Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
I think that's short sighted. At one point in time the NHL was a joke. It competed with the WHL, and years before that, it's players were part time tradesmen who played in it's league in the evenings. At those times the NHL had no problems sending it's "athletes" to the world stage because it was basically the ultimate promotion, where the NHL "employs the best hockey players in the world".
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I think you might be thinking of the WHA.
Pretty much every professional league in the world began with players who worked other jobs. If the NHL was a joke in the beginning because of it, so was the English Premier League, the NFL, and Major League Baseball. And everything else.
The Olympics was for amateurs, until it wasn't in 1988. NHL players didn't go to the Olympics as some sort of promotion. They were professionals. They weren't invited, they weren't sent. It just didn't happen. Amateur teams were sent or a national team made up of amateurs was sent.
It would be cool though, in a cruel sort of way, to see footage of Gordie Howe giving it his all against some Italian college boys on an outdoor rink in 1956.