The Stanley Cup final was played in Florida on Monday night. Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the shocking news that the league will take a vacation at the Olympics in February next year. Bateman said the break may not happen.
It is very likely that NHL players will not get the typical rest time in the 2021-22 season in order to play for their country in the winter of 2022 in Beijing Olympic Games. This is not because human rights issues in western China may boycott Tibetans and Hong Kong people. It can be traced back to COVID. Not because China is the origin of the coronavirus, but Bateman said the virus may still be uncontrolled.
Before the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Chargers in 2021, Bateman used his league status to answer the question of whether the 2022 Olympics will be rested.
Bateman said: “We don’t know yet, this brings us a lot of problems related to the start and operation of the next season.” “We are very worried about letting our players participate in the game, and we are affected by the Olympic break. Is it wise to shut down?”
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NHL Deputy Director Bill Daley said that the Beijing Olympics is not “an ideal Olympics.”
Daly said: “Due to the ongoing uncertainty of the virus and the Olympics are on the other side of the earth, this is not necessarily the ideal Olympics.
The NHL has no interruption in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics schedule, but as part of a multi-year collective bargaining agreement, it has reached an agreement with the Players Association to get a break in the Olympic quadruple competitions in 2022 and 2026 .
“Last summer, we negotiated sincerely with the Players Association,” Daly said. “We agree that if the conditions are right, we can reach an agreement on all the substantive issues that we will promise and support to participate in the Olympics. This is still our position.”
According to reports, COVID-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The virus eventually led to the suspension or postponement of global sporting events in 2020. These include the NHL, which was suspended for the season before being fully resumed in Canada last summer.
The NHL had played the entire season and the first three rounds of this season’s playoffs before the puck dropped in the first game in Tampa on Monday night. Daly said that before formulating the NHL schedule for next season, there are some issues to consider, one of which is to see how Tokyo will deal with the summer Olympics next month, which is postponed by COVID by one year.
“There are still several unresolved issues. One is related to the ongoing uncertainty of the Olympics, regarding the rules related to the Olympics-whether there will be spectators and whether there will be spectators,” Daly said. “How the Tokyo Olympics may affect the way the Beijing Olympics are held. COVID-related insurance issues are important to players, clubs and leagues.”
Bateman said that the implementation of the Olympic rest day in the four-year Olympic schedule may have slipped past the road of no return.
“Due to the uncertainty, we began to worry about the impact on next season,” Bateman said. “We have passed the time we hope to solve the problem.”
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held from February 4th to 20th.
