from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The NHL’s vision rarely extends past the 50 percent of revenue the league is guaranteed under the CBA, so it is no surprise neither the board nor commissioner can recognize the positive global byproduct of continuing to participate in the Olympics in 2018.

If it cannot be immediately quantified, the benefit does not exist for the Sixth Avenue operation, which has done scandalously little through the years to broaden its scope beyond North America. The most international of professional sports has willingly, if not enthusiastically and happily, limited itself to within its borders.

There is no larger vision for the sport beyond the losers’ point that allows general managers of truly lousy teams to claim winning records with the authenticity of a guy on Eighth Avenue outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal selling you a Rolex for five bucks; no vision beyond that of the referees and linesmen who peer into tiny tablets while confoundingly upholding or reversing their own prior calls.

Still, though, Gary Bettman has not issued a final edict regarding the Pyeongchang Olympics, which means the commissioner is negotiating in his own inimitable style, though it is unclear for what and against — I mean, with — whom.

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