The NHL isn’t participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan reports that the Red Wings’ players aren’t happy about that.
Jimmy Howard and Niklas Kronwall addressed the issue:
“The Olympics are supposed to embody the best athletes in the world, it’s a shame we’re not going to be there,” said goaltender Jimmy Howard, who was on Team USA in 2014 in Sochi. “It’s been great hockey since the pro guys have started going. It made hockey the focal point of the Olympics.”
What has made the NHL uneasy, even when sending its star players for the Olympics, is the overall cost of shutting the league for three weeks.
As the Olympics rolled on, NHL arenas went dark with no games played. Also, several high-level stars were injured, obviously hurting their NHL teams when they returned. Still, Howard would gladly do it again if given the opportunity.
“Every guy that has been able to do it would say the same thing,” Howard said. “It was special to be able to go over there, be part of the Olympics. It was an honor.”
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“All the players still don’t quite get why we’re not there,’ Kronwall said. “The possibility of having two Olympics in Asia on top of each other, in an untapped market. We all wish we were there, but we’re not.”
