from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

What if Leonsis had gotten his way and convinced his fellow owners of their short-sighted folly in skipping the Olympics?

Seven of Washington’s top eight scorers would have been automatic choices for their respective countries: (Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitri Orlov for Russia; TJ Oshie and John Carlson for the U.S.; Nicklas Backstrom for Sweden; and Lars Eller for Denmark). Backup goalie Philipp Grubauer would have gone for Germany and starter Braden Holtby would have been a candidate for Canada’s team, which would have had some interesting choices to make in goal.

Now, other Eastern Conference powerhouses would also have been affected, not just Washington. Tampa would have sent Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy and probably Steven Stamkos. All three members of Boston’s top line (Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak) would have gone, as would goalie Tuukka Rask. Toronto would have been interesting: Frederik Andersen (Denmark), William Nylander (Sweden), plus Auston Matthews and possibly James van Riemsdyk (USA) would have played.

But if you go team-by-team through the NHL, you’d probably conclude that no single club would have been affected more by Olympic participation than the Caps.

more (paid subscription) plus Roberto Luongo on social media these days and other topics...