When Does the USA Surpass Canada as the #1 Hockey Country?

[Master Lok]

It is not impossible to consider that the United States could one day surpass Canada - even with hockey behind baseball, basketball, football, auto racing etc. in popularity.

A case example would be the United States performances in soccer - they've dramatically improved their national soccer team over the past decade. And soccer is still not that popular in the States. Never say never. (and I'm a die hard Canadian - I'm also a realist.)

 

[MetalMilitia]

In the upcoming future, America will rule every sport, even hockey. There is no way Canada can compete with a much larger country like America. The state of California alone equals the population of all of Canada. According to TSN, there is more players in the USA registered in hockey than there is in Canada. I predict that there will be a Canada vs. USA final in almost every single tounament, and it starts with this years WJHC. It won't happen in this years Olympics, but when 2010 comes around, expect a Team Canada squad led by the likes of Sidney Crosby vs. an American squad led by another young gun.

 

[SChan*]

How the hell did they get there then? by losing to finland and belarus? Boy,they must love us in these things.

Don't mention Sweden,if they can't beat belarus in a must win game,they were'nt going to beat us.We were a far diferent team then the unorganized mess they saw in the last game they played us.Cmon man!!

a loss is a loss. You can't just sweep it under the sand, then you just look like a dumb fanboy.

 

[espo*]

a loss is a loss. You can't just sweep it under the sand, then you just look like a dumb fanboy.

I don't see how i look like a dumb fanboy? They won the gold man!! So what am i supposed to take from Sweden's loss to Belarus then if what you say is so spot on?That Sweden is now behind Belarus in hockey talent and power?

Because that's what i have to do using your measuring stick i guess.Save your great games for when they mean something,then you won't have to use round robin wins as some sort of "proof" when you choke it up out there.What you and others are just trying to do is make it seem like Canada is not a worthy Gold medal winner because they lost the first game of that tourney.does anyone on the ball really go for that? I would hope not.

I know you're no fan of Canadian hockey and it comes through on your posts but if you're trying to demean Canada's gold medal with your logic..................you don't have much to stand on.

As for being a dumb fan boy,i'm certainly not dumb when it comes to hockey(i've probably watched more games then you by the age of ten then you have your whole life) and i'm damn proud to be a fan Of Team Canada,why should'nt i be? Thats something i'll certainly never apoligise for.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

The simple fact is whether Canadians want to accept it or not, the USA is rapidly closing the gap and will challenge Canada for hockey supremacy even more so than the Russians ever did.

 

[neg marron]

fredo /godfather

2 words: NEVER or IMPOSSIBLE!!!


Die HARD CANADIAN!!!!!!!

when the usa starts giving hockey it's props and when let's face it nascar has better usa tv rating than hockey the usa game has to be promoted from the grass roots level from that 1st skating lesson to the pros

also when ncaa d1 is so competitive and elite that a player like crosby would not hesitate to play inthe ncaa instead of the canadian hockey league

also for example the mem cup and wjc have to be better promoted i mean when the usa won the wjc people outside of hockey didn't careless and if you ask who robbie schremp is to most americans they'll give you a shoulder shrug

 

[SChan*]

I don't see how i look like a dumb fanboy? They won the gold man!! So what am i supposed to take from Sweden's loss to Belarus then if what you say is so spot on?That Sweden is now behind Belarus in hockey talent and power?

Because that's what i have to do using your measuring stick i guess.Save your great games for when they mean something,then you won't have to use round robin wins as some sort of "proof" when you choke it up out there.What you and others are just trying to do is make it seem like Canada is not a worthy Gold medal winner because they lost the first game of that tourney.does anyone on the ball really go for that? I would hope not.

I know you're no fan of Canadian hockey and it comes through on your posts but if you're trying to demean Canada's gold medal with your logic..................you don't have much to stand on.

