GB: World U18

[3 Minute Minor]

Don't know what that's supposed to mean, looking at the faceoff stats all 4 lines were played.

Well you're alone there, barely any people from top tier nations actually care about or follow the lower tier tournaments. The people from lower tier countries are just perfectly happy to support our nation and cheer the lads on as a lot of us have close strong connections with the players. Obviously it is less exciting for you as an outside observer. As I said, the IIHF aren't going to care enough about what could make lower tier tournaments more exciting for the very tiny amount of outside viewers to justify spending more money on them.

I have no idea why you bring up faceoff stats after what I said

All I said was that without medal games to end the tournament, there isn't meaningful games that might draw bigger audiences. Can't tell me that ticket sales don't go up when promoting a gold medal game > a round robin game in a tournament that has already been decided, no matter how small the increase.

We all knew when GB was beat by Hungary that this tournament was decided already. I still watched the games because I wanted to watch GB hockey, I donno why you're trying to act like I don't care about GB hockey due to my nationality lol I post in the GB section all the time and constantly show interest/support for GB prospects/players.

Donno why we're still talking about this tbh, all I said is that I don't like this system and I'd like to see medal games aka meaningful games at the end of the tournament because with the current system we know who won well before the tournament is over. Regardless of what you guys say, to me that's still a fact.

 

[Siamese Dream]

I have no idea why you bring up faceoff stats after what I said

All I said was that without medal games to end the tournament, there isn't meaningful games that might draw bigger audiences. Can't tell me that ticket sales don't go up when promoting a gold medal game > a round robin game in a tournament that has already been decided, no matter how small the increase.

We all knew when GB was beat by Hungary that this tournament was decided already. I still watched the games because I wanted to watch GB hockey, I donno why you're trying to act like I don't care about GB hockey due to my nationality lol I post in the GB section all the time and constantly show interest/support for GB prospects/players.

Donno why we're still talking about this tbh, all I said is that I don't like this system and I'd like to see medal games aka meaningful games at the end of the tournament because with the current system we know who won well before the tournament is over. Regardless of what you guys say, to me that's still a fact.

You said "you didn't play, same can be said about most players on GB actually" implying GB play 2 line hockey.

Lower tier tournaments won't draw in bigger audiences regardless of the system. Unless someone has a connection to one country why would they care at all? I watch the top tier WC's because it is good standard hockey, if I was from a top tier nation I would not watch lower tier nations I had no connection to because it is bad standard hockey. Outside viewers do not think "oh no there's no gold medal game I'm not going to watch now" because they won't care in the first place.

Yes we did, but I don't think anyone else actually cares. I will still watch the game on Saturday, because I know half of the players and I want to see my nations' hockey federation win games. That is the mindset of every other British hockey fan as it such a closely knit community.

You're pushing your luck a bit, you say you're happy you finally get to watch a stream but now you've got that you're complaining it isn't exciting enough for you?

Anyway this doesn't happen very often, as I said the seedings were messed up because we were poor last year. MOST OF THE TIME the tournament winner IS decided on the final day.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

You said "you didn't play, same can be said about most players on GB actually" implying GB play 2 line hockey.

Lower tier tournaments won't draw in bigger audiences regardless of the system. Unless someone has a connection to one country why would they care at all? I watch the top tier WC's because it is good standard hockey, if I was from a top tier nation I would not watch lower tier nations I had no connection to because it is bad standard hockey. Outside viewers do not think "oh no there's no gold medal game I'm not going to watch now" because they won't care in the first place.

Yes we did, but I don't think anyone else actually cares. I will still watch the game on Saturday, because I know half of the players and I want to see my nations' hockey federation win games. That is the mindset of every other British hockey fan as it such a closely knit community.

You're pushing your luck a bit, you say you're happy you finally get to watch a stream but now you've got that you're complaining it isn't exciting enough for you?

Anyway this doesn't happen very often, as I said the seedings were messed up because we were poor last year. MOST OF THE TIME the tournament winner IS decided on the final day.

Well no, you said "it's our fault we didn't do better last year" and neither you or the majority of this years team didn't play last year... Reading too far into it.

This is the first year the U18 tournament was broadcast on the interwebs. I'm talking about selling people on going to the actual rink, not getting people to tune into a free live feed online lol

I'm not saying it's not exciting enough for me and I'm still going to be watching the final game and frankly I'm starting to get a bit insulted. You're making ridiculous assumptions now. That's wonderful for you, that you're in this tight knit community and you guys don't care about anything but watching these guys play in a meaningless (tournament wise, yes it is) game but we constantly talk in these threads about growing the sport. Don't you think it would be beneficial to be getting people to tune into a GB gold medal game, regardless of the division or age group (U18, U20, Senior)? It's likely a lot more attention grabbing then "Hey come watch a live stream of the GB U18 team play a round robin game against Estonia!" I know that's good enough for you, that's good enough for me, but that's not going to grow awareness of the sport in GB. It's no different in the host country. People are more likely to attend a game with meaning, rather then just another round robin game that may or may not mean anything. You're thinking about this as a fan like yourself who doesn't care about anything like GB but you have to think about the casual fans as well.

