For the second straight Winter Olympics, the National Hockey League dashed hopes for a “best on best” men’s ice hockey tournament.
The NHL opted out of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games because of a funding dispute with the IOC. That upset the players, who negotiated participation in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics in their latest collective bargaining agreement. But the league added a caveat to the Beijing Games decision: If there was a material interruption in the 2021-22 regular-season schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it could opt out of the Olympics again.
The omicron variant arrived and over 100 NHL games were postponed. Thus, the NHL decided to use the Olympic break to make up those games and the players were prohibited from participating again.
What does that mean for the 2022 tournament? Here’s a look at the field and some familiar names that are still participating in the Olympics, as the men’s preliminary round began Wednesday in Beijing.
Keep in mind that after the…
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