I normally wouldn't take time to answer to someone who doesn't even bother to write correctly, but this definitely deserves a point by point rebuttal.
Not true. USA was always a contender,
From the 50's to the 80's, hockey was USSR, Canada, Sweden and Czechoslovakia. The US, Finland and Germany were far behind and only managed the occasional upset. There is a reason why the US's 1980 Olympic gold is called a miracle.
Swiss were always good but lately better but still a traditional hockey country
Hockey was always popular in Switzerland, but it was amateur until the mid 80's. 1991 was the first time Switzerland managed to stay in the top pool. They missed the Olympics as recently as 1998.
France has become better through recruting of quebeck players so dont really count.
That was true during the 90's, but thanks to important changes in the structure of French hockey, they managed to return to the top pool and catch up with countries such as Belarus or Denmark with mostly home grown players.
Italy has got to thank the olympics for their hockey expansion but cant beat top contenders.
Italy was better in the 90's than now, the Olympics have nothing to do with their evolution. They counted too much on dual-citizen they could import from Canada and they were overtaken by better development programs.
Hungary is way behind any of d nations named although getting better.
They're usually third in division I, right behind the usual Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Kazakhstan. Not bad for a country that was below China or Bulgaria in 1990.
But ur right. Shinig stars are Norway, the rapid increase in quality of Danish and u forget Dutch hockey.
The Netherlands have been a divison I team for as long as I can remember, not sure what I forgot here.
But this all to few n far between compared to bball or football. I mean in last olympic or worlds costa ricka made some great wins vs traditional strong teams in bball. Can u imagine that in hockey?
I don't know much about basketball, but a quick research showed that Costa Rica has yet to play in any Olympic or WC. Anyway, no need to imagine that in hockey, it happend for real: the last two World Championships had a surprise finalist, France beat Russia and Slovenia took Canada to OT.
japanese hockey n problems in s korean and lack of progres in chinas
Asian hockey was heavily supported by the IIHF with an automatic World Championship birth from 1998 to 2004, but Japan couldn't take advantage of the opportunity despite being head and shoulders above the other teams. South Korea on the other hand has been improving since they got the 2018 Olympics.
decline of polish, british hockey. British used to be strong. Its all to little n far between.
I'll give you Poland. I guess you were due for a correct statement. Great Britain played only one year in the top pool, back when they could count on several canadian trained players. That's not "being strong".