from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

The best players in the NHL have historically sat on the sidelines during collective bargaining, but it's time for the likes of Crosby and McDavid to get involved.

So Connor McDavid is “really upset” about NHL players not participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics. In that case, McDavid might want to take a number and get in line because there are a lot of star players who feel the same way. Sidney Crosby doesn’t like it, either. But the NHL is not in the business of catering to their star players, particularly when they feel it doesn’t serve their business interests very well.

Some star players, particularly those of the Russian variety, have talked about going rogue and playing in the Pyeongchang tournament anyway. So make no mistake, the star players who have the most to lose by not playing in the Olympics are not a happy bunch.

And that’s all well and good, but now is the time for those same players to use their clout to shame the NHL into doing the right thing in 2022 and their own Players’ Association into enshrining it into the next collective bargaining agreement.

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