from Eric Duhaschek of The Athletic,

Roughly 150 NHLers could be participating in the Olympics.

It means, on the one hand, that any player that doesn’t make his respective Olympic team — or in the case of someone such as the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, hails from a country (Slovenia) that didn’t qualify this time around — is going to get an extended break, to rest and recover, far more time off than they’d traditionally get in a bye week.

The others?

Well, they’ve got to trek halfway around the world, reset their body clocks once on the way over and again on the way back. It places a lot of stress on the top players, who not only play the most minutes most nights for their NHL teams, but will also be faced with the challenge of getting motivationally prepared for the Olympics, coming down from an Olympic high (or low) once they’re over, and then summoning up the emotional energy again for an up-to-two months push in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s a big task and a big ask and it adds a fresh wrinkle to any coaching staff’s mandate — ensuring that the players you rely on at crunch time also have some gas left in the tank when playoffs arrive.

more (paid subscripton) and other opics including a look at the Jack Eichel trade...