Best on best tournaments

[cheerupmurray]

I really love to watch international hockey with the best players. It makes me sad to see this c-teams or d-teams that get sent to the WC every year. Do you think there could be some viable solution that could convince NHL to release players for international play? Shorter tournaments?, tournaments held in preseason before NHL starts? Nhl gets a cut from IHHF's reveneus?

Right now it seems like there will be no best on best tournaments at all, which kind of secretely makes me hope that KHL becomes a stronger league and could put some pressure on NHL by competing for the best european players. I meen I love to see NHL-hockey, Stanley cup is awesome and all, but it's the best on best tournaments that makes me follow hockey closely and pay attention to how the swedes are doing.

A best on best tournament every other year would be cool like it is in football with european championships and world championships alternating. A yearly competion like the WC, kind of undermines the importance of theese tournaments. That way NHL only have to release players every other year.

This is probably impossible since, NHL really doesn't care about international hockey at all and just want to make money (understandeble but kind of sad). IIHF would also never agree to only arrange the WC every fourth year since they make a lot of money from those tournaments.

Seems like a superstrong euro-league or a superstrong KHL is the only way we ever going to see the best on best tournaments (sadly without Canada and USA then)

It's really not a fun option, i would much rather see Detroit vs Washington than Amur Khabarovsk vs Metallurg Novokuznetsk. All things considered I have to say I love the best on best tournaments more than NHL though (I expect that nobody agrees with me, since this is a NHL-forum)

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[zorz]

best on best every year would be pretty boring. Watching the same teams everyyear... why? And playing the tournament only every 2 years or less is stupid, because I want to watch international hockey probably as you do and I want it as often as possible. Who doesn't like it can just turn TV off.

I like WC just as it is now. I like watching different teams every year. I can watch much bigger group of interesting players playing for their countries, every year there is completely new situation bewfore the tournament, which is not posssible if it was just best on best. Olympics once in 4 years as best on best is jsut enough for me.

Shorter tournaments? No, I just hate how the Olympics are short! It makes me mad. That idea with holding the tournament in the preseason is probably even worse.

And I don't like that "c teams" phrase... those are A teams. Personally I don't care about players who aren't playing. I care about those who are dressed and they are A team in that moment.

 

[NMF78]

the NHL-season is just too long for this to ever happen, if the NHL would bewilling to cut the season by 20 games then maybe

 

[canuck2010]

There was a time I would have disagreed with you zorz but now I can hardly wait to get the WC going and Canada doesn't have a team yet. It's just more hockey to watch.

Great to see the young guys play or see guys that wouldn't normally have a chance to show their skill on the bigger ice in a different style of game. It's more fun sometimes to see guys that really want to be there.

Enjoy the games, enjoy the tournament it's all bout the competition and the hockey.

Go Canada Go

 

[Grabovski]

The NHL was thinking about making a World Cup that be held before training camp, in around August im guessing and would be best on best and would be held by the NHL and IIHF.

 

[Rob]

I don't mind the World Championships but I hate the fact that the IIHF ranking system places the same weight for an Olympics gold medal as a gold medal from the World Championships! It is a complete joke!

 

[JackSlater]

I don't mind the World Championships but I hate the fact that the IIHF ranking system places the same weight for an Olympics gold medal as a gold medal from the World Championships! It is a complete joke!

Does anyone actually care about the IIHF rankings, outside of the countries that struggle to make the big tournaments?

 

[Hanji]

I don't mind the World Championships but I hate the fact that the IIHF ranking system places the same weight for an Olympics gold medal as a gold medal from the World Championships! It is a complete joke!

I like it because it eliminates the importance of 1 single result, even if that result is best on best. Often tournaments are won by the team that gels together quickest, not the best team.
Weighing all tournaments equally over a 5 year span is a good barometer for measuring/averaging depth performance on the international stage.

 

[roto]

I don't quite understand the whining about that the best players are still playing in NHL while WC is ongoing. There are 16 teams in WC and only 6-7 countries have more than a handful of players in NHL, and even less of those players are in playoffs during WC. This means that most teams in WC have actually the best players.

Ice hockey WC tournament isn't just about top-8 countries. IIHF (unlike NHL) tries to promote ice hockey and tries to treat all countries alike. NHL has very negative attitude towards all international competition and it doesn't care about those tournaments. It cares only about itself.

One league can't bully the whole ice hockey world for ********** sake. All other leagues have ended their seasons in late april => most countries can field their best teams. Canada and USA belong to top-6, but they're just two countries among others. Most North Americans may not even know, that there are lower divisions in international competition. WC is the tournament for top countries, and it's a big thing for smaller ice hockey countries to get to play in WC tournament.

