World Cup offers NHL more than the Olympics

Sporting News, The, August 30, 2004 by Kara Yorio

The Olympics are ending and the World Cup is just beginning, and that makes this the perfect time to say this: End NHL participation in the Olympics. The World Cup should be this league's Olympics, the international tournament played every four years. Yes, the hockey in the 2002 Olympics was great (and a trip to Turin, Italy, in 2006 wouldn't be bad) but it's time to keep NHL players at home during the season.

Participation in the Olympics by the league is done not for the competition or Olympic ideal, but for the cash and Olympic-sized exposure. The World Cup, a joint venture between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association, can be for the cash and exposure and hockey. It can be a showcase event. It can help bring the NHL the international presence it wants by alternating having the semifinals and final in North America and Europe every four years. That would give fans that great, open championship game on international ice every eight years and the North American title game every eight years. The World Cup can be the better tournament.

When the tournament is held before the season, not in the middle of it, players aren't tired, nursing injuries or distracted by their seasons. Plus, the league's quality of hockey would benefit tremendously: No disruption to the schedule. No distraction. No prominent player skating through chronic injuries early in the season to keep in shape to give his all for his country, then shutting it down completely on his NHL team.

But back to the point. Players already play too many games. They already travel too much. Sending the NHL's best to the Olympics makes them more tired, more prone to fatigue-related injuries. It takes away from the quality of the league's games.

The World Cup doesn't do any of that. It is played before the season, but not so close that players must go directly from the tournament into the regular season. Training camp allows players to come down from the intensity of the two weeks and nurse any injuries. Besides, it's OK to exploit the World Cup. That's what it's there for. That's not the point of the Olympics.

In its ideal world, the league would participate in the Olympics only when the Games were in a North American television-friendly time zone. The Nagano Games certainly weren't as successful for the NHL as the Salt Lake City Games were. But the Olympics can't be treated like a television opportunity for a billion-dollar corporation. For all the bad--the drugs, the security issues, the ego-driven antics--they still are the Olympics and should be treated with respect.

Olympians are best when they have the stories of sacrifice to meet their lifelong Olympic dream. Olympians are most appealing when they are at the pinnacle of their athletic careers, and they have had to take up a collection or work at Home Depot to get there. Olympians are best when they don't march into the opening ceremony with a sense of entitlement that comes from being a professional athlete in North America. Teams of All-Stars and millionaires just aren't as fun to root for at the Olympics. That's not the Olympics; it's simply the league divided by nation for a two-week tournament, and the league already has that with the World Cup.

Yes, this view of the Olympics might be a naive take on something that already has become a gigantic commercial enterprise. But what's wrong with a little naivete every now and again? What's wrong with wanting the best product in the NHL rinks and the kids who haven't made it to the top professionally taking the ice full of hope and heart in the Olympics? What's wrong with keeping the NHL players in the NHL? Send the best of the AHL, American colleges, Canadian juniors and European leagues to the Olympics. Leave the NHL players to their day jobs.

When it comes down to it, the league might not have a choice for the next Olympics anyway. International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel has said that if the NHUs new collective bargaining agreement is not in place by January, the league's players can't compete in the 2006 Games. National federations need to know by January whether NHLers will play. Such participation must be included and negotiated in the new CBA. To lose the Olympic interruption of the NHL season would be one of the best things that could come out of a shutdown, and it should be a final decision. Give the World Cup more importance; make it the tournament the league's players want to win for their country, and fans around the world will tune in to watch. It can be the better tournament. The next two weeks should prove that.

(S) Check out all the latest World Cup of Hockey roster moves at msn.foxsports.com, keyword: NHL.

What is the World Cup?

There were five Canada Cup tournaments from 1976-91. Six teams competed: Canada, the United States, Sweden, Finland, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia (except in 1984, when West Germany replaced Finland).

In '96, it became the World Cup of Hockey, and eight teams were in the field. The Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia no longer existed; Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany were added.