NHL may skip 2014 Olympics: Bettman

I agree with not having NHL players play in the Olympics but for different reasons. no other sport allows professional athleats except basketball (dont agree with that either) to compete in the olympics so why should someone who gets paid MILLIONS to play a game be able to compete in amature competition.

Hmmm, now what would be the easiest way for the NHL to finally have a deal with the Russian Hockey Federation ?

The Russians did it for decades.

Betman needs to go.

hmm, i guess they havent figured out how to make more money from the olympics yet..

bettmans a faggot. there cant be a couple weeks break so the players can support their country... total bullshit why is he still the gm of the nhl and who the fucks idea was it to have him as the gm?? hes done enough damadge to the sport

the lat time i checked the olympics are about having the worlds best from their respective sports compete...... and the best hockey players in the world are located in the NHL. so let them play. bettman doesnt want them i the olympics but is willing to drag LA and anaheim to the UK for the season opener.......

This is BS on Bettman's part. All this will serve will be to give everyone a creepy sense of deja vu remembering how the professionals on the old Soviet Red Army team consistently steamrolled the amateur Canadian/US teams when they consisted of mostly guys (and I'm not being insulting to the guys on those teams) who really weren't good enough to make it to the NHL. NHL players in the Olys levelled the field for everyone, and it's not like Canada (thanks to some of the genuinely bizarre coaching/management decisions made lately by Gretzky/Pat Quinn/etc.) has really gone like gangbusters and won every tournament anyway. If Bettman goes ahead with this all it means is that the Russians (or possibly the Swedes) probably just end up winning in 2014 by default.

This is about the lowest fucking act of extortion ever commited. Fucking shameful..

Players that wish to participate in the Olympics should have it written into their contracts to protect themselves if the NHL decides it's a no go.

I dont know I'm still of the opinion that if you get paid to play a game then you shouldn't be allowed to go to the olympics in ANY sport

Besides hockey and basketball soccer is the only other professional sport of consequence that is in the Olympics. Unlike hockey and basketball there are waaaaay too many professional soccer leagues to try and coordinate to allow them to play in the Olympics. Hockey players throughout the world want to play in the NHL. Basketball players throughout the world want to play in the NBA. There is no one league that soccer players throughout the world want to play in.
As for professional athletes playing in the Olympics: It's suppose to be a competition of the world's best. Not allowing professional athletes to compete cheapens Olympic medals because the person who wins a medal didn't actually beat the world's best, they only beat every other countries second rate players because the best players were not allowed to compete.

but they aren't being paid for a medal.. they are being rewarded for you're accomplishments.

being paid to play a game to me meand that game is your only profession hence making you a professional.

the Gushue rink that won gold in curling for example.. if they had gotten the 20000 for the gold is in no way the same as brier signing for 52 mil and going to the olympics.

the olympics are for amature athleats with the exception of hockey and basket ball

MLB players dont play in the olympics. so why are the other sports so damn special

No, they're being paid for a medal. If they were being paid for accomplishment then they would receive cash for being 4th,5th,6th,...etc., but they're not. They only get paid when they get a medal.
The Olympics did away with the amateur-only rule back in the 70's. They left it up to the individual sporting organizations to determine eligibility rules to compete in the Olympics. For instance for soccer only 3 players over the age of 23 are allowed on a team. Apparently boxing is the only sport where rpofessionals are not allowed. BTW 2008 is the last year for baseball and softball due to limited international appeal and the fact Cuba and the U.S. are the only 2 countries that have won the gold for that event.