NHL players increasingly apprehensive about participating in Winter Olympics
The most recent COVID-19 outbreaks across the NHL are, not surprisingly, causing many players to rethink their position on participating in the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.
There was a huge push for the NHL's most eligible players to participate in the international event after they were barred from participating in the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.
With a massive outbreak hitting the league and conditions in China not looking much better, the landscape leading to the Olympics has gotten quite rocky.
That much was clear earlier this week when Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares, who was a very vocal supporter of NHLers being able to participate, had clearly changed his tune with COVID cases on the rise on the home front.
"I think we all hope to go, but clearly I think things are a little bit more uneasy than they were," Tavares said earlier this week, via The Toronto Star. "There are definitely some questions that we want to look into and have answered. Obviously, there’s going to be some hurdles and some challenges with where things stand. I’m probably a little more uneasy than I was a number of weeks ago, or a few months ago."
Said "hurdles" of course include having to quarantine for up to five weeks in China if a player produces a positive test -- something reigning league MVP Connor McDavid addressed on Tuesday.
That concern continued into Wednesday following an unsettling two days across the league in which outbreaks hitting multiple teams continue to sideline more and more players and personnel.
Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin, a Team USA hopeful, expressed further concern on Wednesday as games at home continue to be postponed. Larkin tested positive for COVID-19 last month.
Players have until January 10 to decide whether or not they want to participate in the Olympics, while calls between the NHL and NHLPA continue to take place in order to find a solution to the recent outbreaks.
NHL players were not permitted to participate in the last Winter Olympics because of travel costs and league scheduling. (The International Ice Hockey Federation presides over the Olympic tournament.)
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