Bummer. Wished that Team NA and Canada were to lose all their games so no-one would watch this tourney. Now NHL gets their target audience and this poop might be a thing again in 4 years. Please no.
It won't be.
The bump in "ice hockey" searches in google globally:
Olympics - 88 points
World cup - 2 points
IIHF - 6 points
Basic trendline when NHL season is on is 9. This means that olympic ice hockey multiplies the global interest by 11 times. This is gargantuan event and no way NHL is going to miss it.
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Right now the US searches for Icehockey are up by about 6% comparing to last year same period. This could be the benefit for world cup.
Top events for ice hockey are the the boxing day ice hockey and winter classic in the US.
Funny enough, the IIHF creates more buzz than the stanley cup finals in the US... (needs more work on it since playoff run in the same time. The trend is downwards and both events are kind of meh.)
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In Canada the world cup might end up tying with boxing day ice hockey for the most hockey interest this season.
This is definitely good for season start in Canadian hockey. Right now 36% up comparing to last year. NHL season start bump means better ratings and more advert money. Should be good for the escrow.
The olympics caused a 5600% jump in ice hockey searches in Canada. NHL won't miss this for the world. Actually they might profit from the olympics for Canadian exposure only.
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(I am not a google analytics expert. If someone is, please look into google trends concerning ice hockey events.)