more attractive to team owners, but no meaningful dialogue on that matter had materialized. As to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject, the NHLPA "confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the Clubs", and that it would not schedule a break for the Olympics in the 2017–18 season. Although in the following months the president of the IIHF René Fasel tried to convince NHL to change its decision, in September he stated that there was no chance for participation of NHL players in the Pyeongchang olympic tournament. "I can say that this is now gone. We can tick that off the list. We will have to look ahead to China and the Beijing 2022 winter Games because there is an interest of the league and we have noted that. But logistically it is practically impossible for Pyeongchang. That train has left the station", he said. Some NHL players expressed their discontent with league's decision to skip the Olympics. Alexander Ovechkin, captain of the Washington Capitals: "The Olympics are in my blood and everybody knows how much I love my country", adding that "he would compete with Russia if he were the only NHL player to travel to South Korea". "It's brutal, [...] I don't think there's any reason we shouldn't be going", said Justin Faulk, 2014 Olympian and alternate captain for the Carolina Hurricanes. Eventually, the NHL players were forced to follow the league's decision and stay in their clubs during the 2018 Olympics. Game rules At the first tournament in 1920, there were many differences from the modern game: games were played outdoors on natural ice, forward passes were not allowed, the rink (which had been intended to be used only for figure skating) was 56 m × 18 m (165 ft × 58.5 ft) and two 20-minute periods were played. Each team had seven players on the ice, the extra position being the rover. Following the tournament, the IIHF held a congress and decided to adopt the Canadian rules—six men per side and three periods of play. The tournaments follow the rules used by the IIHF. At the 1969 IIHF Congress, officials voted to allow body-checking in all three zones in a rink similar to the NHL; it's prohibited for women. Before that,