World Cup of Hockey 2016: The Height of Gimmickry

[scotian1]

With the NHL in full planning mode for the next attempt at making a pile of dough, can anyone get excited over what appears to be a international version of their farce of an all-star game.  I have no issue with national teams of Canada the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czechs but to include two other teams that comprise of a Team Europe ie the best players from all remaining countries such as the Slovaks, the Swiss, the Slovenians, the Germans, the Danes etc and then a CANUSA team made up of players from Canada and the U.S. under the age of 24 is just too gimmicky for me. It just sees like a giant money grab. If this is their answer to sending NHL players to the Olympics, it just doesn't wash with this hockey fan.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/11/17/2016-world-cup-of-hockey-could-feature-2-all-star-teams

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

With the NHL in full planning mode for the next attempt at making a pile of dough, can anyone get excited over what appears to be a international version of their farce of an all-star game.  I have no issue with national teams of Canada the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czechs but to include two other teams that comprise of a Team Europe ie the best players from all remaining countries such as the Slovaks, the Swiss, the Slovenians, the Germans, the Danes etc and then a CANUSA team made up of players from Canada and the U.S. under the age of 24 is just too gimmicky for me. It just sees like a giant money grab. If this is their answer to sending NHL players to the Olympics, it just doesn't wash with this hockey fan.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/11/17/2016-world-cup-of-hockey-could-feature-2-all-star-teams

 
Agreed. This is monumentally stupid. Hopefully clearer heads will prevail. Whats' wrong with having six legitimate teams? If they have to there's nothing wrong with padding it out to eight with with the Slovaks and the Germans or Swiss.

 

[behindthepen]

Is your issue that they are having the tournament at all?  Or just the structure?  Because I'm in favor of most tournaments, so long as they appear to be competitive, and not All-Star games as you say.
 
I don't mind the "Team Europe" idea.  What I don't get is the magic number of 8.  If you can only field 7 "competitive" teams, then run it that way with a round robin and a Final 4.

 

[Spacemans Bong]

Team Europe is a joke, because cramming a bunch of players into one team to try and make a good team doesn't work.
 
For one thing, that's not how you build a team. Secondly, nobody feels connected to Team Europe rather than their own country. I think people skipping the World Cup due to an "injury" would be rife. 

 

[MoGator71]

Yea I agree the Team Europe and CANUS teams are silly. I assume the tourney will be just NHL players? Maybe that's why they're thinking Europe, there might literally not be enough NHLers from a 7th country to ice a team. That's the only reason I can figure why they wouldn't just have a 7th and 8th country included. 
 
But I can live with it, because it's the return of the Canada Cup, which is outstanding. What awesome hockey that was.

 

[scotian1]

Well it looks like the NHL is going ahead with this despite many hockey fans thinking  the inclusion of the Team Europe and the North American Young Guns make this more of an NHL sideshow than an international tournament but maybe that is what they want. Final details to be announced on Friday.
http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/24981880/report-nhl-expected-to-announce-world-cup-of-hockey-details-friday

 

[The Napkin]

https://twitter.com/AmalieBenjamin/status/559055226250874881
 
https://twitter.com/AmalieBenjamin/status/559055471609647105

 

[The Napkin]

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/559057359486476288
 
https://twitter.com/wyshynski/status/559056725274144770
 
press release

 

[Spacemans Bong]

Yea I agree the Team Europe and CANUS teams are silly. I assume the tourney will be just NHL players? Maybe that's why they're thinking Europe, there might literally not be enough NHLers from a 7th country to ice a team. That's the only reason I can figure why they wouldn't just have a 7th and 8th country included. 
 
But I can live with it, because it's the return of the Canada Cup, which is outstanding. What awesome hockey that was.

Are there enough Russians in the NHL to ice a team? Even Finland had several players (including good ones like Komarov) in the KHL or SM-liiga.

It seems weird to just go hey blow us Switzerland/Germany/Slovakia so we can see the next Eichel or McDavid get blown up by a grown man.

 

[cshea]

If I'm reading everything correctly, this isn't being limited to just NHL players so I can't see a good reason for not using 2 more national teams for the tournament. The Europe/Youngstars thing really sucks the wind out of this. Hooray for a Team Chara/Kopitar!!!
 
Maybe some of the smaller countries have balked at having to play in another tournament, but surely there are a few federations that are game for this. Christ, Latvia was the talk of the Olympics last year and the country just made Zemgus Girginsons the highest vote getter for the ASG, I'm sure they'd be very enthusiastic for this? Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Denmark, etc....you'd figure one or two of them would play, no? Maybe use the World Championships as some kind of qualifier for the final two spots? 

 

[dderemer]

An article somewhere had some B.S. about not being able to stage legit qualifying but this confirmed to be about maximizing the number of NHL players involved. They're not hiding that fact, direct quote here:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-announces-hockey-world-cup-for-2016-in-toronto-1.2930670
[blockquote]"What we wanted to do was we wanted to have the best hockey tournament we could possibly have with as many NHL players as possible and make all eight teams really competitive," NHL chief operating officer John Collins said. "This is a way to deliver on the best hockey tournament in the world."[/blockquote]
 
Doesn't seem like any of the other federations would've been unwilling to compete.
 
Huge slap to Slovakia by the way... Slovakia who has ahead of the U.S. in the IIHF World Rankings in 2007 & 2012. The Czechs haven't done that much more than the Slovaks since the split, aside from the peak Hasek gold in 1998. Didn't even mention Slovakia in this NHL article! http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=750156

 

[Spacemans Bong]

I really can't wait to watch an NA U-23 team throw a game to a US or Canadian team that needs a win to advance out of the group stage.

 

[scotian1]

I think I will hope for the CANUSA's under 23s. 

 

[Jettisoned]

I'm actually super excited about this idea. The North American Young Stars and a Euro All-Stars team would be way more fun than watching two of Latvia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Norway or Belarus get their asses kicked.
 
I'm not wedded to the concept as it's been presented thus far.  Ditching the Young Stars team and putting Slovakia back in would probably work too.  It's just getting a little stale watching Canada, USA and Sweden mop the floor with everyone while Finland scrapes and claws their way to the occasional 2nd/3rd place finish and Russia inexplicably chokes in their first knockout game, and I say this as a Canadian.

 

[The Napkin]

This is interesting...
 
https://twitter.com/rwesthead/status/562822289096708097

 

[kenneycb]

Because if there's one thing I missed having in my life, it was Barry Melrose.

 

[Bill Mueller High Life]

I also read the NHL is toying with a Ryder Cup style event. North America versus Europe, not sure how this is different than the All Star games of the past? The US probably could not place more than 3 guys on this North American team, Kane, Suter, and Quick.

 

[veritas]

I've always had this idea of having the 8th seeds in the Stanley Cup playoffs be professional teams from outside the NHL, determined by some sort of playoff. Sort of like the Champions League in soccer but absurdly weighted towards NHL teams. But then I start looking at European hockey leagues and see guys like Kaspars Daugavins with a 21/15/36 +17 line in 52 games for one of the best teams in the KHL and realize what a bad idea that would be.
 
I'm sort of indifferent towards the world cup idea. It seems like it will end up being like the world baseball classic, a neat thing that some people will watch but will really be an exhibition game because no one is in game shape yet. I don't see this having any tangible affect on marketing the NHL to a global audience

 

[The B’s Knees]

The groupings and schedule have been announced...
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=778411
 
Canada vs USA on Sep.20, 2016