Time to go back to the amateurs...or the juniors

[SwisshockeyAcademy]

I'm not so sure we're seeing hockey at its peek: NHL calendar way to compressed, players forfitting, Olympic calendar pretty much as compressed...

And the great matchups died with the fall of the Soviet empire. None is left. All we see is NHLers against NHLers. The refreshing point up to date is the play of the Swiss.

Matchups between East and West were classics because of all the political implications. Now, there's nothing coming close to that.

"All we see is NHLers against NHLers." What do you want you whiner? Minor pro's and university students V good professionals in the major European leagues. No thanks I am watching the Olympics which to me should be the best of their craft. Not every game will be like game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals but there is some good hockey left to come. Since you are so unsatisfied we can ask the Soviet Union to get back together and cut European #'s in the NHL so you can get goosebumps over a Canada Soviet Union matchup.

 

[Namso]

The ones who want amateurs are really a very very local minority who are upset when Canada or the States lose.

Seriously, you want to send juniors to the Olympics??? what you want to send pierre dagenais!?!?!? this is crazy...

the NHL has to be at the olympics bc the olympics is about the best.

 

[artilector]

After 2010, you'll probably have your wish.

This Olympic tournament can only be classified a failure, partially because of the compressed schedule, which was a consideration thrown to the NHL, who wanted to play games right up to Monday. The Olympics using NHL players will always have problems if the NHL treats it like a red-headed stepchild.

Having said that, Olympics with the amateurs has more or less sucked throughout the years. The really memorable events (Miracle on Ice, Forsberg shootout) have been few and far between, and good luck getting the coverage we're getting now without NHL players.

I like to see the world's best compete on an ideal international stage.

This could easily be solved by the NHL allowing the teams to play from the moment the Olympics start, which would have eliminated the back-to-back games.

The other change that should be made is allowing only the top three from each group to qualify and giving the top team in each group a bye, which would make the preliminary games more meaningful. Would we have seen the U.S. and Sweden ease off in the third period if it meant one of them could be out? Heck no. Would the Swiss-Czech upset have been a heck of a lot more meaningful? You bet.

As it is, with the compressed schedule and the qualifiers very likely determined by the end of the day today, no team is going to try very hard on Tuesday. What's the point of bringing pros to play if they're more concerned with avoiding getting hurt than winning the game?

Well, I agree that the format is imperfect and the schedule too tough... But these are details that can obviously be worked out, they are not nearly enough of a reason to classify the whole thing as bad. I like your idea of 6 teams and byes, I'd support it at least until there's more parity.

But nothing is perfect. There are plenty of regular season NHL games that are incredibly boring. The real tournament, like in NHL, starts in elimination rounds, so its pointless to criticise the qualifying round games, IMO.

And again, its two weeks out of every four years; The fans, at least all over the world love it, the players love it, it is the crown jewel of Winter Olympics, it helps keep hockey relevant as a world-wide game. I mean, the set of reasons being offered against against NHLers in the Olympics is so pitiful, that it makes its proponents seem incredibly narrow, or short-sighted, or miserly...

Your own post amounts to a proposal to make improvements to the current format - this is good. But to call it a failure - I just don't understand. The level of hockey has been great, many exciting games, and the best is yet to come.. Its awesome!

 

[gialloneri]

No, I agree, let's remove the NHL'ers from the Olympics, on the off-chance that these valuable assets, the players, might get injured and not be able to contribute for their paymasters. But let's also get rid of the All-Star game, because that's meaningless for the owners, and let's remove the best-of-7 series in the playoffs, as a star-player could get injured there, wouldn't want that...

Has anyone considered that maybe the players want the chance to compete? Those who don't, didn't show up. And, furthermore, I think there's something to be said for the fact that players, especially the younger players on worse clubs (eg Surovy for Slovakia) can only be improved for playing in what will always be a much more talent-rich environment, especially under the salary cap.

And anyone who's found these Olympics dull, well, sometimes I wonder what these people want from their hockey. I've loved the intensity and the passion I've seen so far from so many of these players in so many of these games.

 

[Bank Shot]

The American media should never write about something they don't know anything about. They won't say two words about the NHL but when the Gretzky/Tocchet scandal broke out...the haters were coming out of the woodwork. The media has no credibility with the hatchet job they were doing to Gretzky's image. As for the Olympics...I don't care what any of them think about that either. Unless there's a scandal or contraversy surrounding hockey, the media avoids the sport like the plague. Screw the American sports media!

