from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

Today, with it still unclear whether the NHL will release players to compete in the 2022 Olympics in China less than six months from now, Bettman has made it abundantly clear he and his owners would rather not take a break in the 2021-22 season. If the players do go, teams will release players reluctantly, and only because the NHL Players’ Association has made it a priority.

The spark is gone, and this is now the NHL’s passive-aggressive approach.

When it comes to international hockey, you either believe it’s good for the game or you don’t. Bettman and his owners certainly believed it was good for the game in ’98. It’s not like they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to Nagano.

Now, they don’t. Bettman constantly hides behind the notion that “issues” have to be resolved, but he’s made it plain this is now a priority only for the players, and the league is only even considering it as a courtesy because it was part of the four-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement signed with the players last year.

That deal, however, didn’t guarantee NHL players would be allowed to participate. It only said the league would try to negotiate a deal.

No deal has been reached. It’s hard to believe that NHLPA boss Don Fehr has now been snookered on this issue a second time. First, he forgot to include the Olympics in 2013 CBA negotiations, and in so doing allowed the league to wiggle out of the 2018 Games.

Now Fehr and the union has been caught napping again. He still hasn’t learned that when you’re dealing with NHL owners, you better get things in writing. The players clearly believed last year’s extension got them back into the Olympics.

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