The 2022 best-on-best Olympic Dream is dead.

Wednesday morning, the NHL officially announced that they would not be sending players to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Due to the extreme and unexpected disruption to the season caused by the avalanche of COVID cases and postponed games, it would be impossible for the league to accommodate an extended break in February. 

For those of us who spent a year or more anticipating (or even excitedly writing about) what the sport’s first best-on-best tournament since 2014 might look like, this is a tough pill to swallow. 

As nice as it will be for non-NHL players to take their shot at Olympic gold, losing the opportunity to see some of the league’s best players line up next to one another in their primes is a tremendous loss.

At the end of the league’s