The NHL Picked a Fine Time to Play a Game in China

With the possible exception of Texas A&M and Seattle Seahawks fans, the boast of We're No 12! doesn't carry much weight in some quarters.

That includes those suits wandering the halls in the NHL's front office.

Seems they figure that a No 2 is all they need.

That's right. The Other Shield has its sights set on promoting its sport in China, land of dodgy pro soccer and even more incompetent pro hoops.

Not that they want to put teams there ... yet. They're just making a run at the merch market.

Which will pretty cool when they try to translate Canucks into, say, something generic like 加人队.

That theme also carried over to the locals watching in wonder as two sets of foreigners -- of the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings persuasion -- skated really fast and hit really, really hard.

Too bad most of Shanghai had no clue this exhibition was even being played.

It was an authentic NHL game, too. You could tell because the Canucks lost.

Maybe Gary Bettman & Co just picked the wrong time to stage all this. From the sounds of things, it looks like the hot ticket over there is river tours to gawk at North Koreans.

Comparatively speaking, maybe the Nux could do well there.

Odds are hockey in general will, too, on the wealthier side of that river. Beijing's hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, and the government is determined that their squad's gonna be competitive.

To help accelerate hockey's awareness in China, they've supported a team in Russia's KHL, Kunlun Red Star, coached by none other than Mike Keenan.

The NHL willingly signed a deal to send its teams to China for exhibition games as part of China's build-up to the 2022 Olympics and the league's desire to cash in on the world's second largest economy.

So, with all this in mind, why is the NHL skipping the 2018 Olympics being held in PyeongChang, South Korea?

It was a rhetorical question, actually.

Money.

The NHL didn't want to inconvenience its regular-season cash flow.

Affluent young Chinese -- and they're the target market -- will no doubt be massively tuning in during their prime time, well aware that this sorta show will be coming their way in a mere four years.

Is the NHL banking that, at this point, they don't know the Hershey Bears from the Boston Bruins, so the presence of its elite players is not a factor?

Is it discounting the fact that the inevitable high-profile media features of its biggest stars would create a trendy demand for merchandise, like what almost always happens in China after exposure like this?

Maybe the league will seem prescient in the wake of France announcing it might pull its athletes from the 2018 Winter Games if that vapid flame war continues to heat up between a third-rate dictator and the alleged leader of the free world.

Well, no one said it couldn't be a learning experience.

The point remains: the NHL's thinking on ignoring PyeongChang seems counter-productive to its long-term goal.

On the bright side, this obviously qualifies Gary Bettman to be the next great leader of North Korea or the United States.