I do get that (and there was one year, a long, long time ago this was a big scare for the USA). However, wasn't one of the contingencies for the NHL to participate in the Olympics was that the "big" countries must be allowed to send teams to the Olympics, no matter what their ranking is? So, in the end, it doesn't really matter because the USA and Canada (and I'm sure Russia (pre-invasion), Sweden, Finland, Czechia, etc.) were getting into the Olympics no matter what happened in the WC.
And if the NHL doesn't send their players, I couldn't give a crap about the Olympic tournament.