 

[J17 Vs Proclamation]

Not gunna lie, I'm not sitting here and reading that entire post by J17. I can assume based off previous posts that it could have been summed up in 2 sentences but he feels the need to go on and on all the time lol

So you'd rather plead ignorance and live in your own little head than debate a point/conversation you started. Ok.

It's not much of a tournament, U18 or U20, if the tournament winning game could potentially be a 4-0 team vs. a 0-4 team. I would have rathered if Div 1 & Div 2 did the same as the top division, actually have a gold & bronze medal game & a relegation playoff.

So should the premier league artificially manufacture a league decider on the final game simply because you, the consumer, want to feel more excited?

It's a tournament that decides who is promoted and relegated, by the fairest process possible. If you don't like it, don't watch it, but don't complain about something you seem to fundamentally fail to understand.

You can say "well this isn't the top division and the quality of the teams differs greatly" but it's no different in the top division. An example would be the U20 top division this year. Germany & Latvia were destroyed and there's usually 2-3 teams completely out of contention going into the tournament. Latvia - 6GF 21GA & Germany - 4GF 26GA. They got the **** kicked out of them in the round robin but went to the relegation round with Slovakia/Finland and Latvia ended up the only team to get relegated. Canada went 4-0 in the round robin and ended up finishing 4th, they sure as hell didn't deserve a gold medal for their round robin play only. USA won the gold medal with a round robin record of 2-2. You find the best teams when they win when they're in do-or-die elimination games.

You can't have a league format in the elite division because of scheduling/number of teams/TV. The teams in the elite are also closer together.

What that event shows is that Top 4 can beat each other on any given day. Luck is an important factor. If that tournament were played 6 or 7 times this year, the USA would not win a high % of it.

 

[J17 Vs Proclamation]

All I said was that without medal games to end the tournament, there isn't meaningful games that might draw bigger audiences. Can't tell me that ticket sales don't go up when promoting a gold medal game > a round robin game in a tournament that has already been decided, no matter how small the increase.

I can't think of a way not to format an opening statement that is condescending towards you. Hmmmm.

All games are meaningful, since if a team loses any particular game, it affects its chances of promotion/relegation.

Ticket sales aren't a factor. We're talking about a tier 4 U-18 Junior hockey tournament. You realise this?

 

[3 Minute Minor]

I can't think of a way not to format an opening statement that is condescending towards you. Hmmmm.

The reason I don't respond to you is because you're a condescending ********* so feel free to say whatever you want and make it as condescending as possible. I won't be having a conversation with you about any topic in any part of this site, I have no respect for you (haven't had respect for you for a long time now) so it's better to just avoid it completely.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Well no, you said "it's our fault we didn't do better last year" and neither you or the majority of this years team didn't play last year... Reading too far into it.

This is the first year the U18 tournament was broadcast on the interwebs. I'm talking about selling people on going to the actual rink, not getting people to tune into a free live feed online lol

I'm not saying it's not exciting enough for me and I'm still going to be watching the final game and frankly I'm starting to get a bit insulted. You're making ridiculous assumptions now. That's wonderful for you, that you're in this tight knit community and you guys don't care about anything but watching these guys play in a meaningless (tournament wise, yes it is) game but we constantly talk in these threads about growing the sport. Don't you think it would be beneficial to be getting people to tune into a GB gold medal game, regardless of the division or age group (U18, U20, Senior)? It's likely a lot more attention grabbing then "Hey come watch a live stream of the GB U18 team play a round robin game against Estonia!" I know that's good enough for you, that's good enough for me, but that's not going to grow awareness of the sport in GB. It's no different in the host country. People are more likely to attend a game with meaning, rather then just another round robin game that may or may not mean anything. You're thinking about this as a fan like yourself who doesn't care about anything like GB but you have to think about the casual fans as well.

"We" being the national federation as a whole for not producing better players.

I see your point about growing the game but at junior level it really isn't an issue because hardly anyone in this country watches or cares about England U21 football so casual non- hockey fans certainly aren't going to be interested in GB U18 or U20 hockey. We simply do not have the Junior hockey culture of Canada or College sports culture of the USA. But at senior level yes, you have a point.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

"We" being the national federation as a whole for not producing better players.

