Pre-Game Talk: 2016 World Cup of Hockey

[Ori]

the original tourney was the canada cup held more frequently in 76, 81, 84, 87 and 91...but since becoming the world cup it has been held in 96, 04 and 16

if i remember correctly the original plan was for it to be held every 4 years so you would have either the world cup or olympics every 2 years...but obviously that never happened

World cup in soccer is every 4 years. Most soccer star players earn a lot more money compare to top hockey players, but all stars are looking forward to play for their country in such an important tournament.

So it`s a NHL thing to not attend to tournaments. But the main predicament is that too few countries play hockey active on this planet, so I understand that players who says no.
It`s like Spain & Brazil have a youth team in soccer in world cup, but it`s silly - so all youth soccer teams have their own tournaments like age 18, age 21.

 

[Ori]

The USA roster is crap. The NA roster is amazing. People are complaining about players like Miller getting in over Jenner and Galchenyuk.

Shea Weber and Jack Johnson playing for their respective countries...LOL

Lot of snubs.

I don`t agree that USA roster is crap - they have most of their best players at the moment like Kane, Ryan Mc, Stepan. I like Tort as coach - so I understand his reasoning, hehe.
I think team NA will lose vs USA if they play against each other.

So many Rangers players in this tournament though - I hope we avoid injuries. `sigh

 

[Fitzy]

The day Torts left a top 10 scorer in the NHL off of the team USA roster.

 

[Ori]

Brassard is obviously not good enough to play for team Canada - they have too many good centers.
It`s strange that Nash isn`t playing though as a winger - he is better than most of their wingers on team Canada.
Maybe Nash said no due to his injury earlier this year.

 

[Chaels Arms]

I don`t agree that USA roster is crap - they have most of their best players at the moment like Kane, Ryan Mc, Stepan. I like Tort as coach - so I understand his reasoning, hehe.
I think team NA will lose vs USA if they play against each other.

They just left the current Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP off the roster.

 

[RangerBoy]

Where is Keith Yandle?

 

[Ori]

They just left the current Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP off the roster.

well, it`s silly to not use players who are actually in the stanley cup final this year, Burns & Thornton added to team Canada.

 

[Ori]

Where is Keith Yandle?

A good question - maybe he is not good enough?
He did some mistakes in the playoffs this year for sure.

 

[pld459666]

They just left the current Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP off the roster.

Joe Pavelski is off the USA roster, because as nice a PO that Phil is having Joe is the Conn Smythe front runner

 

[Thirty One]

Where is Keith Yandle?

Definitely not enough jam.

 

[Holocene]

Joe Pavelski is off the USA roster, because as nice a PO that Phil is having Joe is the Conn Smythe front runner

I thought he was talking about Pavelski haha.

 

[Irishguy42]

Where is Keith Yandle?

Sitting alongside Shattenkirk wondering what the hell is going on.

 

[BBKers]

Torts is so GOAT it is humurous
Neanderthal in a bad sense
Hopefully US gets spanked royally playing caveman hockey and Torts starts a brawl in The players tunnel
Go Chiefs!

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Any guesses as to where or who they slot zucc in with?

I think he should play on the top line with Kopitar and Hossa.

 

[Zucc36]

Any guesses as to where or who they slot zucc in with?

Really hope to see him with Kopitar and Hossa or Gaborik, but I have a feeling the 1st line already is set with Gaborik-Kopitar-Hossa

Maybe we´ll see a line with Vanek-Nielsen-Zuccarello?

 

[Chimpradamus]

the original tourney was the canada cup held more frequently in 76, 81, 84, 87 and 91...but since becoming the world cup it has been held in 96, 04 and 16

if i remember correctly the original plan was for it to be held every 4 years so you would have either the world cup or olympics every 2 years...but obviously that never happened

Nope, god forbid they have to shut down the league 2 weeks every 4 years to attend a world wide tournament, or even play during the off-season. But shutting down the league at seasons at stretch to grubble over their own incompetence and appaling inability to implement diplomacy is perfectly fine.

So let's replace the olympics with a Mickey Mouse tournament. Yeah, what a nice choice. Why not participate with only corporate sponsored logo teams while they're at it, since short term income - at their own disgression - is the only thing they care about? Team Apple would be so much worth in internal revenue than team Canada.

 

[SA16]

I don't think the league should attend the Olympics. No other American sports league shuts down to do so and it's a lot of risk for the teams to send their best players off taking the chance they get hurt.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Torts is so GOAT it is humurous
Neanderthal in a bad sense
Hopefully US gets spanked royally playing caveman hockey and Torts starts a brawl in The players tunnel
Go Chiefs!

Torts loves the attention. He would rather lose his way with "his guys" than win with better players. Kessel has always played well in these types of tournaments.

 

[Chimpradamus]

I don't think the league should attend the Olympics. No other American sports league shuts down to do so and it's a lot of risk for the teams to send their best players off taking the chance they get hurt.

