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Beijing Winter Olympics 2022
Sport
Patrick Blennerhassett
Patrick Blennerhassett

Opinion | 2022 Winter Olympics: China’s ice hockey teams will be on wrong side of massive blowouts in Beijing

  • The men’s ice hockey team will be suiting up against NHL superstars, every game, in round robin play
  • The IIHF and Chinese officials might want to think again, otherwise the highlight reel will be pretty ugly for the hosts

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Chinese players will be bamboozled by Connor McDavid come 2022. Why? Because most NHL defencemen don’t even have an answer. Photo: AP
Patrick Blennerhassett
Within the new collective bargaining agreement in place between the National Hockey League and its players association is a plan for the players to head to the next two Winter Olympics, after missing out in South Korea in 2018.
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This is really good for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing when it comes to exposure, television rights and overall global appeal of the Games. The NHL is one of the largest sporting leagues in the world, ranking sixth in terms of revenue, just behind the English Premier League.

This is also really, really bad for the Chinese men’s ice hockey team, who are facing serious embarrassment as host nation in a tournament they have no business being in.

Not only does China not have one NHL roster player, they find themselves in what could be pegged as the tournament’s Group of Death alongside the two gold medal favourites in Canada and the US.

The Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, had 20 American and Canadian players on their roster. Photo: Getty Images
The Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, had 20 American and Canadian players on their roster. Photo: Getty Images
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Last year the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) told China their men’s and women’s teams need to improve if they are to justify their host nation qualification spot, in what should have been seen as a serious warning.

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