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Apparently Rene Fasel is just as insane as Bettman

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Canuckistani

Registered User
Mar 15, 2014
1,627
171
Toronto
The latest news on the 2016 World Cup is that the lunatic idea of a leftover Euro "all-star team" and a junior NA squad is still on the books.

And for some reason Rene Fasel is pandering to this nonsense.

“To be very honest, I like the idea,†Fasel said. “That can be really very, very interesting, for the hockey fans. That could be something. We don’t know yet what we’re going to do, but personally I like it very much.â€
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Is he just as mental as Bettman on this issue or does he want the NHL to self-destruct on the international front and turn the WC into a farce?

A man who oversees competitions between national teams cannot possibly think this is a good idea.
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It's incomprehensible as to why they're even pondering over this. Just bring in Switzerland and Slovakia (and maybe Germany and Denmark/Belarus/Latvia) and they'd be set. Why even think about drifting away from the basic concept of national team competition?
 
I am not really a fan of Rene Fasel, but what exactly would he gain by publicly insulting it?

He's not going to say anything to a reporter other than some bland, neutral endorsement.
 
Who cares, World Cup is a meaningless event. Anything that's run by the NHL in the International arena means squat.
 
It`s all pretty straightforward to me. Switzerland and Slovakia and it's game on. For god's sake, Slovakia just won bronze at the WJC. They're not exactly a rubbish team.

I can see why Bettman would back the "all-star" idea since he knows nothing about hockey and is merely out to make a fast buck with gimmicks.

But Fasel? Shouldn't he be standing up for common sense and tradition?

I had hoped he would be the voice of sanity but instead he's playing right along with the idiots.

Perhaps he hopes that giving in to the NHL's lunacy will make it more likely that they show up in 2018.
 
It honestly boggles my mind that anyone on Earth thinks that this is a good idea. National teams and pseudo all star teams are like apples and oranges and don't belong in the same place. From what I've seen public opinion is decidedly against this idea, so hopefully all parties involved clue in. It really is the stupidest idea I've heard of in hockey for years and years.
 
Canuckistani said:
The same thing you gain by telling a friend not to drive drunk.

Friends don`t let friends bring all-star teams to national team events.
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For people in these kind of high level public executive positions, there's little long term to gain by running around peeing in their peers' cheerios via media channels, even if they are correct. bland is good.
 
Fasel probably would like to see International Federation's tournaments be the only real international tournaments, like it is in most sports I think. World Cup more like exhibition invite tournament, not as serious?

OR then he just wants to create something new and fascinating.. and if thats' the case, he's doing it wrong.

European All stars vs North American all stars is concept that should be played at NHL all-star break.

Slovakia just won WJC bronze, they have good NHL players.. Swiss has been good lately. They wouldn't spoil the tournament any way at all, tournament would be better than it was in 2004.. So just get it going as National team competition.
 
Mortgage Broker said:
Suggesting Gary Bettman is insane is ............well,insane.
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Bettman is a good commissioner. Probably the best one of the major sports.

Rough start to it, but he has really figured it out. Unlike other sports he has to compete with a PA that doesn't just bend over.
 
QnebO said:
Fasel probably would like to see International Federation's tournaments be the only real international tournaments, like it is in most sports I think. World Cup more like exhibition invite tournament, not as serious?
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All credit to Fasel if this is what he's thinking. Quite clever. Even fans in Canada hate this idea.

QnebO said:
OR then he just wants to create something new and fascinating.. and if thats' the case, he's doing it wrong.
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Yep, if he's being completely sincere then he is an idiot. There is no need for anything new. The world can handle best on best hockey more than two weeks every four years.
 
I like the idea. I just like good hockey and don't care what crests are on the jerseys
 
I don't hate the "best of the rest" concept. It will field another more competitive team if you merge Swiss/Slovaks/Germany/etc for just this tournament.