I see your point about growing the game but at junior level it really isn't an issue because hardly anyone watches or cares about England U21 football so casual non- hockey fans certainly aren't going to be interested in GB U18 or U20 hockey. But at senior level yes, you have a point.

If you can believe it, U20 hockey in Canada use to be completely irrelevant here as well

These days, you can get that link on twitter and in front of anyone. Anyone could see a tweet saying "Great Britain ____ hockey Team currently playing in the gold medal game" and it can create fans out of anyone. It's a stepping stone.

Especially after the amount of attention the GB Senior team received during the Olympic Qualifiers, mostly through the live stream link circulating twitter. It may seem small and insignificant but progress & awareness is progress & awareness.

 

[J17 Vs Proclamation]

Adam Thilander, it's clear you don't really understand European junior sports culture and it's finances.

The event in discussion is a completely fair process. All teams play all teams and it promotion often requires a perfect record. Uusally the seedings work so that the final games are deciders, but in this case, they wern't. Big deal. Doesn't change anything. Hungary deserved promotion, and they still played and beat the UK.

 

[Shrimper]

Wait. These games are streamed?!

If the last game is then I'll watch that.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

Wait. These games are streamed?!

If the last game is then I'll watch that.

Didn't you ask this a few days ago

when you're on the IIHF site and you click "Watch Live?" maybe now not live? it takes you to a justin.tv channel that's been streaming them.


I hope they do this for the U20s as well. It's about time that they take advantage of some technologies and get these games out there!

 

[3 Minute Minor]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH they just showed the stick throwing from the GB/Lithuania game on Sportsnet intermission for the Leafs/Flyers game lmao I was not expecting that!

One of the guys on the panel praised the way GB plays hockey as well!

 

[Alpine]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH they just showed the stick throwing from the GB/Lithuania game on Sportsnet intermission for the Leafs/Flyers game lmao I was not expecting that!

One of the guys on the panel praised the way GB plays hockey as well!

TSN Sport Centre also showed the clip.
There's one meaningful game on Sat.
Lithuania v Estonia to see which get demoted.
Have to agree a Championship game and a Bronze game would add something to the tourney.
Tomorrow's games are mostly moot...just playing it out sorta thing.

 

[Siamese Dream]

The stick throwing made it's way onto the yahoo news page

as always, they blew it way out of proportion

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs...e-hockey-star-throws-stick-ref-160818518.html

 

[3 Minute Minor]

The stick throwing made it's way onto the yahoo news page

as always, they blew it way out of proportion

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs...e-hockey-star-throws-stick-ref-160818518.html

Ye I saw a Canadian version of the article last night

Talking life-time ban bahahaha funny part is none of them have notice he played Lithuania's last game

 

[Shrimper]

Being honest, it didn't look like he did it deliberately. Was damn good accuracy wise if he was. Hoping win the final game today as a good end to the tournament.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Ye I saw a Canadian version of the article last night

Talking life-time ban bahahaha funny part is none of them have notice he played Lithuania's last game

Terrible journalism

"I think they have clinched promotion" and it's division 2A not 1B

 

[ficohok*]

GBR needs only one point against Croatia to secure 2nd place.

 

[3 Minute Minor]

OHL Draft is going right now so I'm distracted. I just looked at a pick as GB scored ffs

Hook from Chamerlain/Wallace isn't surprising though

 

[3 Minute Minor]

Cownie just had his second assist on that 3rd goal, giving him 7 on the tournament, 13 all-time, meaning #1 for GB all-time (according to EP)

 

[ficohok*]

Croatia won 5:3 and they took home silver. Unbelieveable result for Croatian team. And 15 players can play next year as well at U18.

 

[Shrimper]

Bit disappointing to come 4th after being top two for the majority (I think?) but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Was a very tight group and it could've gone either way.

 

[Siamese Dream]

Next year should be better, 6 returning players including some of the better ones (Hook, Betteridge, Attwell) plus some good new guys who didn't quite make the cut will contribute next year

Good to see Cam Wynn get a goal in the last game also, he played in a couple of games for my team this year

 

[3 Minute Minor]

Next year should be better, 6 returning players including some of the better ones (Hook, Betteridge, Attwell) plus some good new guys who didn't quite make the cut will contribute next year

Good to see Cam Wynn get a goal in the last game also, he played in a couple of games for my team this year

Think they'll take Sam Duggan or wait another year?

 

[Siamese Dream]

Think they'll take Sam Duggan or wait another year?

Probably, Lewis Hook played when he was still U16, I think Duggan is just as good.