How do you rate the international tournaments?

[Nordic Pride]

1. Olympics, obv.

Then we have the WHC vs WJC. I do enjoy watching WJC more than WHC but I really can't say it's more important to win WJC since Sweden haven't won it during my lifetime. We simply haven't won anything in need to defend. No real houner to regain after a non-Gold winning tourney. Simply no GOLDEN history to live up to.

But there's no doubt that it's becoming bigger and bigger in Sweden. For every year it's broadcast, more and more people are falling for the great quality of hockey delievered by these talents.

However. One major difference between Hockey Canada and Hockey Sweden is that we don't have the same culture when it comes to Junior Hockey. All our best U20-players are in general already playing senior hockey at that age and the junior leagues gets no media coverage from the major news sites whatsoever.

If we would win, let's say back-to-back Gold medals and the broadcast continues, along with the press, more or less demanding Gold I'm sure we'll be closing in on Canada when it comes to the importantness of winning Gold.

 

[jakzed]

For myself:
Olympics
World Championships

World Cup


NHL Playoffs



WJC

I wouldn't rank the World Cup as high as the World Championships because it's basically a North American rules tournament. Don't put a ton of stock into the world juniors & don't get why people here get so stocked about watching kids play anyhow.

 

[Vic Rattlehead*]

Olympics
WJC


WHC

Couldn't care about the rest. World Cup is too infrequent to include.

All fall behind the Stanley Cup Playoffs, though.

 

[Nordic*]

I'd much rather see Sweden win the JWC than the WC. We always ice a B-, C- or even D-team for the WC due to the best players declining/Taking part of the NHL playoffs. All juniors want to play the JWC, and they play with a lot more passion and pride than the seniors.

Heck, I might even put the U-18 ahead of the WC, the only problem is that their games are rarely aired in Sweden.

 

[sushi45]

Oly
WHC

all others

 

[Phenomenon]

Olympics
World Cup
World Championships
WJC

If Stanley Cup or all other cups in national series are considered an "international tournament", they all would be less important for than the first three choices. Finnish SM-liiga goes of course quite high and if I could choose between a gold medal for Finland in the Olympics or SM-liiga championship for Ilves, I would probably go with the latter one.

KHL, Calder cup, Elitserien, NLA, etc. have almost no importance to me, because I am not following those series closely. Priority for "my teams" are:
1. Ilves
2. Finland
3. Bruins

 

[Kekumba]

Important to me personally...

Olympics
WJC
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
WHC
Whatever else

 

[steap]

Olympics
...
WC
U-20
...
...
...
Champions League
EHT
...
...
Spengler Cup
U-18
...
...
World Cup

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Am I the only guy for whom the significance of the Olympics depends on the presence of NHL players?

 

[Random Oracle]

Am I the only guy for whom the significance of the Olympics depends on the presence of NHL players?

Nope. I'd rank the world cup of hockey ahead of the olympics if the olympics don't have NHL players.

 

[Lauro]

Olympics

(World Cup)


World Championships

I don't care about the rest.

 

[Muuri]

WJC hasn't been best vs. best for years. All the best young Canadian American, Russian and Swedish players are allready in NHL and won't play in the tournament.

 

[SP]

Olympics
WJC

That's about it.

 

[Make]

Olympics
(World Cup)
WHC
WJC

WJC is usually in NA so watching the games at night can bee a bit difficult. TV-coverage for WHC and Olympics is (or was) great in Finland. I watch all Finnish games in the WHC and Olympics and also most of the other top6 games. I don't really care how good the teams are, I'm just happy to see Finland play.

Finland has been struggling in the junior level so there hasn't been that much hype about it here. The interest is growing though and games can bee seen on pay per view. One problem is that junior hockey isn't really popular at all. The Junior A-league games draw crowds of only 100-300 per game. Also, for a small country like Finland, it's extremely difficult to ice strong teams from just a couple of age groups. Smaller chances of winning = less general interest.

 

[Hybbe]

Olympics
Stanley Cup
WJC/NHL regular season start
WHC
NHL regular season
SEL playoffs
SEL regular season
u18 WJC

Decided to throw in the leagues that I follow closely as well.

WHC used to be more interesting back when the best swedish players didn't decline invitations and SEL used to be more interesting as well some years back. The olympics is still unthreatened as it's basically the only tournament these days that feature all (or at least most) of the best players and it's only every four years.

