Dallas Stars’ Players Missing Olympics Is Disgraceful
By Josh Clark
The NHL announced yesterday that it would not accommodate the 2018 Winter Olympics. This decision hurts a lot of things, including Dallas Stars players.
February 8, 2014 was a big night for the Dallas Stars. Can you recall what happened that night? Chances are you probably don’t remember.
The Stars welcomed the Arizona Coyotes to the American Airlines Center for a Western Conference showdown. Dallas was in the midst of a world of change that season. Tyler Seguin, Lindy Ruff, and Jim Nill were all new members of the Dallas Stars’ organization and were trying to help right the ship practically overnight.
And they were doing a pretty good job at it. The Stars entered the game with a record of 26-21-10 and were just outside the playoff bubble. The Coyotes, on the other hand, were 27-20-10 and held the final wild card spot in the West.
Through a tight contest that night, the Stars emerged victorious in a high-intensity 2-1 finish. That game pushed Dallas into possession of the final playoff spot and helped give them a necessary edge for the remainder of the season. They would eventually go on to clinching that wild card spot and snapping a five-year playoff drought.
Dallas Stars
The win would also serve as a driving source of confidence that helped the Stars stay motivated during the three-week break that immediately followed.
That three-week break was taken due to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. NHL players across the league traveled across the world to go for gold in the competition. It’s a time of serious patriotism and dedication for the players and fans, and it helps the game of hockey grow on a worldwide scale.
But in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics, the hockey section is going to be significantly blander due to the lack of NHL talent.
Yesterday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made the announcement that the NHL would not be accommodating the 2018 Olympics. The final decision had been a topic of speculation and discussion over the past few months ever since the initial reports surfaced that the NHL might not be sending its players overseas.
Taking an extended break every four years and shutting the entire league down was the sole reason for the debate in the first place. Owners are the main group that is unhappy about the constraints that the Olympics put on the NHL as a whole. After all, only a select few players from the entire league are included.
When they made the decision and announced it, there was an immediate uproar. The NHLPA called it “shortsighted” and talked about how the NHL was missing out on an amazing opportunity to show off and market the game of hockey on the world’s biggest stage simply because of a scheduling conflict.
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The players themselves were livid as well. Tweets and quotes were tossed around about the decision from various teams and players after it was announced. All in all, the NHL is letting a small infraction keep them from taking a giant leap in the right direction.
On top of all of that, the league also said that they expect all of the teams to keep their star players at home during the Olympics so they can participate in the scheduled NHL games. There were reports that some GMs were planning on letting some of their substantially patriotic and dedicated players go, but updates on that decision have yet to be made.
This hurts the strides in marketing and growing that the NHL is trying to make. It also hurts a lot of NHL players and their spirit for their country. The Dallas Stars would definitely fall into this category.
In 2014, the Stars sent Jamie Benn, Valeri Nichushkin, Kari Lehtonen, and coach Lindy Ruff to the Olympics to duke it out with their respective countries.
If the rule had held true for 2018 as well, the Dallas Stars could have been looking at a vast number of players being invited.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are two obvious choices. Nichushkin would probably return as well. Though Lehtonen’s numbers have taken a small dip since 2013-14, he might still find a way to snag an invite. Then you have John Klingberg, possibly Jason Spezza, and even players like Esa Lindell and Radek Faksa. Each player would give his country a unique edge in the competition.
And now none of them will be able to compete. It’s a sour way of doing things and it’s only going to lead to more problems down the road in negotiations.
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But this new ruling will leave Dallas Stars’ players (and the entire NHL, for that matter) searching for a gap to fill when they sit at home and watch the Olympics from their couch for perhaps the first time in their career.
More updates will be made as they become available, but for now it looks like the 2018 Winter Olympics will have a subpar hockey competition. Just be prepared.