Short minded business culture. It's pure business that only happens to be involved in sports. The biggest communist leagues in the world with the most capitalist, imperialistic view on any other league in the same sport, who can "legitimately" poach all the biggest stars for coffee money annually, with all sorts of threats if they can't because "they're the big boss". Who have to shut down the entire league for seasons, because they're so bad at running it, despite ALL the privileges they receive, all the artificial regulations they've created against their own dumb decision making - and the freedom of the players - and they still can't do it properly. It's like a big joke. They drain the sport globally of any attracting talent and do it in a nonchalant, piss poor manner. Way to go.

Actual competitive - not artifically competitive - soccer leagues that are multiple times bigger than any American sport send their stars to international qualifiers all the time, who indivudually basically earn more in a month than an entire line in the NHL in a year. And the sport is all better for it in the long run. Soccer is the #1 sport by far, because the soccer community also put some actual effort into being so, instead of being some protective communist sports state that don't care one bit about the actual sport globally.

I couldn't care less about the upcoming Mickey Mouse tournament, the big joke formerly called the Canada Cup. I love hockey, I like the players, I hate the NHL, because the number of reasons why it's an awful league, for so many reasons, are numerous.

 

[Ori]

Short minded business culture. The biggest communist leagues in the world with the most capitalist, imperialistic view on any other league in the same sport, who can "legitimately" poach all the biggest stars for coffee money annually. Who have to shut down the entire league for seasons, because they're so bad at running it, despite ALL the privileges they receive and they still can't do it properly. It's like a big joke.

Soccer leagues that are multiple times bigger than any American sport send their stars to international qualifiers all the time, who basically earn more in a month than an entire line in the NHL in a year. And the sport is all better for it.

Yeah, agree with that statement, but I enjoy cap limits which is great for the overall competition - otherwise a rich org. could just buy the best players in the league, and soccer is like that just see in UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.

 

[JanErixon20]

So from what I've gathered, this tournament has been around for 20 years and has only happened twice so far, and not even at regular intervals including this year's. Now I'm seeing that, after this year, it's going to be held every 4 years and something about an all-star game? What kind of a cluster ****..Looks like just another game for players to decline, and one that no GM will care about their players not attending.

When this took over for the Canada Cup in 1996, it was great hockey, and I was really into watching it. This one...not so much.

 

[HatTrick Swayze]

Meh, soccer isn't the biggest sport in the world due to letting stars play in international games.

It is the biggest sport in the world because its rules are incredibly simple and it requires a ball to get started. Maybe 4 rocks to mark off goals.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Meh, soccer isn't the biggest sport in the world due to letting stars play in international games.

It is the biggest sport in the world because its rules are incredibly simple and it requires a ball to get started. Maybe 4 rocks to mark off goals.

Of course it's the biggest reason, but do you think it helps hockey if the best players and the biggest stars are constantly sheltered from international exposure, in the short term profit interests of the NHL owners? Do you know why sports grow in Sweden for example (and most other countries I presume)? Because the national team or national stars have tremendous success. Their achivements are exposed to the kids, who want to be like them. There are multiple examples of this.

The NHL argues "we don't see any significance of sending our NHL stars to the olympics." Just to have any other argument than "we can't accept to shut down the league for two weeks every 4th year". Maybe because it takes time for a child to become an adult? "Who cares about a decade or two later, I want the revenue of the next quarter!" Go figure.

Football (or soccer) doesn't slack off just because it's the biggest sport in the world. It will always be like that, because international exposure is huge and team owners accept this. The NHL? They're not even trying, they wouldn't care if the rest of the hockey world burn in a decade, if they can increase their profits by 0.5% NOW. The revenue is their god, the actual sport is the means - nothing else - and this bugs the hell out of me.

Yeah, agree with that statement, but I enjoy cap limits which is great for the overall competition - otherwise a rich org. could just buy the best players in the league, and soccer is like that just see in UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.

Yes, sure. I wonder how much of it was for competitive sports reasons and how much of it was for financial reasons and to keep owners from icing a roster of janitors.

 

[RempireStateBuilding]

Nope, god forbid they have to shut down the league 2 weeks every 4 years to attend a world wide tournament, or even play during the off-season. But shutting down the league at seasons at stretch to grubble over their own incompetence and appaling inability to implement diplomacy is perfectly fine.

So let's replace the olympics with a Mickey Mouse tournament. Yeah, what a nice choice. Why not participate with only corporate sponsored logo teams while they're at it, since short term income - at their own disgression - is the only thing they care about? Team Apple would be so much worth in internal revenue than team Canada.

Funny thing is you probably would see a massive spike in interest/coverage/viewers if there was something like a Team Apple.

 

[Brooklyn Ranger]

The biggest problem the NHL has with the Olympics is that it can't control the venue--they love when the games are played in the same time zone, but lose all interest when the games are played half a world away. Only hardcore fans are going to bother watching when the games are live at 7am. Throw in the fact that the next winter Olympics are in a country where there is very little interest in ice hockey and it becomes a labor of love, not profit for the NHL.

It's too bad they didn't do something to keep the momentum going after the 1996 World Cup--there was a lot of excitement after that tournament.