from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

Fast forward to this year, and you have to wonder if the league and the players might agree this time on taking a pass on Sochi if that were an option.

It’s not, but it does explain why the NHL and its 30 owners feel somewhat helpless amidst all the concerns over these Winter Olympics in Russia and the terrorist threat hanging over them.

There’s not a great deal, after all, the league can do about it.

“One of the principal reasons we go to the Olympics is because the players want to go,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in an interview with The Star on Monday. “Nobody forces players to go to the Olympics. They go because they want to.

“For the purposes of the Olympics, we as the NHL are invited guests. We take a break in our season and relinquish our players to their federations. While they’re there, the federations are the principal points of contact for the players.”

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