact streaming. It’ll impact the amount of social media chatter and how much media talk about it.”
Macleans.ca