WC: What can the IIHF do to fix the World Championships of Hockey?

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

I'm sure someone else has suggested it, but why don't they just have it every NON-Olympic year? One major international tournament per year is enough (per "age group"/level), and who cares who is willing/able to play as long as the absolute best possible rosters are assembled for the Olympics?

 

[icing]

I'm sure someone else has suggested it, but why don't they just have it every NON-Olympic year? One major international tournament per year is enough (per "age group"/level), and who cares who is willing/able to play as long as the absolute best possible rosters are assembled for the Olympics?

What about Romania? Slovenia?

 

[Jussi]

I'm sure someone else has suggested it, but why don't they just have it every NON-Olympic year? One major international tournament per year is enough (per "age group"/level), and who cares who is willing/able to play as long as the absolute best possible rosters are assembled for the Olympics?

Originally Posted by ts
And what to to with promotion and relegation for the smaller nations playing in B and C-Worldcups?
Tell them "well, you were unlucky , you were the best nation at this years B-WC and normally would play A-Level next year, but unfortunately there are the Olympics next year, so no A-WC, so you have to win the B-WC next year again"? Or "you got relegated the year before the Olympicks, sucks, but you will stay at least two years down there"?

Do you really think the nations besides the top 7 will support such a system only that the average NA can say, "oh, it got a little bit more interessting, I think I may watch the finals if Team Canadas goes that far"?

"Unfortunately" probably because of this, Finnish hockey federation boss (also high up in IIHF rankings) Kalervo Kummola believes that there will World Championships held in 2014 and 2018.

 

[Vladiator16*]

Do nothing, i enjoy Canadians ****: "We dont care about this tournament" or "NOBODY cares about this tournament" and "This is our B, C or D (depending how poorly they performed) team." Americans, Russians, Swedes, Czechs all have obstacles of one kind or another, but I do not see them **** like that.

 

[ES]

Sorry but how should this work? A team that loses all 3 games in the preliminary round finishes it as 4th in his group, so it can't proceed to the 2nd round as only the best 3 make the qualifying round.

And in the qualifying round are played only 4 games because the teams which played in the preliminiary round against each don't play again against each other in the qualifying round.

Losing all games on overtime/shootout.

Germany vs USA, Finland vs Denmark, Finland vs Germany, Denmark vs USA as it happened

Then if in the final games, Denmark had beaten Germany in regulation, Finland beaten USA in OT, the standings would have been:

Denmark 8 (5)
Finland 5 (2)
USA 3 (2)
Germany 2



In 1998 Switzerland made it to semifinals with only two wins. System was little different but it was like this.

Preliminary group contained Sweden, Switzerland, USA, France. Sweden beat all, Switzerland beat France, France beat USA and USA beat Switzerland. Swiss had best record of the three and was second in the group. The two best were arranged in new groups of four where Switzerland had Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia as its opponents.

Czech Republic beat Switzerland and Slovakia, draw with Russia. Switzerland beat Russia and draw Slovakia. Russia beat Slovakia, so they ended

Czech Republic 5
Switzerland 3
Russia 3
Slovakia 1

Switzerland ranked 2nd because of head-to-head. Into the semis where Sweden beat them and then they lost to Czechs in bronze medal game as well.

 

[FinnswissX]

Losing all games on overtime/shootout.

Germany vs USA, Finland vs Denmark, Finland vs Germany, Denmark vs USA as it happened

Then if in the final games, Denmark had beaten Germany in regulation, Finland beaten USA in OT, the standings would have been:

Denmark 8 (5)
Finland 5 (2)
USA 3 (2)
Germany 2



In 1998 Switzerland made it to semifinals with only two wins. System was little different but it was like this.

Preliminary group contained Sweden, Switzerland, USA, France. Sweden beat all, Switzerland beat France, France beat USA and USA beat Switzerland. Swiss had best record of the three and was second in the group. The two best were arranged in new groups of four where Switzerland had Czech Republic, Russia and Slovakia as its opponents.

Czech Republic beat Switzerland and Slovakia, draw with Russia. Switzerland beat Russia and draw Slovakia. Russia beat Slovakia, so they ended

Czech Republic 5
Switzerland 3
Russia 3
Slovakia 1

Switzerland ranked 2nd because of head-to-head. Into the semis where Sweden beat them and then they lost to Czechs in bronze medal game as well.

Yes, it's possible, I forget all the time the extra-point by losing in overtime/shootout. The only way to avoid this is to eliminate the point for losing in overtime/shootout so that there are only 3 or 2 points to win by a victory and 0 point for the loser no matter if it's in overtime/shootout.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Yes, it's possible, I forget all the time the extra-point by losing in overtime/shootout. The only way to avoid this is to eliminate the point for losing in overtime/shootout so that there are only 3 or 2 points to win by a victory and 0 point for the loser no matter if it's in overtime/shootout.

I've never understood the mentality that there can never be tie games in round robin play. The system should be changed before a team "loser points" its way to the QF.

 

[eliostar]

For it to be like the World Cup of soccer it needs to be
the most important international tournament, that means no NHL players at the Olympics.
Have it every four years.

 

[Sayuri]

Do nothing, i enjoy Canadians ****: "We dont care about this tournament" or "NOBODY cares about this tournament" and "This is our B, C or D (depending how poorly they performed) team." Americans, Russians, Swedes, Czechs all have obstacles of one kind or another, but I do not see them **** like that.

Wow get over it. Whether our team is B, C, or D does not change with how well we do just how proud we are of winning if we can manage to win with our lower skilled level groups.

Do you want to know why you don't get other people *****ing on here about the players they send? How well represented are countries like Sweden and Russia on these boards as compared to Canada?

You're obviously going to get a much wider variety of opinions when you have vastly more people to hear from. Do you actually believe that fans back home in those countries are not sitting around talking to each other about who isn't on their respective teams?

 

[CutOnDime97]

Replace the All Star game with World Championships and Olympics.

 

[JVR]

For it to be like the World Cup of soccer it needs to be
the most important international tournament, that means no NHL players at the Olympics.
Have it every four years.

But it doesn't WANT or need to be like the soccer WC, that's the olympics.

I like the WC the way it is. The only thing I'd change is to not play it in an olympic year.

 

[Beerfish]

Other than possibly delaying it a bit I have no problems with the present format. This has been one of the best world championships of all time. I've enjoyed a lot of the games. The best thing about it is the improvement of the teams out of the top 6. No more freebie games anymore.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

What about Romania? Slovenia?

What about them? Not joking either... in which way are they being treated unfairly here?

"Unfortunately" probably because of this, Finnish hockey federation boss (also high up in IIHF rankings) Kalervo Kummola believes that there will World Championships held in 2014 and 2018.

I don't really get the problem. Weaker teams that take advantage of reduced depth among top teams (whose best players tend to be on teams that make the NHL playoffs and are unavailable for the start of the WC, or not willing to play afterwards due to fatigue) are afraid of losing promotion rights if full strength teams in the Olympics push them back down? Work out something about WC results/promotions/relegations carrying over to the next WC separate from Olympic results. Even if that specifically doesn't solve the "problem", it hardly seems like an impossible nut to crack.

But, perhaps if the Olympics "erases" any promotion a team "earned" in the WC, they didn't really deserve it in the first place (and vice versa with relegated teams that might earn promotion at the Olympics, or whatever). In any case, the WC is definitely still a good ranking tool as it gives you an idea of the strength of depth on teams in the absence of some of the absolute top talents each team has to offer.

For example, Russia probably still deserves to be ranked above the Czechs, but this year's WC suggests that the gap between them isn't that great once you get into the roster depth.