from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

It’s their party, and they can keep smiling if they want to, but the scores of NHL players with designs on heading to Beijing in February to play in the Olympics have been getting a clearer sense of the protracted, miserable ride that could await them, particularly if the searing flame of COVID-19 keeps burning these next 8-10 weeks.

On the surface, sure, who wouldn’t want to go, for all the reasons chronicled and romanticized through the decades: national pride, rigor of competition, the inherent joy of being cloistered in the Athletes Village, surrounded by young, elite athletes (even those luge nut jobs) from around the world?

“As athletes,” noted Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron, who just the other day moved to the sidelines, pinched by the NHL’s COVID protocol, “you want to face the best.”

As the weekend approached, all the concerned parties, particularly the Players Association, continued to hammer through some of the significant concerns. Chief among them: What happens in the unfortunate circumstance that an NHLer tests COVID-positive?

Popping positive would mean pulling out of the tournament on the other side of the world. Bad enough. Heartbreaking.

Potentially far worse, though, would be the prospect of having to remain in China, isolated, for days, if not weeks, after the Games are wrapped and fellow NHLers have returned to their normal Original 32 work life.

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