from Scott Stinson of the National Post,

There is always something that sounds a little off when Gary Bettman discusses NHL participation at the Olympics with what amounts to a giant verbal shrug.

But it is all the more incongruous when the commissioner does it at an event that is a showcase event for hockey.

On Sunday afternoon, the collision between the NHL trying to grow the sport and yet not trying too hard was on full display at the pre-game festivities for the Centennial Classic. Bettman sat at a podium next to the sport’s most famous player and outlined all the things that the NHL is doing in its 100th year to highlight its past and look to its future: a touring exhibition that will visit every NHL market this season, another series of outdoor games, an All-Star Game in Los Angeles that will make good use of Wayne Gretzky and remind everyone that of the impact he had on the NHL’s southern outposts, and the much-ballyhooed 100 Greatest Players list, 33 of whom were unveiled on Sunday with the rest to come on All-Star weekend.

All of it was of a piece with the league wanting to put its best self on display.

But when talk turned to the Olympics, and the as-yet-unresolved stalemate that has the players very much interested in going to Pyeongchang in 2018 and the league’s owners either not particularly interested in the same or very much interested in bluffing about it, Bettman stayed on his recent course, which was to sound entirely unenthused about the whole deal.

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