On the 20th, the Beijing Winter Olympics ushered in the closing, the men's ice hockey also decided the last gold, and finally Finland lost one goal first, reversed the defending champion Russian Olympic Committee team 2-1, winning the Winter Olympic Championship for the first time in history. At this ice hockey tournament, the moving speeches of naturalized players of The Chinese ice hockey team and the "legal brawl" of the ice hockey teams in various countries on the field have triggered discussions on social media. At the same time, the failure of traditional hockey teams to appear in the Winter Olympics also makes the audience regret that they have not been able to see the most exciting match - the North American Professional Ice Hockey League (NHL), which brings together the top hockey players from many countries, announced that it would give up participating in the Winter Olympics at the end of last year, which also led to the United States men's ice skating without medals for three consecutive years.
Finland won the gold medal in men's hockey
Short-sightedness of the NHL
Finland, which is dominated by young players, has achieved a rapid increase in strength during the Beijing Winter Olympic cycle, and although there are no NHL players, it won the top group of the World Championships in 2019 by relying on players from the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL) and local leagues. In the semi-finals of the Winter Olympics, he also showed strong defensive strength, "clean sheet" slovakia. As for the result of the U.S. team's lack of medals, The Independent relentlessly pointed out that this was all because of the Egoism pursued by the NHL, which allowed professional hockey players in the United States and Canada to withdraw from the Winter Olympics overnight, and the U.S. men's ice hockey team could only select promising young people from college.
NHL players had planned to return to the Olympics in 2022 after missing the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, but the NHL regular season schedule was severely disrupted due to a large number of postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 21, 2021, the NHL announced that its players would forfeit their participation in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. "As many as 50 games have been postponed," said NHL president Gary Scott. Gary Bettman said, "It is no longer feasible to participate in the Olympics. Our focus and goal has been and must continue to be to responsibly, safely and timely throughout the NHL regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. We will use the Winter Olympic schedule to reschedule matches that have been or may be postponed. ”
▲NHL statement.
The NHL brings together the top hockey players from many countries, and the absence of the Winter Olympics has had the biggest impact on the U.S. and Canadian teams, as their Olympic hockey tournament roster would have been made up of NHL players, while other medal contenders, such as Sweden, Finland, the Russian-Austrian team and the Czech Republic, are less dependent on NHL talent.
The Guardian believes that the NHL's decision not to participate in the Olympic Games and to let low-level professional players and young people travel to Beijing to compete for Olympic gold medals is short-sighted and hasty. From 1998 to 2014, the Olympics were a showcase opportunity for the world's top hockey players. At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the men's hockey final between the United States and Canada attracted the attention of 1 billion people around the world, which can be described as an epic game. The 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics will be held in Asia, but the NHL has given up a unique opportunity to push ice hockey to a world stage for its own interests, which will hinder the development of ice hockey. The 2018 men's hockey finals saw a more than 40 percent drop from 2014.
▲ Men's ice hockey game at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Some sports are more popular and large than the Olympics, such as grand slams in tennis and golf, the NBA in basketball and the men's soccer World Cup, but the place of ice hockey in an increasingly diverse field of sports is far from guaranteed. Although North America has a long history and fame of ice hockey games, the Stanley Cup, in other parts of the world, there is much less tradition of ice hockey games.
The NHL has long been considered one of the big four sports leagues in the United States, which has expanded to Las Vegas and Seattle and struck lucrative long-term deals with ESPN and Turner Sports. But the low ratings of TNT's evening games, the four-figure attendance of hockey city Buffalo, and the decline in attendance for Canadian hockey fans are all harsh reminders that the original audience of hockey is easily preempted by other leagues.
Some athletes may also face the harsh fact that they missed the Olympics in their heyday because of the NHL's decision. Steven Stamkos, one of the NHL's greatest scorers in history, the Tampa Bay Lightning, bid farewell to the Canadian national team with an injury in 2014 and missed two consecutive Olympics in 2018 and 2022 due to the NHL's decision.
Rookie on the field
While some NHL players have expressed frustration over not being able to play in the Beijing Winter Olympics, it has also given other promising players a chance to shine in the Olympics. Among them, Jake Sanderson and Matty Beniers of the United States, owen Power and Mason McTavish of the Canadian team were all favored before the game. Sanderson was selected by senators from Ottawa with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NHL rookie selection; Benies, 19, was selected by Seattle Kraken with the second pick in the first round of the 2021 NHL draft to become the youngest player in the U.S. national team; Ball and McTavish were both in the top three of the 2021 NHL draft.
In the official match, Owen Ball delivered an assist in the group match with China on the 13th, and his performance was remarkable. He and Marty Berniers went from teammates in the NHL to rivals at the Winter Olympics, where the United States played against Canada and beat Canada 4-2 to win the first Olympic victory over their main opponent since 2010. Benniers also showed great ability against Canada, helping the U.S. save two consecutive free throws with 6:06 left in the third quarter.
Slovakia, which "scored a penalty" in the knockout round to beat the United States and won the bronze medal in Sweden, also attracted the attention of everyone this year. Slavkovski, a talented teenager at 17, scored two goals alone against Sweden and is key to Slovakia's victory, and he is also expected to be a hot target for this summer's NHL draft.
Men's hockey joins the Summer Olympics?
After the NHL's two absences from the Winter Olympics, the idea of moving the men's hockey game to the Summer Olympics was mentioned again, which coincided with the league's off-season. Some media believe that the IOC should listen to NHL Commissioner Gary Bateman, who has lobbied the IOC for this since the 1990s, but has been rejected, arguing that adding men's ice hockey to the Summer Olympics will ensure maximum participation and preparation.
In Beijing, Bateman also exchanged views with IHF President Tadif of the International Ice Federation on the dates of ice hockey events for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Bateman said: "They told me that there was football and basketball at the Summer Olympics, but I said that the NHL didn't want to suspend the season, everyone wanted to see the game, and ice hockey players could be injured at the Olympics, which would increase the burden on insurance and the team. ”
News sources: NBC, NHL, The Guardian
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