Maybe this isn't interesting to some but I think it is. In an earlier round table discussion the topic was the Olympics.
Malik's reply was fascinating to me. His story of how Hasek torn his groin I had never heard before. And why this would probably be the last season the pro's play in the Olympics as well. Good stuff!
"Do you support the NHL or NHLPA when it comes to the Olympics? Would you like to see NHLers continue to represent their countries on an international stage or do you hate that it interrupts the NHL season? When the 2014 Winter Olympics take place in Russia, do you want to see NHL players there?"
The whole discussion can be read here
http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2009/8/30/1006575/detroit-red-wings-blogger
But this was Malik's reply:
George @ Snapshots: The NHL's position is completely understandable. They don't want their assets to be placed at the risk of sustaining injuries for the sake of participating in a season-disrupting tournament unless it directly promotes and benefits the NHL's 30 teams--and their fiscal bottom line--via prime-time ratings.
I can't deny that the games that have involved longer flights in addition to that nasty Olympic schedule (they play repeated back-to-backs and three-in-threes on occasion) tend to produce more injuries.
Dominik Hasek's groin injury in 06 is a great example--the NHL had switched to 11" wide pads for the 06-07 season, which had caused a spate of groin injuries (Osgood struggled with the problem, too) and a good dozen hip surgeries after the season because that one inch on each pad changed the mechanics of making butterfly saves. Hasek figured that he'd go back to 12" wide pads because the IIHF had not yet adopted the NHL's rules, and he was practicing with 12" pads in Ottawa, but when he headed over to Torino, his pads got lost in luggage and took an extra day to arrive, so he borrowed Team Italy goaltending coach (and former Sabres goalie coach) Jim Corsi's old 14" wide pads with no "landing gear" (protection for the knee and thigh when your pads rotate into the butterfly) for the Czechs' only pre-Olympic practice.
The next day, Hasek put the 12" inch pads back on and promptly yanked his groin and couldn't play for the rest of the season, and the Sens melted down in the playoffs and started their death spiral under Brian Murray. Those kinds of injuries happen to at least two or three players during every Olympic tournament, and as a plain old Red Wings fan, the thought of Johan Franzen blowing out a shoulder or something is rather disturbing.
In all honesty, however, my biggest concern about the 2014 Olympics involves not the country in which they take place (the KHL's battle with the NHL notwithstanding), but its location.
Sochi is a fantastically wealthy resort town whose development has reached near-Dubai proportions as it's the biggest Black Sea resort town still belonging to Russia. The Russians lost the vast majority of tourists' favorite locales because places like Odessa are in Ukrainian territory, so Vladimir Putin's summer hometown (and Stalin's former vacation hoime) is now the place to be...
But Sochi's very close to Georgia, the Georgian-turned-Russian province of South Ossetia, extremely unstable Russian provinces in Abkhazia, Ingushetia, Dagestan, and my old favorite, Chechyna, with the ever-stable Azerbaijan and less than West-friendly Iran nearby. The Caucasus region is a deep fryer of ethnic and nationalist tension, and I fully believe that staging the games in Sochi is an example of dollars overcoming common sense. There are serious security concerns for everyone involved, and that makes me itchy.
In the non-socio-policial realm of commentary, I can't blame the NHLPA's membership for wanting to play for their home countries. For many kids growing up outside North America, playing in the Olympics and World Championships are equivalent to winning the Stanley Cup, and the PA does want to promote the growth of hockey all over the world.
I don't think that there's an easy answer because the NHL will make this a sticking point of the next CBA, and the PA will take an equally vigorous position supporting participation, but I don't see it playing out the way that the PA wants because ending non-North American Olympic participation might take the significance usually given to salary rollbacks and eliminating guaranteed contracts. The PA may be forced to give up participating in every Olympics to protect other interests.
Personally, I have reservations about participating in the Olympics as I'm a Red Wings fan who knows that at least half a dozen of his favorite team's superstars will place themselves at risk of injuries in non-NHL competition, but I don't believe that the league should stand in their way. If I was a betting man, however, I'd suggest that you place bucks on the league ensuring that the Vancouver games is the last one they take part in.
