In September, the Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks will each travel 6,000-plus miles across the Pacific to play two preseason games. The exhibitions in Beijing and Shanghai -- the NHL's first venture into China -- signal that the league might emulate a strategy the NBA initiated more than a decade ago. Growth opportunities in Asia, as the NBA has learned, are significant.
That's why it's perplexing -- and, to many, disappointing -- that the NHL is skipping the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
But the NHL isn't just whiffing on a chance to expand its global footprint.