It's unfortunate Vegas Golden Knights' star Shea Theodore suffered a freak injury in the 4 Nations Face-Off, but that shouldn't deter the NHL from having its players in these events.
I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Bill Foley probably isn't too jazzed about the NHL and NHLPA's 4 Nations Face-Off at the moment. The owner of the Vegas Golden Knights watched Wednesday night as his star defenseman Shea Theodore, who is having a great season and whom Foley is paying $5.2 million to play for his team, went down with an injury in Canada's first game that will keep him out of the remainder of the tournament and week-to-week.
He's probably got a good reason for concern. Nobody wants to see a player injured in one of these games, least of all fans of the teams that are counting on having that player back for the stretch run and the playoffs. Fellow Golden Knights blueliner Alex Pietrangelo even passed on the tournament to prevent an injury.
But if the NHL is going to try to grow the game and revenues, it has to see the risk of this happening as the cost of doing business. After all, owners have no qualms about exposing their players to serious injuries in meaningless pre-season games.
It's unfortunate all around, but it should not deter the league, the NHL Players' Association or the owners from continuing to give the best fans in the world best-on-best international competition.
Here's more in today's video column:
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