Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider is not one to mince words. When asked how he felt about the NHL's upcoming Olympic break last week, Snider told Ken Campbell of The Hockey News:
I hate them. It's ridiculous, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Snider said. “I don't care if it is in Philadelphia, I wouldn't want to break up the league. I think it's ridiculous to take three weeks off…in the middle of the season. How can anybody be happy breaking up the season? No other league does it, why should we? There's no benefit to us whatsoever. If anything, I can only see negatives.
Snider is certainly entitled to his opinion and he probably has the support of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and many other owners. After all, the NBA gets to be part of the Summer Olympics despite the fact that it has played its games more or less at the same time of year as the NHL does.
But the bottom line remains that the NHL benefits from appearing in the Olympics every four years and the vast majority of the players seem to be very enthusiastic about representing their countries.
How important were the ...
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Article written by Brad Kurtzberg
Why Philadelphia Flyers Chairman Ed Snider Should Learn to Love the Olympics
February 10th, 2014 by Brad Kurtzberg Leave a reply »
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