A Closer Look: A lack of NHL players doesn’t also mean a lack of excitement for men’s ice hockey tournament in Beijing

With one month to go until the Beijing Games get underway, we know the world’s best hockey players from the National Hockey League (NHL) won’t be making the trip. The news is certainly a disappointment to the players who wanted to compete for their country, and the fans watching in Beijing and at home who won’t get to see the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and many others compete for gold.

But if you think the tournament won’t be exciting or worth your time watching and following, you’re wrong. It’s going to just the opposite.

Sure the lack of NHL stars means the talent level won’t be as high as it normally would, but instead you’re going to have players grateful for this potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity skating their hearts out, and laying it all out there on the ice for two weeks.

You only need to look at PyeongChang 2018 as an example. No NHL players competed in South Korea four years ago, but the action on the ice was still compelling. Russia (or rather the Olympic Athletes of Russia) was probably the gold medal favorites but they lost their opening match to Slovakia 3-2. The defending gold medal holders Canada easily won their opening game against Switzerland, but then lost their next game to the Czech Republic. It was pretty clear after just two days the tournament was going to be wide open.

Contrast that with the 2014 tournament from Sochi, when Canada, with a stacked roster of NHL talent, outscored their opponents 11-2 in group play, and surrendered a total of one goal in three games during the playoff bracket as they cruised to a gold medal.  In the bronze medal game Finland beat the United States 5-0.

But back to 2018.

Only Sweden managed a perfect nine points in group play, and conversely only the host nation of South Korea failed to earn at least one point. Certainly the Swedes had to feel good about their gold medal chances but they were eliminated by Germany in the quarterfinals in a thrilling, overtime fare that ended 4-3 in the Germans favor. That game occurred just a day after Germany survived another overtime thriller against Switzerland in the previous round. Canada held off a determined Finland squad 1-0 in the quarterfinals, while the United States exited after a shootout loss to the Czech Republic. Only Russia could breathe easy as they rolled over Norway 6-1.

Germany played the role of giant-killers again in the semifinals when they won their third straight one-goal game, beating Canada 4-3. The win assured Germany of their first medal since winning the bronze in 1976 at Innsbruck, and their best ever finish. They also won bronze at Lake Placid in 1930. A remarkable achievement for a country that has never won a major international competition and only has about 25,000 registered hockey players out of a population of over 80 million people.

In the other semifinal, Russia’s players did what Ovechkin and his NHL contemporaries couldn’t do on home ice four years earlier, and advanced to the gold medal game with a 3-0 win over the Czechs.

The gold medal game was tense, exciting and well-played by both squads. Germany twice rallied from a one goal deficit and actually took the lead at 3-2 thanks to a goal from Jonas Müller with under four minutes to play. But despite playing a man down for the final two minutes of the match, the Russians found a way to tie it up with 59 seconds to go.

Russia prevailed in overtime when Kiril Kaprizov scored on the power play to give Russia their first gold medal since 1992, and denied the Germans a shot at immortality. Still considering Germany didn’t even qualify for Sochi 2014, a silver medal was above and beyond what was expected and most of the German players had smiles a mile wide with the silver medal around their necks.

It was one of the best gold medal games ever, and the missing NHL players were quickly forgotten about. That’s not to say NHL players should never be allowed back in the Olympics, but nobody is going to think any less of the 2018 tournament because they weren’t there.

Nobody has a crystal ball and it’s impossible to predict how the Beijing Games will play out, but the ice hockey tournament will definitely be worth watching. Whichever country wins the gold medal on February 20 won’t have to apologize for anything.

KEEP READING