Connor McDavid has 100 million reasons to be happy and the NHL couldn't be more clear that it isn't going to break up its 2017-18 season for players to go to the Winter Olympics, but that isn't stopping the Edmonton Oilers star from joining the fight for participation in the Pyeongchang Games.
Sportsnet and the Associated Press painted McDavid, one of the up-and-coming faces of the league after his award-winning 2016-17 breakout season, as being perturbed about the NHL's repeated nixing of Olympics participation.
"I'm really upset about it," said McDavid, of Hockey Canada fame, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox. "You want to be able to represent your country on the highest stage, and the Olympics is obviously the highest stage possible. To know that you might not be able to represent your country at the Olympics for another four years for sure. ... Even if you're able to in four years, it's disappointing."
It's a sentiment shared publicly by other big names across the NHL, including Henrik Lundqvist, Erik Karlsson and Alex Ovechkin. But it's also unlikely to sway the already-firm stance of the league, which recently debunked a report that it had an "alternative schedule" with an Olympics break and has repeatedly disputed any notion of a change of heart on the subject.
