WAgain no Olympics for Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and Alexander Ovetschkin: As in 2018, the world’s best ice hockey players will not be at the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February. This time the biggest attraction of the Winter Games falls victim to the coronavirus pandemic. In view of the immense corona problems in US sports, increasing infections and meanwhile 50 game cancellations, the North American professional league NHL made the expected decision on Wednesday not to send their best players to China after all.
“It is good to have a final decision now to move forward with all of our team-related planning. Of course, it’s a shame for our Germans in the NHL because they really wanted to be part of the Olympics, ”said national coach Toni Söderholm. “I would have loved to have been on the ice there for Germany. An Olympic tournament with the best players in the world would have been something special, ”explained Draisaitl. But he is sure that the national team will play a very good tournament again even without NHL players. “In any case, I wish the guys every success and will keep my fingers crossed for them,” said the Edmonton Oilers professional.
Catch-up dates instead of the Olympic Games
For World Association President Luc Tardif it was “a shock how Covid-19 affected the NHL game plan practically overnight”. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman regretted that the league does not allow players to join its national teams: “We appreciate the efforts of the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to welcome NHL players, but we appreciate the current efforts Despite all our efforts, circumstances have made it impossible for us to continue.
In view of the precarious situation in the pandemic, games in the NHL had come to a standstill in recent days. Initially, individual teams were taken out of play due to corona outbreaks, then several games were canceled every day and, finally, travel by US teams to Canada and vice versa was prohibited as a precautionary measure. So the pressure grew to maintain the additional break from playing in the Olympic Games in February. On Tuesday evening, only the home game of the Vegas Golden Knights against the Lightning of the originally planned ten games took place, which the defending champions won 4: 3. In total, the NHL has already canceled 50 matches.
Mo. – Fr. at 4 p.m.; Sa. – So. at 6 p.m.
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A number of players had also already expressed their concern about the measures in China in the event of an infection. Initially, there was even a quarantine of several weeks in Beijing for the players concerned in this case. “Of course I’m still the type who want to go to the Olympic Games, but we also want to make sure that it is safe for everyone, for all athletes and not just for ice hockey players,” said the current best player in the world McDavid of Draisaitl’s Edmonton Oilers said. The 24-year-old has to wait for his first Olympic participation. This also applies to NHL top star Draisaitl (26) or world-class keeper Philipp Grubauer (30) from Seattle Kraken, who had been looking forward to the Olympics. “That’s the greatest thing you can achieve as an athlete. That applies to us NHL players as well as to other athletes, nobody thinks otherwise, everyone wants to go to the Olympics, ”said Draisaitl.
In 2018, like the other German NHL cracks, he was only able to follow the sensational German silver medal under national coach Marco Sturm from a distance. In Pyeongchang, the NHL refused to interrupt the season for the Winter Games for the first time since their Olympic debut in Nagano in 1998. The market in South Korea appeared too insignificant. A fatal mistake, as shown above all by the embarrassment of Canada. The motherland of ice hockey was swept off the ice in the semi-finals by Germany in the “game of the century” and partially demonstrated at 3: 4.
“If plan A doesn’t work, there is plan B”
Actually, this error seemed corrected, but Corona is now again leaving the NHL cracks out. Although Germany also has to do without world class in Draisaitl, Grubauer and the up-and-coming top newcomer Moritz Seider (Detroit) and also has significantly fewer top professionals than other nations outside of the NHL, the new situation should not reduce German chances.
As early as 2018, the German Ice Hockey Federation benefited from the absence of many of the world’s best players. Sturm’s successor Toni Söderholm finally established the German team in the extended world elite and has also been planning two-pronged plans for some time: “Once with and once without NHL players,” the Finn recently reported to the German press agency. “If plan A doesn’t work, there is plan B.” It is doubtful whether all nations have been planning with two cadres for a long time. Söderholm’s predecessor, Sturm, was already rejoicing. “Regardless of whether it is a Russian or Canadian team, I don’t see anyone who is significantly better than us,” said the current assistant coach of the Los Angeles Kings of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “Especially without the NHL players, anything would be possible again in a tournament like this.”
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