If you don't watch it then there is no point you have, you are only trolling.
Why is it so difficult for some fans to understand that the NHL is a business and is going to do what they feel is best for them? The NHL has seen no benefit to Olympic participation and it has been discussed ad-nauseum on here. Saying things like, "NHL should just shut down as the Olympics is bigger than the NHL.." and other similar arguments are cute, however it doesnt mean it will happen.What do you mean by "no NHL players"?
Enough of this annual & quadrennial sabotage of international hockey by the selfish NHL!
The NHL should pause its season every February for 2 weeks, to allow best-on-best World Championships or Olympics to take place.
The same strict rules should apply in hockey as in international soccer: no single country (or pair of countries) may dare sabotage top-level international tournaments.
And hockey is minuscule in terms of both global stature and $$$, compared to soccer, so don't give me that bull**** again about the NHL owners' money being more important than the Olympics or even the World Championships.
If soccer's millionaire and billionaire club owners can defer to international tournament scheduling, so should the NHL owners.
The NHL should just put up and shut up.
Other than that, the current Olympic (and World Championships) playing format is OK. But I voted "Other", given that the poll is built on a false premise.
Nailed it. The NHL has every right to tell the Olympics to pound sand (& should do so). It's a meaningless exhibition anyway & doesn't provide any value to the league.
I understand many fans, if not most fans in Europe are VERY into the Interenational events, even more than the Professional leagues. However, the thread was asking about which you would prefer assuming no NHLers. We can argue back and forth all day about whether the NHL should go (and it has been done on here for years). However, people on a message board whining about the NHL not shutting down is not going to change things. When you do what you did, you are literally an old man yelling at the clouds.
In what league do 90-95% of the best players play? Just a culture difference. International hockey is not nearly as big of a deal here as it is in Europe. You saying "Top-level international events should always have preference over regional leagues" is the same thing as Americans saying the opposite. Neither is right or wrong. It was different when Eastern Europe was under communism. The political propaganda machine did a great job of pitching the "US vs THEM" or "Our way of life vs Their way of life" hype. I can remember as a kid watching the Olympics in 84 and 88 ( was too young for 80) and the Canada Cup in 87 (by 91 it attitude had changed). Always rooted for the US and then Canada, Sweden, Finland, West Germany over USSR, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia. Then, communism fell, more European players came to the NHL and the international game no longer has that "us vs them" feel. Also do not understand how having more interest in the NHL in lieu of International play is a sign of "ignorance, selfishness, and arrogance".And the Europeans vice versa, because they couldn't care less about an American city winning the cup in a regional league on a different continent. So what?
Top-level international events should always have preference over regional leagues.
Insisting that the regional league is more important is only a testament to selfishness, arrogance and ignorance.
Surprising though it may be, this universe does not revolve around the business dealings of American and Canadian millionaires and billionaires, to which the entire rest of the world is supposed to bow down and defer.
And the Europeans vice versa, because they couldn't care less about an American city winning the cup in a regional league on a different continent. So what?
Top-level international events should always have preference over regional leagues.
Insisting that the regional league is more important is only a testament to selfishness, arrogance and ignorance.
Surprising though it may be, this universe does not revolve around the business dealings of American and Canadian millionaires and billionaires, to which the entire rest of the world is supposed to bow down and defer.
I'm confident it will happen sooner or later, regardless of the fierce defenders of the status quo (from North America, of course).Will happen from whom? Certainly not enough in North America, their customer base, to actually matter.Definitely not – never! The NHL needs to be roundly condemned until it changes its egotistic, self-centered tune.
and you'd be saying the same thing prior to the Nagano olympics, but I beg to differ.Will the NHL pay the IIHF tens of millions of dollars for their participation? Thought so. The Olympics do and it was never even intended to be some kind of a "best-on-best" competition.
What do you mean by "no NHL players"?
Enough of this annual & quadrennial sabotage of international hockey by the selfish NHL!
The NHL should pause its season every February for 2 weeks, to allow best-on-best World Championships or Olympics to take place.
The same strict rules should apply in hockey as in international soccer: no single country (or pair of countries) may dare sabotage top-level international tournaments.
And hockey is minuscule in terms of both global stature and $$$, compared to soccer, so don't give me that bull**** again about the NHL owners' money being more important than the Olympics or even the World Championships.
If soccer's millionaire and billionaire club owners can defer to international tournament scheduling, so should the NHL owners.
The NHL should just put up and shut up.
Other than that, the current Olympic (and World Championships) playing format is OK. But I voted "Other", given that the poll is built on a false premise.
Definitely not – never! The NHL needs to be roundly condemned until it changes its egotistic, self-centered tune.
Hitlers country was accepted in Hockey about a decade after he was dead and the Nuremberg trails were completed. So until Vlad slips his mortal coil....
If this is the definition of an amateur player then I wonder do the users who picked this option realize that university sports teams generally aren't a thing in Europe, not to mention university hockey leagues.
