I love the Olympics, but I agree. I think it they should be left to amateurs.

Everyone has different opinions, and this issue is no exception. I just wanted to comment on some of your points.

1st off the Olympics will be in Vancouver so the notion that its going to be on at crazy times is just false. Furthermore ice hockey traditionally always gets preferential time slots due to the fact that amateur or not its one of the most popular sports in the winter games.

2nd This year they are playing on NHL size rinks. Canada is doing everything to get an advantage! However open ice International size rink play is incredibly exciting. More space for players to skate and pass faster. Less hits so everyone is truly flying at a phenomenally exciting pace.

3rd Because Ice hockey dose not have a successful World cup on any regular basis Almost all European players covet an Olympic gold as much as they want their names engraved on the Cup.
4th Players get hurt no matter what they do. Its its following a dream then I say go for it.

You express a question about Americans. Todays new American stars like JVR grew up watching the pros in the Olympics. (yeah Im getting old) It is extremely important to them. If you ask then while they are playing in the NHL, it would be unprofessional to say the Olympic gold is more important.

I liked the US dressing amateurs. Thats what made the “Miracle” a bloody Miracle. Amateurs beating the worlds best professionals! However the fact is, other countries had NHL caliber players making a professional career playing on their national teams. Also the NHL was primarily North American players.. meaning Canadian. So even though we dressed amateurs it was not truly a amateur tournament.

The owners do not make any money off the Olympics. If they got a share of the TV revenue or somehow could make a profit they would be all for it. For them even if they love the game, it is a business.

The players universally want it. The league is going to use it as a bargaining chip in the next labor negotiations. My guess is they will play in Russia in 4 years, and then see what happens from there.

The NHL will have a big mess if they do not allow the players to compete in the games.
OV and Malkin have gone on record to say they will compete no matter what.
Ic Canada loses this round imagine the pressure Sid will face from his countrymen. Canada will not want to give the gold to Russia!

I think the NHL should allow its players to compete in the tournament every four Years

The World Juniors is an incredible tournament that has grown due to the Olympics.

Interestingly though, Tavares has a higher QualTeam rating than JVR. Both have negative QualComp ratings, but Tavares’ is slightly stronger.

Even further, JVR is doing better than Tavares in all of these categories: relative plus/minus, relative corsi number, team goals for/60, team goals against/60, and turnovers. All while being on the ice for half the time Tavares has been – 209:19 more minutes for Tavares (393:16 to 183:57). That’s over five minutes more ice time per game, and yet JVR is only 3 points behind Tavares, with 7 games in hand.

But really, who gets ROY will depend on who’s still producing in March. JVR is at 1.14 points per game now, while Tavares is at .905 ppg