The idea of the WC is good. Annual tournament makes it possible to promote the sport and keep tournaments in different countries. I don't understand a point in keeping a mini tournament of 4-7 games/team every four years. It has basically nothing to do which team is best. It's more of lottery. Either the tournament should be longer or it should be kept more often.

It's funny that many Canadians, for example, complain why ice hockey is super popular only in Canada (and maybe in Finland to some extent) and at the same time they think WC is useless. It may be difficult to realize NHL can't be used to promote the sport in Europe/Asia etc. Why should average European even think about a league which is played in the middle of the night and which isn't shown in TV?

Edit. Even in Finland, only small minority of the hockey fans really care about NHL. Most hockey fans just check in the morning how many points Selänne has made last night. NHL isn't usually covered in sports news at all. If Teemu has had a multi-point game, then there's may a 10-second flash about it. And this is how it goes in second-most hockey crazy country in the world. In the spring there are news about which teams can't make playoffs => who could play in WC.

 

[vorky]

Nhl gets a cut from IHHF's reveneus?

no... no.. please dont do that!!! Why should NHL get money from IIHF tourney? Why only NHL? and not SEL, SM-Liiga others?

If NHL wants money from releasing their players to IIHF tourneys, NHL had to pay milions euro/dollar for buying these players from euro clubs.. not funny money (200-300 000 for drafted player)

I agree with roto´s statement

 

[jekoh]

Right now it seems like there will be no best on best tournaments at all, which kind of secretely makes me hope that KHL becomes a stronger league and could put some pressure on NHL by competing for the best european players.

Why secretly? What's wrong with hoping the KHL gets stronger. It would benefit the sport if one league didn't have almost a monopoly on premier players.

 

[joe89]

I have no problems with the C teams. Still enjoyable and it makes Switzerland, Germany and even Norway and Denmark able to compete. Plus it has become kind of a tournament for young players to shine and showcase. It's a great compliment to the Stanley Cup playoffs for us in Europe at least.

 

[Mathradio]

Does anyone actually care about the IIHF rankings, outside of the countries that struggle to make the big tournaments?

The countries that struggle to even make the WCs would usually approach the WCs as they would a best-on-best tournament.

 

[JVR]

I like it as it is.

And can we get a sticky please where everyone can post why the WC is not important and sucks etc so that we don't have to see 100 new threads on it like we used to have in recent years??

 

[wjhl2009fan]

I don't quite understand the whining about that the best players are still playing in NHL while WC is ongoing. There are 16 teams in WC and only 6-7 countries have more than a handful of players in NHL, and even less of those players are in playoffs during WC. This means that most teams in WC have actually the best players.

Ice hockey WC tournament isn't just about top-8 countries. IIHF (unlike NHL) tries to promote ice hockey and tries to treat all countries alike. NHL has very negative attitude towards all international competition and it doesn't care about those tournaments. It cares only about itself.

One league can't bully the whole ice hockey world for ********** sake. All other leagues have ended their seasons in late april => most countries can field their best teams. Canada and USA belong to top-6, but they're just two countries among others. Most North Americans may not even know, that there are lower divisions in international competition. WC is the tournament for top countries, and it's a big thing for smaller ice hockey countries to get to play in WC tournament.

The idea of the WC is good. Annual tournament makes it possible to promote the sport and keep tournaments in different countries. I don't understand a point in keeping a mini tournament of 4-7 games/team every four years. It has basically nothing to do which team is best. It's more of lottery. Either the tournament should be longer or it should be kept more often.

It's funny that many Canadians, for example, complain why ice hockey is super popular only in Canada (and maybe in Finland to some extent) and at the same time they think WC is useless. It may be difficult to realize NHL can't be used to promote the sport in Europe/Asia etc. Why should average European even think about a league which is played in the middle of the night and which isn't shown in TV?

Edit. Even in Finland, only small minority of the hockey fans really care about NHL. Most hockey fans just check in the morning how many points Selänne has made last night. NHL isn't usually covered in sports news at all. If Teemu has had a multi-point game, then there's may a 10-second flash about it. And this is how it goes in second-most hockey crazy country in the world. In the spring there are news about which teams can't make playoffs => who could play in WC.

I can understand how the nhl not getting marketed because of the time difference etc and many games are not on tv and so on i get that.However i would not go as far as saying the nhl bully the hockey world they have a a long schedule and at times it seems some in europe think the nhl should drop everything and take part in all tournemants.Why many canadian say its so big in canada is not so much the nhl but the amount of teams in canada be it major jr and jr a etc.