 

[Ati]

1Olympics
2World Cup
3a)Stanley Cup / Gagarin Cup
3b)World Championships
4WJC

 

[Jussi]

Olympics
World Champs
World Cup
WJC

Stanley Cup depends if Finns are playing in the final. I haven't watched streams of this year's playoffs since Anaheim (=Selänne) was eliminated.

 

[pld459666]

Olympics

(World Cup)


World Championships

I don't care about the rest.

Stanley Cup

Olympics

World Cup (when they have had it)

World Juniors

World Championships

U18

 

[Turku Caps]

1) Olympics

Best against the best, 'nuff said.

2) WJC

High intensity level. Really nice to see all those young prospects. The atmosphere is also great when it's played in Canada.

3) WC

It of course was fantastic to see Team Finland winning last Sunday but I'm still not too much into World Championship. Players look tired after the long season. All the superstars (especially Russian) don't sacrifice everything they could.

4) U18

It's not even televised here in Finland.

 

[Canuckommunist]

(1) Olympics (best against best, once every four years, all seasons plan breaks for players to participate).

(1b) Legit World Cup (same as above, assuming its done with the NHL's agreement and done more like the Football World Cup)

(2) WJC (best of the world's up-and-coming players against best of the world's up-and-coming players.)

<much further down>

(3) World Cup (not best on best- interesting because many bubble Olympic players and roleplayers play, but nowhere near the above).

(4) U18

Stanley Cup doesn't figure in because it's not an International tournament, though if it did, it would be bigger than all of these for me.

 

[Stoneberg]

For me:

Olympics


WJC



WHC/U18

If we are including a world cup where the best players from the NHL are playing I would put it on par with the WJC.

 

[Bupi]

I cant find words to say how much I hate "World Championships" and especially now since Finland won "the championship". People here who follow hockey 2 weeks in May think this is the best / second best accomplishment from the Finnish national team and those people have acted like friggin idiots past couple of days. Those players are mostly borderline NHL'ers/KHL'ers and just because they won a tournament consisting mostly of same kind of players from other countries has suddenly made them heros. F***kin hate it!

Can't people realize that those teams have virtually no players from the teams that played in the Olympics? Wake up! This tournament means nothing. They aren't the best in the world.

Oh, my list...

Olympics
World Cup
.
.
.
WJC
.
.
don't care about the rest

 

[Nakawick]

Olympics
World Champs
World Cup
WJC

Stanley Cup depends if Finns are playing in the final. I haven't watched streams of this year's playoffs since Anaheim (=Selänne) was eliminated.

Sean Bergenheim is ripping it up for the Lightning. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/statistics/

 

[TheMuumio]

I cant find words to say how much I hate "World Championships" and especially now since Finland won "the championship". People here who follow hockey 2 weeks in May think this is the best / second best accomplishment from the Finnish national team and those people have acted like friggin idiots past couple of days. Those players are mostly borderline NHL'ers/KHL'ers and just because they won a tournament consisting mostly of same kind of players from other countries has suddenly made them heros. F***kin hate it!

Can't people realize that those teams have virtually no players from the teams that played in the Olympics? Wake up! This tournament means nothing. They aren't the best in the world.

And I hate elitist **** like this. Seriously, how does it take anything away from you if people celebrate a win? The championship united people (well except you and those "soccer society" idiots) which is a good thing. I couldn't care less if they watch 1, 2, 10, 20 or 50 matches a season - they are no worse than me, you or anyone.

This is exactly what I hate about us Finns: we just have to find something to b**** and moan about regardless of the situation.

 

[Vaeltaja]

Olympic & WHC share the first spot - olympics have 'higher quality' players but usually less team play, vice versa for the WHC. Best players rarely means that resulting teams are the 'best possible' ones except in fantasy hockey - after all in ice hockey team work is the deciding factor in the end.

World Cup

(FEL playoffs)

EHT - varies from near WHC to totally abysmal - never know what you are going to see. Still with national teams far more interesting than petty squabbles of primped NHL stars.

(FEL regular season)

(Stanley Cup playoffs- only interested in performance of fellow countrymen)

WJHC & U-18 get the last spot - not interested in children's play.