Men's Ice Hockey Tournament at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022

[dcro 10,210]

13 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

You should be sure.  Tokyo was held during a surge in the pandemic and they completed every event.  What chaos at the short course worlds?  Yes, a number of athletes couldn't compete.  Yet, every event was held.  If that's "how bad it could get," then the Olympics should be a lot easier with all the safety protocols they're likely to have in place.

 

Please stop fear-mongering.  We all know COVID is a serious issue, but it's not going to get the IOC or China to say "you know what, let's postpone the Olympics, we can't have them now"

Considering two doses of vaccine have, reportedly, 0-20% efficacy against omicron, there is a reason for concern. The Tokyo "success" (I would never use that word) can't be presumed here. It's Winter and it's omicron.

A vaccine adapted after omicron will not be ready before the Olympics. That much is certain.

[heywoodu 15,145]

17 hours ago, Quaker2001 said:

You know that's not happening.  So if you still think that, you're nuts.

You know he's just copy-pasting the same thing  

 

Sad that the ice hockey tournament will be some B-level thing again though  On the other hand, it frees up some time to watch the other things  

[heywoodu 15,145]

On 12/21/2021 at 7:16 AM, orangeman said:

I know this might be controversial, but screw covid.  

Controversial? Isn't that like the number one sentiment worldwide?  

 

I haven't really met anyone yet who thinks "Yay COVID!"...

[Quaker2001 251]

18 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

You know he's just copy-pasting the same thing  

 

Sad that the ice hockey tournament will be some B-level thing again though  On the other hand, it frees up some time to watch the other things  

I know.  It's just perpetuating the dumb idea that the Olympics might not happen.  There were people less than a week before Tokyo thinking they might pull the plug.  But they didn't, and they pulled it off.  To that end...

 

2 hours ago, dcro said:

Considering two doses of vaccine have, reportedly, 0-20% efficacy against omicron, there is a reason for concern. The Tokyo "success" (I would never use that word) can't be presumed here. It's Winter and it's omicron.

A vaccine adapted after omicron will not be ready before the Olympics. That much is certain.

I would absolutely use the word success to describe what Tokyo did this summer.  They were forced into an absolutely unprecedented situation and managed to complete every event, award every medal, and somehow put talks of COVID largely on the backburner throughout the games.  Sure, it would have been better if they could have postponed it another year, but that was never going to be an option.  Given the circumstances they were up against, they couldn't have been expected to do much better.

 

As for Omicron.. maybe it's because I'm in the United States and I'm seeing different reports than you are, but where'd you get the 0-20% numbers?  Of course there's reason for concern, especially so far as international travel is concerned.  But that was the case with Delta over the summer.  It sounds like this is going to be worse, but we're further ahead on the timeline of vaccinations than we were 6 months ago. 

 

Chances are, Beijing will be a lot like Tokyo.. some athletes will test positive and not be able to compete.  Some may decline the opportunity to compete in the first place.  But I think when we're looking back at this in March or April, it'll be the same sentiment.  That it was foolish to go ahead with the Olympics, but they did it anyway as best they could.  Because we know darn well that the IOC and the Chinese organizers won't spend more than 5 seconds considering a postponement and creating another year of anti-China backlash.  At this point, I'm sure there's sentiment from almost everyone to just get this over with and move on to Paris and Milan-Cortina

[Orangehair43 251]

Omicron spreads a lot faster then Delta. There is a lot higher risk of whole groups of people going down. 

[hckošice 14,835]

1 hour ago, heywoodu said:

Sad that the ice hockey tournament will be some B-level thing again though  On the other hand, it frees up some time to watch the other things  

[hckošice 14,835]

and now it is Official. 

 

Quite funny speech as always from Gary Bettman We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.

 

“The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL Players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our Players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL’s regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events -- 50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23 -- Olympic participation is no longer feasible. We certainly acknowledge and appreciate the efforts made by the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL Players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts. We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.

 

“Our focus and goal have been and must remain to responsibly and safely complete the entirety of the NHL regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs in a timely manner. Therefore, with stringent health protocols once again in place, we will begin utilizing available dates during the Feb. 6-22 window (originally contemplated to accommodate Olympic participation) to reschedule games that have been, or may yet be, postponed.”

[hckošice 14,835]

Someone inside IIHF apparently either smoke too much weird things or just have some fetish to come always and always with plane stupid ideas. Seriously, sometime I do not know what is wrong with some people in this world lately

 

According to this 

https://www.tvasports.ca/2021/12/29/le-mondial-junior--aux-olympiques?fbclid=IwAR1efNVb_Sq1IwvPHp4ZFrF-NZhl3llBlEqtqQq1xGbVT6-R7E8syOVfT40

there some IIHF officials discussing about replacing the M Hockey tournament in Beijing by the Juniors tournament (as compensation for the kids for the U20 Worlds cancellation) ... well, CAN & USA would be obviously absolutely all for this I assume, CHN well...not really I guess lol

 

Some people ideas and inventions... I swear

 

[intoronto 5,645]

Owen Power is first name confirmed for Canada according to the Athletic

[Monzanator 4,503]

I have to say I won't be watching much ice hockey with no NHL players. The same way I don't usually watch men's football at the Olympics with U-23 squads.