However the junior thing is crazy. You really think a bunch of 19 year olds are going to be competitive with the top players in the world? You're going to have to up that to at least the top 21 year olds to get anywhere near competitive, and even then it probably won't be enough since the other teams have 15+ years worth of those elite 21 years olds except they're all matured now, better, and in their prime.
 
If they really want to make the tourney good:

-1 pool of 6 teams therefore 5 round robin games each
-Top 4 qualify for playoffs based on same point system of world juniors. (3 for reg win, 2 for ot win, 1 for ot loss, 0 for reg loss)
-The playoffs are best of 3 and with 4 teams it will just be semi's and finals.

They could also have the seedings of the 4 playoff teams to ignore the games against the 2 non playoff teams for more relevance to their playoff counterparts.

The good thing is that there every team will play eachother once and playoff rounds having best of 3 will be awesome and will ensure the winner of the tournament is truly the best team. If they wanted to contract the amount of games, reduce the semi finals to 1 game only.

Therefore you would play a minimum of 5 games and max of either 9 or 11 games depending if the semi's are best of 3 or just 1.
 
Do you honestly think Fasel is gonna tell the media that the World Cup is a stupid idea? Of course not. He's a diplomatic man.

The World Cup isn't run by the IIHF anyhow, so he's probably inwardly laughing at the absurdity of the proposed format.
 
gqmixmaster said:
If they really want to make the tourney good:

-1 pool of 6 teams therefore 5 round robin games each
-Top 4 qualify for playoffs based on same point system of world juniors. (3 for reg win, 2 for ot win, 1 for ot loss, 0 for reg loss)
-The playoffs are best of 3 and with 4 teams it will just be semi's and finals.

They could also have the seedings of the 4 playoff teams to ignore the games against the 2 non playoff teams for more relevance to their playoff counterparts.

The good thing is that there every team will play eachother once and playoff rounds having best of 3 will be awesome and will ensure the winner of the tournament is truly the best team. If they wanted to contract the amount of games, reduce the semi finals to 1 game only.

Therefore you would play a minimum of 5 games and max of either 9 or 11 games depending if the semi's are best of 3 or just 1.
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Agreed. This would be a much better format. Every game would be critical and the teams would be much more balanced. Way too many meaningless games in the traditional iihf formats.
 
Canada4Gold said:
I don't hate the "best of the rest" concept. It will field another more competitive team if you merge Swiss/Slovaks/Germany/etc for just this tournament.

However the junior thing is crazy. You really think a bunch of 19 year olds are going to be competitive with the top players in the world? You're going to have to up that to at least the top 21 year olds to get anywhere near competitive, and even then it probably won't be enough since the other teams have 15+ years worth of those elite 21 years olds except they're all matured now, better, and in their prime.
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Agreed, but with one problem. The Slovaks are strong enough to field a team. If I were Slovakian I would be quite insulted if the nation wasn't invited. Sure their best are aging, but some good young players like Reway and Dano are coming up and in 18-20 months could be much more talented, mature players. Mix that in with some veteran talent and solid goaltending (Halak) and they could get into the medal round. After all it is a short tournament, and they did it 2010.

The Junior idea is stupid. Invite Switzerland, if not, combining Switzerland/Denmark/Germany/Latvia/Belarus/Slovenia (i.e Kopitar) would actually field a great team.

Denmark currently has Nielsen, Eller, Boedker, Andersen, and Hansen in the NHL, not to mention a few solid AHL/NHL borderline players, as well as Ehlers and Bjorstrand coming up and Mads Eller. Phillip Larsen in the KHL too.


Germany has weakened in recent years but Leon Draisaitl will be great when he develops. Ehroff, Goc, Greiss, Holzer, Seidenberg. Grubauer in AHL, and Alexander Sulzer in DEL.

Latvia offers some good KHLer's as well as Girgensons who can really play.

Switzerland would comprise most of this teams D-core, with Josi and Streit. Too many other names, but they have great talent to field a team alone, as I said above.
 
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