As for being a dumb fan boy,i'm certainly not dumb when it comes to hockey(i've probably watched more games then you by the age of ten then you have your whole life) and i'm damn proud to be a fan Of Team Canada,why should'nt i be? Thats something i'll certainly never apoligise for.

uh what did you just type? I am no fan of canadian hockey because you can't admit Sweden beat you? Canada is not worthy of the gold? I haven't even commented on that! Canada won the gold and was worthy of it, but please save the excuses why you lost to sweden.

And good luck finding something in my previous posts where I said canada sucks. You will find nothing. That was really premature of you. I have nothing against Canada.

 

[PecaFan]

The US has repeatedly come close in quality of hockey player production, occasionally surpassing Canada. When the game eventually becomes popular enough in the States, they'll surpass us both in quality and quantity.

It's pretty much just a function of time, money, and population.

 

[flambers]

The simple fact is whether Canadians want to accept it or not, the USA is rapidly closing the gap and will challenge Canada for hockey supremacy even more so than the Russians ever did.

How do you figure? Look at the Oylmpic teams for example Canada could put two teams together and both would beat the US.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

How do you figure? Look at the Oylmpic teams for example Canada could put two teams together and both would beat the US.

You’re absolutely correct, but I’m talking about the future and not too far in the future either, but yeah right now there’s no doubt about what you say. Things go in cycles and the US is coming out of a dry cycle right now. Look at the last few NHL entry drafts, the number of high picks for the US has gone up, this next draft there will probably be 10-11 first rounders for USA hockey, which may actually be more than what Canada gets. As long as I’ve followed the game there has never been this many top rated Americans coming up through their system. And from what I’ve seen and read this is nothing but the tip of the iceberg, like I said in a previous post the US has already passed Canada in registered players, so they have the quantity all they have to do is work on the quality .

Don’t forget their best has already beaten our best. Remember the 96 World Cup? And those players came from a system that had a player pool half the size of what they have now.

 

[VOB]

like I said in a previous post the US has already passed Canada in registered players, so they have the quantity all they have to do is work on the quality .

Don’t forget their best has already beaten our best. Remember the 96 World Cup? And those players came from a system that had a player pool half the size of what they have now.

Very hard to predict the future but a couple of corrections here. First off, registered players in the U.S. have not surpassed those of Canada. There were 445,000 registered players in the U.S. last year ( a drop of almost 4000 from the previous year - suggesting that the popularity of the game may be on the wane) while Canada had 543,000 registered players.

The U.S. has indeed been producing exeptional talent over the past five years and that will soon be felt on the international stage, unfortunatly not this year, however. There is no doubt that the U.S. will surpass Sweden, the Czech Republic and Russia over the next five to ten years. The problem though is that not only has Canada matched the talent the U.S. has produced but has in most case exceeded it. I would argue that only the 1986-88 U.S. birth class can go up against Canada on a roughly equal basis, anything before that, Canada comes out ahead.

I think that we have also seen the full "iceberg". There are no American equivalents of Espositos or Tavares or heck even Gagne and Torquatos in the 1989 - 90 classes.

If I had to wager, I would bet that Canada's position at the top will be secure for quite some time.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

Very hard to predict the future but a couple of corrections here. First off, registered players in the U.S. have not surpassed those of Canada. There were 445,000 registered players in the U.S. last year ( a drop of almost 4000 from the previous year - suggesting that the popularity of the game may be on the wane) while Canada had 543,000 registered players.

The U.S. has indeed been producing exeptional talent over the past five years and that will soon be felt on the international stage, unfortunatly not this year, however. There is no doubt that the U.S. will surpass Sweden, the Czech Republic and Russia over the next five to ten years. The problem though is that not only has Canada matched the talent the U.S. has produced but has in most case exceeded it. I would argue that only the 1986-88 U.S. birth class can go up against Canada on a roughly equal basis, anything before that, Canada comes out ahead.

I think that we have also seen the full "iceberg". There are no American equivalents of Espositos or Tavares or heck even Gagne and Torquatos in the 1989 - 90 classes.

If I had to wager, I would bet that Canada's position at the top will be secure for quite some time.

