from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,
If you missed it, Daly offered an interesting answer when he was asked about the NHL’s involvement in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
“I think it’s early to make that call,” he answered. “Certainly, Beijing raises a lot of the same challenges as South Korea. But I also think, on the upside, in terms of the opportunities that might be available for hockey and for us, it might result in a different equation.”
Translation: After rejecting South Korea, the NHL will be in Beijing because the Olympics are king in China. To spurn the Beijing Games would be an insult to the country, specifically its government, and the NHL needs the government’s support if it wants to succeed here.
The more interesting question concerns the league’s fractured relationship with the IIHF. The international governing body has said the NHL’s participation in Beijing is contingent on its participation in the 2018 South Korea games. It’s also unlikely the IIHF will pick up travel and insurance costs for the NHL, which was a major stumbling block for PyeongChang.
That means another painful four years of bickering between Gary Bettman and Rene Fasel and the drip, drip, drip of more negotiations.
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