By Philip O’Connor
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – With NHL players set to miss the Beijing Winter Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) is making preparations to enable a strong team of home-based players to chase their gold in one of the nation’s favourite sports.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that the American National Hockey League will not send its players to compete in Beijing as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads globally.
Olympic champions in 1994 and 2006, the Swedes have won three silver and four bronze medals over 21 previous Olympics, and the domestic league doesn’t intend to let the lack of NHL players derail their ambitions in Beijing.
“We are prepared for a situation where the NHL players don’t take part in the Olympics. It has been a possible scenario for some time, and we are prepared,” Johan Hemline, head of hockey operations at the SHL, told Reuters in an interview.
“During the Olympics there are 34 SHL games planned, and the majority of them will go ahead as planned. My current view is that 10 or 15 of our matches will be moved,” he continued.
Sweden is home to one of the most competitive leagues outside the NHL with many imported players, and it is likely that Swedish clubs will end up having to release them to the other 11 nations that are to take part in the Olympic tournament.
“All sporting directors have a chance to move matches when they think they will have more players missing than their opponent. We are working with minor adjustments internally and the changes will be made official in January, but it’s under control.”
The regular season of the 14-team league runs from September to March, with playoffs in March and April, with all but two of the teams based in the southern half of the country.
The Swedish government announced restrictions to try to slow the spread of the Omicron variant that will affect fans attending games in the coming weeks, but the league is going ahead as normal.
“The pandemic is unpredictable. The players and our medical teams are prepared, they use quick tests more frequently now and the clubs have guidelines for how to handle any positive cases that may arise,” Hemlin said.
“Otherwise it’s about checking out alternative days to play and working with ways of communicating and making decisions. I hope we’ll see a good and entertaining Olympic tournament, even if the NHL players can’t take part,” he added.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
