So I will follow this tournament to wait for that day. Or?Before you laugh, read about the recent Šatan vs. Chára feud. I've just mentioned it above. The two weren't on speaking terms for something like 2 years. You, obviously, have never heard about it.
Well, I can't wait for it.
If that were so, and political correctness
Slovaks should just stay away completely from this travesty, in any shape or form. This is not how you treat the nation of hockey World Champions, and it's not like that was 100 years ago – some players from that 2002 gold team are still active players today, like Nagy, who could certainly be valuable even on a Slovakia team composed predominantly of current NHL-ers.
I remember that this is exactly what people were saying about Slovak hockey in the late 1990s, just before Slovakia started winning all those medals, including gold in 2002. People like you kept saying: "We're a weak team, we can't possibly ever compete with Czechs, we should be happy just to play in the top Worlds category, blah, blah, blah, the golden times of Czechoslovakia are over forever and can never be brought back, blah, blah, blah." The typical defeatist Slovak mentality. 
There is all the time in the world, and no extra qualifiers are needed, because the World Championships in Russia can serve as a perfectly legitimate qualifying tourney – after all, the Worlds tourneys have always also served as Olympic qualifiers, with no one complaining about it! So don't give us that bull**** about "no time for qualifiers". 
So, like someone else in this thread, I'll be rooting for a Slovakia vs. Switzerland final at the upcoming World Championships in Russia, and then I'll be rooting for a united and firm boycott of the Mickey Mouse Cup by all Slovak & Swiss players in September.
Would you dare to tell me the year of your birth? You are are writing a Hollywood-like history. In 90's we were hockey power house and we won gold as all NHL stars came in for Worlds. We were far the best team there. We crapped previous Olympics as NHL players were not allowed to play qualifiers, and without them we were exactly what we are thin.No, you're just happy to be and stay mediocre, that's all.
It took someone with a winning mentality, like Peter Šťastný (winning only because he spent decades of his life living and playing in Canada – if he had stayed in Slovakia, he would have ended up being just such a defeatist like virtually all Slovaks), to say it clearly: "Slovakia can and should compete for medals, and it can even win gold." And a few years later, that's exactly what happened.
Again, it's inexcusable to exclude 2002 World Champions from a so-called World Cup of hockey, without even giving them a chance to qualify for the event. They should at least have given both Slovakia and Switzerland, as well as other hockey nations, the opportunity and motivation to join the tourney. That would have been the decent thing to do. They could have used the upcoming World Championships tourney in Russia as a World Cup qualifier, saying that whichever two teams outside of the top 6 nations come up at #7 and #8 in that event, will get the invitation to play at the World Cup. Don't give me those idiotic excuses about "no time for qualifying".
So, like someone else in this thread, I'll be rooting for a Slovakia vs. Switzerland final at the upcoming World Championships in Russia, and then I'll be rooting for a united and firm boycott of the Mickey Mouse Cup by all Slovak & Swiss players in September.
No, you're just happy to be and stay mediocre, that's all.
It took someone with a winning mentality, like Peter Šťastný (winning only because he spent decades of his life living and playing in Canada – if he had stayed in Slovakia, he would have ended up being just such a defeatist like virtually all Slovaks), to say it clearly: "Slovakia can and should compete for medals, and it can even win gold." And a few years later, that's exactly what happened.
Again, it's inexcusable to exclude 2002 World Champions from a so-called World Cup of hockey, without even giving them a chance to qualify for the event. They should at least have given both Slovakia and Switzerland, as well as other hockey nations, the opportunity and motivation to join the tourney. That would have been the decent thing to do. They could have used the upcoming World Championships tourney in Russia as a World Cup qualifier, saying that whichever two teams outside of the top 6 nations come up at #7 and #8 in that event, will get the invitation to play at the World Cup. Don't give me those idiotic excuses about "no time for qualifying".
So, like someone else in this thread, I'll be rooting for a Slovakia vs. Switzerland final at the upcoming World Championships in Russia, and then I'll be rooting for a united and firm boycott of the Mickey Mouse Cup by all Slovak & Swiss players in September.
I think you need to swap the numbers here.
We even have a recent example. Didn't USA do exactly that in the Sochi bronze game...
For the record, I was being snarky there. As it indeed was the 50-50 NHL/Euro split Finland that skated circles around the full-NHL US of A.
Wouldn't it be great to kick some Canadian ass. I wish they would win it. That would make my day.
