Bruce Cassidy confirms the Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin news that everyone's waited for

Ladies and gentlemen, the worst fears have been confirmed... for Wednesday. The Vegas Golden Knights won't have Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin for Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Kings, leaving them down two key players. That could be why they made some call-ups to the main roster, right?

That makes sense since the two American Olympians have a busy week ahead. Eichel and Hanifin won gold medals for the United States and were invited to attend President Donald Trump's State of the Union address. So why not cut out the middle man and stay in the nation's capital for a little longer?

As for the Canadian Olympians, their status for Wednesday is still up in the air. That could mean that the Golden Knights are also short one Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, and Shea Theodore. That might not mean much on the surface, especially after the long Olympic break. However, the Los Angeles Kings can't be taken lightly.

For one, this is a team that had Vegas's number, winning four straight games against the Golden Knights before January 14. Add in a new weapon in Artemi Panarin and things could get complicated for the undermanned roster. Still, that shouldn't discourage fans in the slightest, especially if you want to win the Stanley Cup.

The Vegas Golden Knights would be wise to let their key Olympians rest for one game, starting with Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin

The one thing I love about the NHL compared to the NFL is that the former is a literal marathon. Instead of playing 17 games in a season, you're playing more than 80. That gives you plenty of time to rest up your players, specifically after coming out of the Olympic break.

Therefore, it would be wise for the Golden Knights to meet up with the Boston boys in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Why rush two players back when they're jet-lagged from eating pasta and cannolis in Italy? Let them take a load off after an exhausting Olympics session and give them the time off. After all, those two Boston boys earned it!

But this logic also applies to Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, and Shea Theodore. You have three players on the losing end of that gold medal game who are also tired. Give Stone, Marner, and Theodore an extra day off to recharge and prepare for the brutal Eastern Time Zone stretch that looms.

In the NFL, this would be a bigger issue. That's especially true with teams vying for the Super Bowl, looking for their best players to come forward. If NFL players were competing in the Olympics in some bizzaro scenario where the NFL season followed the Olympics, they'd likely be back on the field the next week.

What's one game going to do for the Golden Knights? If it's a loss, so what? Los Angeles has never been an easy place to play for Vegas, especially in recent years. Sacrifice one game to focus on the bigger picture: the Stanley Cup. After all, the NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint.