NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will "sit
down this summer" before deciding whether NHL players will
return and play in the 2002 Games. Bettman: "We'll sit down
this summer and evaluate the entire experience, including
the World Cup, and decide how to proceed. The tournament
was everything everybody expected from a hockey perspective.
It's been great hockey" (CP/TORONTO STAR, 2/23). USOC
President Dick Shultz: "Obviously, the [NHL] has some
decisions to make as far as format is concerned. But I
think this is something we can deal with" (PHILADELPHIA
INQUIRER, 2/23). In N.Y., Stefan Fatsis examines the Olympic
experiment and says the NHL "must ask the question: Where do
we go from here?" IMG VP Chip Campbell: "If the goal was to
get a big domestic audience in the United States, that
clearly didn't work. I don't know anybody who stayed up to
watch those games." But a CBS Sports spokesperson says, "We
didn't short-shrift hockey" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/23).
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKS: Media reaction continues
on the NHL's participation in the Olympics: In N.Y., Jay
Greenburg calls it "absolutely worthwhile" (N.Y. POST,
2/23). NEWSDAY's Mark Herrmann says the league should go
forward with the concept to Salt Lake where the "time zone
will be comfortable" (NEWSDAY, 2/23). In NJ, Rich Chere
credited the quality of play and said the experiment "lived
up to high expectations." He proposes the NHL shut down the
season longer in 2002 so NHL players could be involved in
the entire Olympic event (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 2/22). In
S.F., Ray Ratto wrote that Commissioner Bettman "has plenty
of reason to consider Nagano an unqualified success" as the
"game did itself a good one" (S.F. EXAMINER, 2/22).
CON: Much of the negative reaction continues to center
on the lack of primetime TV coverage and on the behavior of
some Team USA members. In DC, Jennifer Frey: "It's
impossible to gauge how damaging these Olympics have been
for the image of U.S. hockey players and unfortunately, NHL
players as a whole" (WASHINGTON POST, 2/23). In Detroit,
Bob Wojnowksi called Bettman's plan "a flop, whether he
admits it or not" (DETROIT NEWS, 2/23). Also in Detroit,
Kupelian and O'Hara: "There's no way to sugar-coat the NHL's
blunder in its attempt to 'expose' the sport to the world"
(DETROIT NEWS, 2/22). On ESPN, John Feinstein said Bettman
"miscalculated. He thought that he could do what David
Stern did six years, send a team over that would dominate
the Olympics, they'd turn them into action figures, and
everybody would make millions of dollars around the world.
The problem is, the U.S. and Canada aren't and have not been
dominant in hockey for many, many years now" (ESPN, 2/22).
Former Ranger Tony Granato was the "Guest Columnist" in
Sunday's N.Y. DAILY NEWS and wrote, "Using NHL stars was an
experiment that backfired. And, it was bad timing." He
proposes that amateurs play in 2002 (2/22). In Chicago, Jay
Mariotti said the actions of Team USA "set the game back"
(SUN-TIMES, 2/23). In Denver, Woody Paige wrote that "there
are grumblings" that some NHL franchises "won't support a
similar arrangement in four years, even though the Games
will be held in the United States" (DENVER POST, 2/20).
