Another NHL Marketing Fail: No Canada-NA Game

[Moorpheus*]

Dumb tournament.

Most exciting team is eliminated due to a lack of games.

I look forward to the Olympics where we can have real competition and real national teams again.

 

[yukoner88]

Dumb tournament.

Most exciting team is eliminated due to a lack of games.

I look forward to the Olympics where we can have real competition and real national teams again.

that's not the tournament's fault, if team North America didnt collapse against the czech's, or win their game against Sweden in regulation, they would've moved on.

But hey ignore the games played and crap on the tournament instead

 

[major major]

If they didn't succeed wildly (at marketing) with Team NA, then there wouldn't have been a "fail" in not having a Canada-NA game. No one would have cared.

 

[iamjs]

You do realize that casual hockey fans are nowhere near as obsessed with young promising players as the average poster on this forum? The idea that Canada vs Team NA would be some glorious marketing opportunity sounds very dubious to me.

Personally, I loved the way Team NA played but Russia - Canada is a far more exciting prospect for a semi than Canada - Canada B/USA B.

USA B? That's debatable.

 

[Past Considerations]

Dumb tournament.

Most exciting team is eliminated due to a lack of games.

I look forward to the Olympics where we can have real competition and real national teams again.

I prefer Olympics otherwise, but I think this tells something about the expectations of us hockey fans: in Olympics the top teams can play group stage half-sleep and they always advance. The group stage have little meaning because after that it's "win two and you're in final". And in Sochi literally all advanced: bottom teams just played the qualification round first before being seeded to QFs.

WJC used to do use a format where group 1sts advanced directly to semis, rest played QFs. I liked that. If applied to 8 team tournament, then 1sts to semis, 2nds and 3rds play QFs.

 

[New User Name]

I guess I'm one of the few who prefers playing Russia.

I don't think many of the Canadian players on Team NA really wanted to play against Team Canada. Ditto for US players on NA playing against the US.

 

[Soundwave]

Have you ever considered the possibility that North American players may not have wanted to play their own country?

Well I'm pretty sure they did consider that possibility, seeing as how it was a goal post away from happening anyway.

The players don't make the schedule/tournament set up, the league does. Once Team NA was in, then the team playing against Canada or USA was always a possibility.

 

[Soundwave]

If they didn't succeed wildly (at marketing) with Team NA, then there wouldn't have been a "fail" in not having a Canada-NA game. No one would have cared.

They didn't "market" Team NA, the fans took to a great product in that team.

The NHL is yet again caught flat footed not understanding their own product. They obviously did not realize this team would be so popular.

 

[SAK11]

If the schedule makers did have a reason for this, maybe this would be it-
Canada and USA are easy sells, the NHL knows that the games they play in will be viewed regardless of the opponent. So that's why you put the two least popular teams in their pool. In the other pool, you put 4 fairly interesting teams, especially the young guns, to get people interested in that side of the bracket. If the Czech's were in that pool, those games might not have interested fans much at all.
The other element to this is by putting USA and Canada in the bracket with two lesser teams, you set up a fairly good chance of having the finals being Canada vs. USA, which is the ultimate final. USA failed and ruined that, but maybe that was a thought as well.

 

[JA]

Dumb tournament.

Most exciting team is eliminated due to a lack of games.

I look forward to the Olympics where we can have real competition and real national teams again.

I don't think Team Switzerland would have been quite as appealing to watch as Team North America. I don't think those games would have made the tournament more competitive, nor would have the additions of Team Latvia, Team Norway, and Team Denmark.

The Olympics may feature only real national teams, but the tournament would truly be a competition between fewer teams due to a lack of parity. Team North America has not made the semifinal, but the alternative would have been Team Switzerland; even with more games to play, the Swiss national team likely would not have secured a semifinal position. Russia and Canada are both highly probable to qualify for the semifinals at each Olympic tournament. If you want a matchup of Olympic proportions, you have one in Saturday's Canada vs Russia match.

