Is it me, or is the sports media perhaps missing the boat a little on the forthcoming Olympic men’s hockey tournament, scheduled to begin on Valentine’s Day? (Sports website/saucy newspaper-disruptor The Athletic has been doing the latter over the holidays, if you enjoy tight, informed coverage of hypothetical hockey. Obviously the ideal choice would have been to cancel Olympic men’s hockey altogether and replace it with a pool-cue fight between the NHL’s Gary Bettman and the International Ice Hockey Federation’s René Fasel. But it would be strange for the 75 per cent of Canadians who wouldn’t brake for Gary Bettman to actively reward the NHL for the boycott by treating Olympic hockey as an obtuse afterthought. Sanctioned Team Quasi-Russia selectors will have access to legitimate, but aging, star players like Pavel Datsyuk from the country’s Kontinental Hockey League.

Source: National Post January 01, 2018 20:03 UTC