The NHL participated in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi mostly because a few players like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin said they’d be willing to risk suspension for the honor of playing for their country. Since then, the NHL has been stubbornly saying that they don’t want to participate in future Olympic games. The sticking point for the NHL really seemed to come down to the International Olympic Committee refusing to pay for travel and insurance costs, which resulted in (seemingly) a staring match. The NHL blinked first.
On Tuesday afternoon, Commissioner Gary Bettman announced what many fans were dreading:
A good majority of hockey twitter was not pleased with this.