Red Wings Blogger Roundtable, Day 1: The Olympics.
August 31st, 2009 | by Chris Hollis |And off we go…
Christy from Winging It In Motown kicks off the festivities with a three part question, focusing on the NHL’s participation (or future lack thereof) in the Olympic games.
Which team will you root for in the 2010 Winter Games? You have your own country, but only one Wing on the roster with USA Hockey. Half of Sweden’s squad could be Red Wings players. And then Team Canada’s management is largely composed of Detroit’s staff and there’s a chance Cleary could make the team.
If you know me, this one should come as no surprise:
Chris @ Motown Wings: As much as I want to see the Wings players do well in the Olympics, there’s only one team I’m pulling for in Vancouver: USA. National pride trumps my local loyalties and I think it would be absolutely incredible to watch the Red, White and Blue bring home a gold medal in hockey. Will it happen? Doubtful. In that case, I’ll go for whichever squad has the most remaining Wings.
Next.
How will the Olympic break affect the Wings this year? The team has had two very long seasons with consecutive trips to the Finals. The All-Star break is usually a chance for most of our guys to take a short break to rest and heal up. With much of our team likely playing for their respective countries, how will that affect our team heading down the final stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs?
Chris @ Motown Wings: There’s a very good chance that playing in the Olympics could present some fatigue concerns down the stretch for the Wings. With an “off-season” that involves orientation camps for each respective country, many of these guys have spent their R&R time playing the game they are supposed to be taking a break from. However, the Wings are deep enough with their developing players that, if the playoff situation is not in question, they can potentially bring up some of their younger players later in the season to provide some relief to the regular lineup.
And to wrap it up:
Do you support the NHL or NHLPA when it comes to the Olympics? Would you like to see NHLers continue to represent their countries on an international stage or do you hate that it interrupts the NHL season? When the 2014 Winter Olympics take place in Russia, do you want to see NHL players there?
Going against the grain a bit on this one:
Chris @ Motown Wings: I might be heading in a different direction than most folks here, but I would prefer that the NHL players do not compete in the Olympics. To be fair, this is based mainly on the fact that the U.S. development programs or the world juniors teams tend to play better at international championships than the professionals do, mainly because they have been brought up with a better understanding of the international game. They’ve played in more contests, they know the rules better and they generally perform better together because they have been in development programs with the same guys for a good amount of time. However, if you go to those teams you run the very real risk of alienating the casual fan, as they won’t have any of the big name players to connect with. In the end, I think that the younger guys are the better choice, for all the reasons listed above as well as the fact that their usage doesn’t affect the NHL season as drastically and also alleviates the concerns that professionals may have about an injury affecting their professional careers.
There you have it, folks. I encourage you to head over to WIM and check out the rest of the group’s thoughts. Really good stuff over there with plenty of differing POV’s.
The show heads over to George Malik’s territory at Snapshots tomorrow, so be sure to pay him a visit.