During the intermission of the USA/Norway game Bob McKenzie quoted someone from Hockey Canada who had said the USA had indeed surpassed Canada in registered players. I doubt McKenzie is gonna make something up like that. Anyway time will tell what will happen. And BTW I never said the US will surpass Canada only that they will close the gap and think there's no doubt that will happen.

 

[VOB]

During the intermission of the USA/Norway game Bob McKenzie quoted someone from Hockey Canada who had said the USA had indeed surpassed Canada in registered players. I doubt McKenzie is gonna make something up like that. Anyway time will tell what will happen. And BTW I never said the US will surpass Canada only that they will close the gap and think there's no doubt that will happen.

I like Bob but he is not infallible.

Here are the stats, and these stats don't lie.

http://www.usahockey.com/membership/main_site/main/membership_stats/usah_memberstats//

http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/6698/la_id/1.htm

 

[Garbs]

It's quite evident America has been delivering better players as the decade moves on, but their biggest concern is the status of these said players.

Schremp, Ryan, and Kessel are all great young prospects, but with the exception of maybe Kessel, they aren't franchise players. None of them are projected to be among the league's elite, and that's where Russia and Canada outclass America. The systems and development programs are unmatched, and until America starts churning out the likes of Crosby, Staal, Spezza, Nash/Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, Malkin year in and year out, they'll remain at a far distance.

With that being said, I think it's foolish to suggest the US couldn't "catch up" to Canada with regards to hockey. I'm not quite sure what it even entails, but logic says it's likely to happen.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

I like Bob but he is not infallible.

Here are the stats, and these stats don't lie.

http://www.usahockey.com/membership/main_site/main/membership_stats/usah_memberstats//

http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/6698/la_id/1.htm

I'm not gonna argue over numbers.

That is pretty phenomenal growth for the US program considering there was only about 200K registered US players in 1990.

 

[VOB]

Russia and Canada outclass America.

No arguement that Canada outclasses the U.S. but will disagree with you on Russia. Yes the Russians do have some dyamic forwards unmatched by the U.S. but the U.S. has more depth in this position. The U.S. is clearly ahead on the back end and where is Russia's answer to Miller, DiPietro and Montoya?

That is pretty phenomenal growth for the US program considering there was only about 200K registered US players in 1990.

Yes it was but it has leveled off and as I stated is actually now in decline. In fact the number of male youth hockey players has been falling for the past few years.

 

[Garbs]

Yes the Russians do have some dyamic forwards unmatched by the U.S. but the U.S. has more depth in this position. The U.S. is clearly ahead on the back end and where is Russia's answer to Miller, DiPietro and Montoya?

Oh, I agree. I was referring to top-end talent alone.

 

[Devonator]

I'm a big fan of the U.S. Hockey teams and I for one look forward too them equaling us in the future in terms of overall talent but as others have noted here, the American System does seem to be lacking in terms of top end players like Crosby, Stall, Ovechkin or Kovalchuk??

Is there any reason for this in particular or is it simply just the cycle we are in right now???

Btw, I wasn't aware that the Americans have almost as many registered players as we do in Canada??? Wow.....How many do the Russians have in comparison???

Thanks

 

[sunb]

None of them are projected to be among the league's elite, and that's where Russia and Canada outclass America. The systems and development programs are unmatched, and until America starts churning out the likes of Crosby, Staal, Spezza, Nash/Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, Malkin year in and year out, they'll remain at a far distance.

You are underrating the young stars of the US. Jack Johnson and Eric Johnson may potentially be the two best defensemen in the entire league in 10 years. Guys like Brian Lee and Ryan Suter also have superstar potential.

The US will easily surpass Russia within the next few years. Although Russia has their elite forwards on offense, America has a few gems on defense and quality goaltending.

Team USA's forwards are also catching up. Guys like Kessel and Bobby Ryan will be great for them one day.

But yeah, watch out for the USA's four young stars in the making. Jack Johnson, Eric Johnson, Ryan Suter and Brian Lee. All four, imo, will become great NHL'ers.