No kidding. The American sports media encourages the mega-ego that is prevalent in some top American athletes. They always give tonnes of coverage to the guy that predicts he'll win 5 gold medals, or the guy who treats his teammates with disdain. They are also very quick to bash athletes that are favored to win, but fail to live up to the potential. The media creates an unhealthy enviroment for the athletes to compete in, and then are quick to jump on the behaviour that comes as a result of that circus atmosphere, but only if they lose. If they win they are heroes no matter what they act like.

 

[Jazz]

.....And again, its two weeks out of every four years; The fans, at least all over the world love it, the players love it, it is the crown jewel of Winter Olympics, it helps keep hockey relevant as a world-wide game. I mean, the set of reasons being offered against against NHLers in the Olympics is so pitiful, that it makes its proponents seem incredibly narrow, or short-sighted, or miserly.......

Exactly - yet unfortunately, if Ed Synder, Bill Wirtz, and Jeremy Jacobs have their way, the narrow-minded/short-sighted thinking might prevail....

 

[Vladiator]

Actually, it's not about selfishness. It's about money. That's all that counts in the NHL.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I believe the World Cup brings money to the NHLPA fund. Someone might know about that.

And these people were trying to accuse Russian owners for being too money-grabbing for not joining the IIHF-NHL decision...

But why would you worry about owners' money? Don't you worry they are all billionaires, they will survive. But as someone mentioned, there are no good reasons for a hockey fan to not want NHLers in the Olympics unless their is some underlying weirds reason, like fear of losing.

 

[Hasbro]

Actually, it's not about selfishness. It's about money. That's all that counts in the NHL.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I believe the World Cup brings money to the NHLPA fund. Someone might know about that.

And short sighted selfishness. If you could quanify the off book benefits of pros in the Olympics (like getting the sport watched) i'm sure it would outweigh the short term losse.

As much as the miracle on Ice overshadows US hockey much of the NHL in America was built upon its shoulders. If and when the US wins another gold the marketability of those players at least will be enormous.

A question for our soccer fans, how does the World cup compair to this situation.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Your own post amounts to a proposal to make improvements to the current format - this is good. But to call it a failure - I just don't understand. The level of hockey has been great, many exciting games, and the best is yet to come.. Its awesome!

I'm calling it a failure only in regards to what it could/should have been. Yes, we've seen a few really good games. We've also seen a lot of poor passes, tired legs and (understandably) inconsistent efforts. The teams have barely gotten any practice time. We're going to get a whole day of generally meaningless games on Tuesday. We're not seeing NHL players at their best or even hockey at the highest level at which it can be played. On the whole, still happy I tuned in, though.

 

[Force]

What you say is basicall, make the Tournament schedule longer and give the national Teams time for Training and preperation.

 

[gialloneri]

A question for our soccer fans, how does the World cup compair to this situation.

To be honest, I don't think you can make the comparison. While the World Cup is the absolute pinnacle tournament, that everyone - player, coach, fan - wants to win, there is a major difference with the Olympics & hockey in that the tournament is played in the summer, when the most powerful club leagues (ie Europe) are in the off-season.

The African Nations Cup would be a better comparison, as it's played in January/February when many of the players involved also have major club commitments in Europe. However, again the comparison is not a good one, as FIFA has a lot more power than the IIHF, and so can place sanctions on players or clubs that refuse to report to the international tournament. I'm not sure the IIHF could do the same with the NHL, unfortunately...

 

[Jazz]

To be honest, I don't think you can make the comparison. While the World Cup is the absolute pinnacle tournament, that everyone - player, coach, fan - wants to win, there is a major difference with the Olympics & hockey in that the tournament is played in the summer, when the most powerful club leagues (ie Europe) are in the off-season.

The African Nations Cup would be a better comparison, as it's played in January/February when many of the players involved also have major club commitments in Europe. However, again the comparison is not a good one, as FIFA has a lot more power than the IIHF, and so can place sanctions on players or clubs that refuse to report to the international tournament. I'm not sure the IIHF could do the same with the NHL, unfortunately...

I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

Heck the IIHF could not (or perhaps would not) prevent an Austrian team (EHC Linz) from not releasing a couple of Latvian players (Viktors Ignatijevs and Olegs Sorokins) for this tournament.
The Austrian club threatened to void the player's contract if they tried to leave for Turin.