Quote:
Originally Posted by Muffins
NHL said they would agree to go to the Olympics if the NHLPA agreed to extend the CBA. They said no.
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While true, that's not what I was getting at. Nor do I fault the union for that.
The NHL was trying to get the IOC to negotiate a deal but had the union rushing out to declare how badly it wanted to go and how players like Ovechkin were going to go anyway. It undermined the NHL's bargaining position as people on the IOC side would have seen the division and decided to gamble on the league caving to its own players.
This was actually a good opportunity for the union and league to go to the IOC jointly as partners. The union took the complete opposite direction.