 

[langdak]

You are underrating the young stars of the US. Jack Johnson and Eric Johnson may potentially be the two best defensemen in the entire league in 10 years. Guys like Brian Lee and Ryan Suter also have superstar potential.

The US will easily surpass Russia within the next few years. Although Russia has their elite forwards on offense, America has a few gems on defense and quality goaltending.

Team USA's forwards are also catching up. Guys like Kessel and Bobby Ryan will be great for them one day.

But yeah, watch out for the USA's four young stars in the making. Jack Johnson, Eric Johnson, Ryan Suter and Brian Lee. All four, imo, will become great NHL'ers.

I couldnt agree with you more in regards to Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson and Bryan Lee, after seeing the 3 of them play twice now at the World Juniors i have been very impressed, i had heard a lot about the 3 of them and i have been really glad i finally got to see what everybody has been talking about

As for Ryan Suter, i cant comment as i have not seen him play but heard plenty about him.

The US has some great up and coming D-men

 

[espo*]

uh what did you just type? I am no fan of canadian hockey because you can't admit Sweden beat you? Canada is not worthy of the gold? I haven't even commented on that! Canada won the gold and was worthy of it, but please save the excuses why you lost to sweden.

And good luck finding something in my previous posts where I said canada sucks. You will find nothing. That was really premature of you. I have nothing against Canada.

LOL.C'mon X.............i've seen plenty of posts from you taking digs at Canada.Maybe you did'nt direcetly say they 'sucked" but whats the difference? Really now,you're tucking words in fairly neatly to make your claim you have'nt back-handed us at times.As for excuses of why we lost to Sweden,i don't think i made any really.Sweden was much beter in that game.All i did was say we were not prepared so you guys kicked our ***.That's not an excuse..................that's admittance that you guys were sharp and prepared and we were'nt.But by the quarters we were.Regardless,it was a round robin game.When the medal games came we were ready and you were'nt,just as Canada was'nt ready against Sweden in the early game.If you had of been...................i dare say you would have beaten Belarus because sure as hell no-one is going to convince me that Belarus is really better then Sweden.See what i'm getting at here?

 

[SChan*]

LOL.C'mon X.............i've seen plenty of posts from you taking digs at Canada.Maybe you did'nt direcetly say they 'sucked" but whats the difference? Really now,you're tucking words in fairly neatly to make your claim you have'nt back-handed us at times.As for excuses of why we lost to Sweden,i don't think i made any really.Sweden was much beter in that game.All i did was say we were not prepared so you guys kicked our ***.That's not an excuse..................that's admittance that you guys were sharp and prepared and we were'nt.But by the quarters we were.Regardless,it was a round robin game.When the medal games came we were ready and you were'nt,just as Canada was'nt ready against Sweden in the early game.If you had of been...................i dare say you would have beaten Belarus because sure as hell no-one is going to convince me that Belarus is really better then Sweden.See what i'm getting at here?

ok yeah I agree, but I have nothing against canada really. Though some canadian posters can be annoying doesn't mean i hate your country or hockey team.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

I'm a big fan of the U.S. Hockey teams and I for one look forward too them equaling us in the future in terms of overall talent but as others have noted here, the American System does seem to be lacking in terms of top end players like Crosby, Stall, Ovechkin or Kovalchuk??

Is there any reason for this in particular or is it simply just the cycle we are in right now???

Btw, I wasn't aware that the Americans have almost as many registered players as we do in Canada??? Wow.....How many do the Russians have in comparison???

Thanks

The Russians have around 70-80K registered players. Canada and the US by far have more than any other country.

 

[espo*]

ok yeah I agree, but I have nothing against canada really. Though some canadian posters can be annoying doesn't mean i hate your country or hockey team.

well,we all have annoying posters that are'nt reasonable.Congrats on your win last night by the way.

 

[SChan*]

well,we all have annoying posters that are'nt reasonable.Congrats on your win last night by the way.

well yeah thanks. It wasn't expected. Hopefully we can upset some more teams.