Breaking news: NHL opts out of the Beijing Olympics

This was the worst kept secret in professional sports.  The NHL announced today that they have opted out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics and while that is good news for the New York Rangers, it raises all kind of questions about the rest of the season.

This means that the league will have to revamp its schedule and use the window created by the opt.  That window was from February 6 to 22 and the question is exactly how they will do that.

The big issue is the COVID-19 pandemic and how the Omicrom variant will affect the rest of this season and in particular, the next few weeks.  With 50 games already postponed and no league activity until December 27, the possibility looms that the NHL could suspend play for even longer.  Now, with February available for make up games, they could take that action.

The Rangers have had three games postponed this season.  One, with the Islanders, has already been rescheduled for March 17, but they still need to find dates for a home game with Montreal and a road game in Ottawa.

Another question is if the league will move games already scheduled for later in the season into February.  If the Rangers play those two make up games in the new window, it will mean they will play only six times in February, compared to 15 times in March and 14 times in April. The league could opt to postpone even more games in the next few weeks knowing that they have the dates to make them up. The Rangers play three more games this year and have 14 games scheduled for a busy January.

Finding make up dates won’t be as easy as it sounds.  Madison Square Garden has already scheduled events for 12 of the 17 days from February 6-22.  Arenas in other markets have similar issues.

How it affects the Rangers

Yesterday, we began a countdown of five Christmas wishes for the Rangers and the first one was an Olympics opt out.  We went into detail on why this benefits the Blueshirts. Click below to see that.

Stay tuned for more information from the NHL about how games will be rescheduled, but more importantly, how the league is planning on dealing with his latest COVID outbreak.   There have been reports that the NHL contemplated  a league wide shutdown beyond what they have already done for the holidays.

It’s a fast moving situation, but making the Olympics decision now is a positive step towards completing this season.