Sochi stay or Sochi Go

Olympic Hockey is less than a month away and I am not looking forward to it . Sure I will watch every game, God Blesss Tivo but I don’t think NHL players should be participating. I have many reason s for my thinking. The first and foremost being the players own personal safety. One Islamic fuckhead and EVERYTHING is a COMPLETE disaster.

 I hate the disruption of the NHL season. None of the other major sports would lose one month of their season every four years for the Olympics. Not only does the sport just stop for three weeks the rest of the season schedule is so compressed to make up for it players are exposed to more injuries and fans are subjected to some listless hockey. The NHL brass has realized for awhile now they get no tangible pop from the Olympics. People who watch Olympic hockey go back to American Idol when Bob Costas and his fireplace disappear.  The league wasn’t going to send their payers to Sochi but capitulated after they realized they would have a mutiny on their hands because Ovechin, Malkin and other Russia stars were going to play in Sochi whether Gary Bettman wanted them to or not. This will be the last time the NHLers go for gold because no player is going to push to spend 3 weeks in South Korea in 2016.

People will argue back at me that they love Olympic hockey because it’s the best players in the world all competing for gold, playing for keeps, an All Star tournament that matters.  We did have that it back in the nineties , it was called the World Cup of Hockey. It was played in the summer, so it didn’t disrupt the NHL season. It was played on NHL sized ice and with NHL rules, which means it was an All Star game, where everybody cared who won and it had fighting.

I think by NHLer’s going to the Olympics they are undermining the premise that the Stanley Cup is the most important trophy in all of sports.  Do I want the USA to win gold. Yes !!! I mean sure , maybe , right? Look at the consequence for me personally, If the US wins, my ( the Pens coach) Dan Blysma looks like a genius but then my ( Penguins)  superstars have problems.  Sidney Crosby is Canada’s goat and Evgeni Malkin and his parents may be shipped to Siberia. Penguin fans and every fan of the NHL’s elite teams have this problem is some variety, let alone if a player gets injured. That’s the beauty of a Summer World Cup of Hockey, even if a player gets hurt they should be ready by the Stanley Cup playoffs next spring. More important to me that the US wins gold is that all my Penguins come back healthy.

It’s time to end put the NHLer’s in the Olympics. Does Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechen,  Jaromir Jagr need any more on their plate or in their trophy chest. It’s time to let the kids play again. If you’re old enough to remember 1980 you know how special that was. US Captain Mike Eruzione never played completive hockey after that, he didin’t need to. Who care if some countries cheat or the KHLers play. I’ll take my chances with some Boston College or Wisconsin guys. Does anyone think the millionaires really need medals?  I know it’s nice, but they’re already rich and famous let the kids have a chance or retired NHLer’s who don’t have a Cup and a gold medal would be the ultimate consolation prize. To me the US winning gold in Sochi is a consolation prize if the Penguins don’t win the Stanley Cup.