The NHL announced Monday that it will not participate in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, ending a run of five consecutive Winter Olympics with NHL players.
"We have previously made clear that while the overwhelming majority of our clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA, etc.) as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject," the NHL said in a statement.
"A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018. And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs.
As a result, and in an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officially closed."
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The NHL Standings in the East currently look like this...
Yet the projections coming out of our Buzztron 9000 (8-3 Last night) Look like this...
see entire projections below...
Why the huge difference in the Atlantic Division?
Why do I think the Atlantic Division could look like this?
It sounds confusing but the computer is just making projections based on strength of schedule, team tendencies versus opponents, etc...
So Ottawa is playing Detroit twice, Boston (who they tend to play well) The Rangers and the Islanders (who they also dominate)
Boston is playing Tampa (who they key tough) but then end with two of their worst opponents...Ottawa and Washington...
Toronto is playing Buffalo tonight 9always trouble, just lost to the Sabres last week) and then end with 4 home games against Wash, Tam, Pitt, and CBJ..
Tampa is playing...Boston, Tor, Montreal, and Buff....
So do I think that just because history and trends are in play that EVERYTHING will happen accordingly..of course not...However I am not the one making the projection...and the Computer is just about numbers...
Were I to look at this from my perspective there is NO chance that Toronto ONLY gets 1 point in the remaining 5 games given how they are playing....
Its also important to think about will Washington, Pitt and Columbus have anything to play for against the Leafs?
It's why they play the games!!
New Projections and Picks for Today refresh if they fail to load..
Enjoy...
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) December 12, 2016