Capitals owner continues support of Ovechkin's 2018 Olympics stance

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said he has no problem with Alex Ovechkin if the superstar potentially defies the NHL and decides to go to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“He has given a lot to our team and he doesn’t ask for much in return and whatever he likes to do in this one, I’ll support him,” Leonsis said after the second and final day of the NHL’s Board of Governors meeting. “His mother was an Olympian. It’s a part of the tradition in the family and it is meaningful to him, and he’s kind of the ambassador and captain of the team. We don’t sit and talk about this all the time, but he needs to know, and he does know, that in this one instance I’ll have his back.”

This echoes a sentiment Leonsis held in October about Ovechkin going to the Games, no matter what the league chooses on the matter. Leonsis has held a similar stance for prior Olympics.

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On Thursday, the NHL painted a grim picture on potential participation for the Games, saying that several owners hold a “strong negative sentiment” towards the league potentially shutting down for two weeks so players could go to the 2018 Games.

The NHL didn’t vote on a final decision and has said that it will wait until January to make an official call.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wouldn’t answer a question asking if a player will have breached his contract if he decides to go to Pyeongchang against the NHL’s wishes.

“We’re not going to go there today. There’s no reason to,” Bettman said. “No decision has been made, nobody is issuing any threats or edicts so we’ll save that answer for a different time.”

Ovechkin has strongly stated that he will play for Russia in 2018 even if the league decides to not go.

“My decision is the same. I don’t know what’s going to happen right now,” he said before the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. “I’ve said I’m going to play.”

Several other star players have said they’d like to participate in the Olympics, but haven’t said that they’ll go even if the NHL doesn’t shut down.

“The Olympics I think is a huge stage for our sport and I think the best players should be there. That’s my opinion,” Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews said last September. I think that’s the same opinion that I share with a lot of other players. There’s definitely some element there that’s special, that I think transcends our sport, and can draw more and more fans from around the world. Again, there’s difficulties of each event that you can look at. You can go down the list of things that make it difficult for NHL clubs to let their players go to play at each event. At the end of the day, I think it’s just the pride the players show, that wanting to play for their country is important. Whether it’s the World Cup or the Olympics, guys are going to show up and play their hearts out and want to win that tournament.”

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Overall, the league seems to be more cautious about going to these Games – in part because Olympics outside of North America don’t seem to pop for the NHL like Games in Canada and the United States. The NHL has gone to every Olympics since Nagano in 1998.

“I think every time the Olympics come when they’re not in North America, Gary’s always looked to them and said, ‘is it really worth it? What’s the goal? What’s the plan. What’s the big picture plan from a league standpoint.’ And he did the same thing now,” Kings president for business operations Luc Robitaille said. “Everybody’s going over what’s the big picture in the league for the next five-to-10 years. Gary always has to look at it from a big picture plan and I think that’s the way it has been presented so far. Every time we’ve gone to the Olympics and it wasn’t in North America, it was these types of discussions going forward.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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