Five-day bye weeks for NHL teams "are part of the discussion again" between the league and NHLPA, according to sources cited by Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com. If the NHL "ends up participating" in the '18 PyeongChang Games next season, that two-week break "would stand instead of the five-day bye week." However, should the NHL "pull the plug" on Olympic participation, the five-day bye week would "very likely return" as part of the '17-18 schedule. Players "value a break" in the second half of the season, but some coaches and GMs "feel the five-day bye week just further compresses an already crazy schedule while also further limiting practice time" (ESPN.com, 12/7).
NOT BETTMAN'S FIRST RODEO: The NATIONAL POST's Scott Stinson wrote NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has for years "been cool to the idea" of sending players to PyeongChang, but as is "often the case ... it was hard to know how much of what he said was the truth and how much was a bargaining position." Whatever the "trouble involved with NHL participation in the Olympics, it is baffling that the league is officially skeptical about the benefits that follow from having its players involved." Having the best hockey players in the world "showcased at the world’s biggest sporting event ... is a clear advertisement for the merits of the world’s best hockey league." Stinson: "That's such an obvious statement that it feels silly to even write it, but we’re doing so here because the NHL does not seem to agree" (NATIONAL POST, 12/5). The GLOBE & MAIL's Eric Duhatschek wrote Bettman's offer to the NHLPA was a "clever tactical ploy" because he "knew there wasn't a chance in 10,000 the players would say yes." Olympic participation "matters to the players, but it is a peripheral, not a core, bargaining issue." To expect them to "unilaterally exchange one for the other was unrealistic." Moreover, Bettman almost "certainly knew his offer would be rejected." What he accomplished was to "shift the narrative" (GLOBE & MAIL, 12/5).
