The NHL and NHLPA have made an agreement with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), to allow NHL players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Since Nagano in 1998, NHL’ers have been able to represent their respective countries, and 2014 will be no different with an estimated 120 or more players, weill be representing the 12 countries competing.

The NHL schedule will take a break from February 9, 2014 to February 26, 2014, to allow the NHl’ers to participate without the NHL franchises they play for being affected by their loss. This also means that Team USA and Team Canada will be favourites once again,along with Team Russia, who would still have been affected if this deal didn’t go through, but not as much due to the strength of the KHL.

The preliminary rounds will be made up of three groups, consisting of four teams each. Group A will have Russia, Slovenia, Sl0vakia and the United States. Group B sees Austria take on Canada, Finland and Norway, whereas Group C will see the Czech Republic, Latvia, Switzerland and Sweden do battle.

Full schedule details can be found by clicking this LINK, which will take you to the IIHF website.