 

[His Beardliness*]

Seriously though, if the NHL block players from the olympics, I hope KHL takes over. It would be better for everyone.

 

[JackSlater]

Seriously though, if the NHL block players from the olympics, I hope KHL takes over. It would be better for everyone.

Yeah the NHL was garbage from 1917-1998 without Olympic participation.

 

[His Beardliness*]

It was **** until russians and sedes started dominating in Detroit.

 

[saskriders]

The NHL, KHL, and other major leagues, should have a world cup in summer Olympic years, so we can see the best players more often, they could even have a second division, but still keep world championship

Div 1
Canada
US
Russia
Finland
Sweden
Czech
Slovakia

Div 2
Switzerland
Germany
Latvia
Belarus
Denmark
Norway
Kazakhstan

They could have a relegation system, and add/take away teams if they have been at or absent from the world championships for 3 years in a row or something like that

 

[Nakawick]

I really love to watch international hockey with the best players. It makes me sad to see this c-teams or d-teams that get sent to the WC every year. Do you think there could be some viable solution that could convince NHL to release players for international play? Shorter tournaments?, tournaments held in preseason before NHL starts? Nhl gets a cut from IHHF's reveneus?

Right now it seems like there will be no best on best tournaments at all, which kind of secretely makes me hope that KHL becomes a stronger league and could put some pressure on NHL by competing for the best european players. I meen I love to see NHL-hockey, Stanley cup is awesome and all, but it's the best on best tournaments that makes me follow hockey closely and pay attention to how the swedes are doing.

A best on best tournament every other year would be cool like it is in football with european championships and world championships alternating. A yearly competion like the WC, kind of undermines the importance of theese tournaments. That way NHL only have to release players every other year.

This is probably impossible since, NHL really doesn't care about international hockey at all and just want to make money (understandeble but kind of sad). IIHF would also never agree to only arrange the WC every fourth year since they make a lot of money from those tournaments.

Seems like a superstrong euro-league or a superstrong KHL is the only way we ever going to see the best on best tournaments (sadly without Canada and USA then)

It's really not a fun option, i would much rather see Detroit vs Washington than Amur Khabarovsk vs Metallurg Novokuznetsk. All things considered I have to say I love the best on best tournaments more than NHL though (I expect that nobody agrees with me, since this is a NHL-forum)

The only alternative to have another best on best tournament outside of the Olympics is a World Cup. That is how you get North America on board at least. It seems whenever a discussion about a hockey world cup is brought up, many Europeans on this board frown on it. I would be all for a World Cup alternating with the Olympics every 2 years.

 

[Nakawick]

The NHL, KHL, and other major leagues, should have a world cup in summer Olympic years, so we can see the best players more often, they could even have a second division, but still keep world championship

Div 1
Canada
US
Russia
Finland
Sweden
Czech
Slovakia

Div 2
Switzerland
Germany
Latvia
Belarus
Denmark
Norway
Kazakhstan

They could have a relegation system, and add/take away teams if they have been at or absent from the world championships for 3 years in a row or something like that

Something like that could work. Divide the divisions into 8 teams and have a round robin where each team plays each other, the top 4 teams playing a semi final and final and one team being relegated for the next World Cup or something similar. Have the tournament in September/October.

 

[Sanderson]

Something like that could work. Divide the divisions into 8 teams and have a round robin where each team plays each other, the top 4 teams playing a semi final and final and one team being relegated for the next World Cup or something similar. Have the tournament in September/October.

And why have the teams from the lower division have any interest in holding such a tournament?

For them it's no different than the normal tournaments they play throughout the season, the only difference is, it's put at a horrible time. No one would be interested in playing a tournament right when the season has started. You would take the life out of all the leagues.

 

[His Beardliness*]

And why have the teams from the lower division have any interest in holding such a tournament?

For them it's no different than the normal tournaments they play throughout the season, the only difference is, it's put at a horrible time. No one would be interested in playing a tournament right when the season has started. You would take the life out of all the leagues.

because that's how it's already done.

This is no original idea. It's just splitting the best 16 into 8s and playing round robins exactly like div 1, 2 and 3.

 

[canuck2010]

It was **** until russians and sedes started dominating in Detroit.

Not sure how you have been watching NHL hockey but I don't think it an be too long with a statement like that.

 

[pouskin74*]

I really love to watch international hockey with the best players. It makes me sad to see this c-teams or d-teams that get sent to the WC every year. Do you think there could be some viable solution that could convince NHL to release players for international play? Shorter tournaments?, tournaments held in preseason before NHL starts? Nhl gets a cut from IHHF's reveneus?

...........

can you explain me what it means?