That is not true. 8 teams is perfect for a round robin where all teams play each other and then the top 4 have the semi finals and then the finals. The minimum number of games a team would play would be 7, the most 9. More importantly, all of the best teams would play each other at least once. The tournament can easily be hyped by the media.
None of the recent 8-team tournaments have used this format, though, in fact don't think it has ever been used in a meaningful competition, so in reality my point stands.
A true world cup of hockey would be something that every hockey fan should enjoy. Watching the best players in the world play hockey is something that any fan of the game should love no matter where they are from. The Olympics generally has most of the best players, but it is so compacted that the players arrive from their club teams one or two days before the tournament starts, have one practice then start playing, then can't even celebrate before leaving the next morning on their flights back to their club teams.
There is a very easy and obvious solution to that: have the olympic break last just a few more days. That can't seriously be a reason to abandon the Olympics as the most important prize in hockey.
The Vancouver tournament schedule was messed up. With 12 teams why have 3 divisions of 4, then some crazy Qualification round of one game, then the quarters. 12 teams should mean 2 divisions of 6 with crossover quarters.
Agreed, but that's what happens when you let North American organizers have their way.
Interestingly the reason behind this move was also that they felt this format would mean more "meaningful games", with the top teams vying for the supposedly all-important automatic quarter-final berth. In the reality though pretty much the entire first round was rendered meaningless since everybody advanced and indeed the team that won it all had to go through the qualification round they were supposed to try and avoid at all costs.
Yet another cure that proved worse than the alleged "disease".