The Olympics features more teams and more games, but is less competitive overall. Canada, USA, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Switzerland are the eight teams that generally qualify for the quarterfinals at international tournaments. The NHL could have easily featured those eight teams, but the quality of competition would have been diluted. Instead of being excited about Team North America, you would be watching Team Switzerland in what would almost certainly be a very short tournament run. Would you prefer to watch Team Switzerland rather than Team North America? Would Team Switzerland vs Team Russia have thrilled you as much as Team North America vs Team Russia?

You can't be supportive of Team North America and then say you would prefer the Olympics instead, especially by justifying it as "real competition" when the World Cup has been far more competitive.

 

[Rayban*]

How is it a marketing failure that the gimmick team lost to Russia and Sweden?

Maybe for ESPN haha

Have you been following this at all??

 

[Rayban*]

Invite? That seems too easy. Make up a gimmick eu team to cover all their bases? Yes!

Maybe they should let Finland join team EU and invite Switzerland next time for the sake of parity.

 

[Boruto]

I'm not sure you understand what marketing means. This is kind of how tournaments work. The World Cup of Hockey's success remains to be decided but the World Cup of Complaining is going the way of whatever the opposite of the definition of gimmick is.

 

[Boruto]

It's almost as if Gary Bettman went down everyone's chimneys and stole their birthday presents to fund this event. So many complainers over a fun, free to watch, exciting celebration of hockey and its players.

 

[Boruto]

Just take away the All-star games, the NHL awards, the public NHL draft, league promotions, stadium series, winter classic, heritage classic, World Cup of Hockey, and reduce the season down to 48 games and broadcast exclusively on AM radio again.

 

[Seanaconda]

that's not the tournament's fault, if team North America didnt collapse against the czech's, or win their game against Sweden in regulation, they would've moved on.

But hey ignore the games played and crap on the tournament instead

Czechs ? Maybe you pay attention to the games hahah. Russia.

 

[Seanaconda]

The Swedes were also playing a back to back game against speedy NA team that had a day off in between. Not that much of a surprise that Swedish defense or Lunqvist weren't at their sharpest.

Uhhh I thought that lunqvist had one of his best games tbh. Every team had a back to back.

 

[illpucks]

Team North America with Aaron Ekblad and Matt Murray healthy beat this current Canada.

I'll hold judgement on a healthy team Canada. But this current version of Team Canada would lose to North America with Ekblad and Murray healthy.

 

[Seanaconda]

Team North America with Aaron Ekblad and Matt Murray healthy beat this current Canada.

I'll hold judgement on a healthy team Canada. But this current version of Team Canada would lose to North America with Ekblad and Murray healthy.

That's pretty ballsy I kind of doubt that. But I guess we will never know. Would of been a great game to see tho.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Team North America with Aaron Ekblad and Matt Murray healthy beat this current Canada.

I'll hold judgement on a healthy team Canada. But this current version of Team Canada would lose to North America with Ekblad and Murray healthy.

Even with a healthy Ekblad and Murray
Canada's forward >> NA
Canada's defense >>> NA
Canada's goalie >>>>> NA

 

[Tomas W]

Canada vs Soviet Russia is a classic. Bet many in Sweden will watch that game.

 

[Tomas W]

NA was very happy with the third place of four, at least judgeing from thier celebrations. Woooo were not dead last boys!!

 

[c9777666]

They could've done a better job setting up the groups.

Heck, we never even got Team North America vs. USA.

 

[Flamingo]

They could've done a better job setting up the groups.

Heck, we never even got Team North America vs. USA.

If team USA hadn't flopped, the final 4 would have been Canada-Russia and Sweden-USA. I think that would have been a successful outcome of the group stage.

Team NA was a big unknown, and it's their own fault for not beating Russia.

The organizers had the prescience to form team NA U23 when every fan doubted them, especially criticizing them over how its players wouldn't be motivated to play against their own national teams. Now that NA U23 didn't make a medal game, people are criticizing the organizers for not ensuring a Canada or USA matchup for them?

 

[Mikeshane]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves with these types of tournaments. You get these great teams together and you don't even have them play every other great team. It's such a waste to go through all the effort to put on a tournament like this and skip possibly great match ups.