NHL can't be dumb enough to keep players away in 2014 ... can it?

A good guess is that NHL owners aren't small-minded enough to keep their players out of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.

Commissioner Gary Bettman can't be so delusional to think the league doesn't have considerable growing to do on the international stage.

Heck, they all must know the NHL has considerable growing to do on the North American stage.

The league should consider that Versus rather than ESPN is its cable-TV partner. Then it should consider that NBC deemed early Olympic hockey games less attractive to viewers than less mainstream winter sports.

Anyway, just imagine if NHL players didn't compete in the 2010 Games at Vancouver.

The world would have been deprived of Canada's finest beating the United States' finest in overtime Sunday for the gold medal.

The world never would have seen Sidney Crosby, one of the planet's best two players, score the winning goal.

The world never would have seen Jarome Iginla's remarkably athletic, falling, sprawling pass to set up Crosby.

The world never would have seen Patrick Kane assist on each United States goal and Jonathan Toews score Canada's first goal.

The world never would have seen Zach Parise's goal with 24 seconds left in regulation boost the U.S. into overtime.

Seriously, the league's owners and commissioner don't have the nerve to deprive the world of that, do they?

They can't deny NHL players from participating in the Olympics when nearly all say it's a dream, can they?

Canada can't be told that it can't send the best athletes in its national pastime to this global showcase, can it?

Russia can't be told it's hosting Olympic hockey but native son Alex Ovechkin, the other best player in the world, won't be there, can it?

Look, the NHL's decision is complicated by money, injuries and logistics.

Even some NHL fans believe the Olympics aren't worth the trouble. They believe hockey starts and ends with the quest for the Stanley Cup.

However, the NHL specifically and hockey generally won't ever be all they can be without the Olympics.

Players were asked throughout these Games whether winning the Cup or the gold is bigger, but why should they have to choose?

One NHL argument is that previous Olympics didn't spike the league's popularity. Makes you wonder whether its own shabby marketing is responsible for that.

I'm thinking that despite public posturing Bettman is trying to find a way for the NHL and the Olympics to co-exist every four years.

Perhaps the commissioner can connect the dots in the league's next contracts with NBC and the IOC to form one big, synergistic, financial love triangle.

If the NHL has to cut its regular season to 50 games once every four years, so be it. That's what every season should be anyway, and perhaps additional TV money would make up for the reduced revenue.

I don't know, maybe that's unrealistic and the NHL really won't go to Russia in 2014.

Still, it's difficult to imagine the owners and commissioner being dumb enough to stop players from doing in four years what they did to grow the game the past two weeks.