Class act

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by mash

Very classy. Also speaks to the power of the Olympics. Rumours about the NHL not participating in the next Games are just the owners way of bargaining to get some money from the IOC. They turn the lights out in their rinks for 2 weeks, the IOC makes crap loads of money using their employees. I'm sure they'll work something out.

If they're turning the lights off on their rinks and letting them sit idle for 2 weeks during the Olympic break (it'll be closer to 3 for Soshi 2014 due to the time zone changes) then they're simply poor businessmen and deserve to loose that money. The arenas are usually in use for trade shows, conventions, NBA teams, monster truck and motorcross, circuses, etc. while the teams are on road trips so I fail to see why the Olympic break should be any different. Just requires a little creativity.

Honestly this kind of gamesmanship really pisses me off about the NHL and North American sport in general. In every other part of the world and in all the major professional sports that they follow playing for your country is the highest honour possible and the professional club and elite leagues are what the national selectors use to pick their teams, not vice versa. Hell in the 3 biggest sports in the world (soccer, rugby and cricket) the national teams are constantly pulling the top players out in mid-season at random intervals for international test duties, and there you're talking about players that make more for playing one match than most NHL'ers make in a month (more for the top soccer players).

Quite honestly my response to Bettman and the owners associate can be perfectly summed up in 4 words: "Suck it up princess!"