As the calendar turns to August, the NHL is in the dog days of its summer sojourn. Here are five storylines I'm stoked about before training camps open in September:
1. Olympic absence
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has held firm on not sending players to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, citing participation as too disruptive to the schedule. That means NHL players will not compete in the Olympics for the first time since 1998. The decision has been critiqued by several NHL stars, including Henrik Lundqvist, Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin.