haha, I was thinking Mexico because there is a large Mexican population in the U.S.
I had heard of them participating in international tournaments, but I didn't realize they were only 42nd in the IIHF rankings...
But note that if you have a 5 game tournament over two weeks, you can have brackets with 32 teams playing in it - and those would be the 32 team next best teams after the 6 best. So that's 38 teams. Mexico used to be 37th in the world...
The third best hockey team in the equator, after the Arab Emirates and Turkey.Mexico?
I think you would lose Canada as well.....we tend to stick by our friends....Russia is a non-starter. Include them and you lose the Finns, Swedes, Czechs, Germans, Latvians, etc.
Then so be it. You don’t like them, beat them on the ice. 4 Nations was refereed very well, and should be the case moving forward.
Hockey is hockey. The players aren’t politicians. Regardless of their views, leave politics to politics and hockey to hockey.
Not happening any time soon - as in decades, minimum.
International sports are politics. Always have been, always will be.
European players will not get on the ice with players wearing the Russian flag - period.
Leave international hockey to the IIHF.
Yep that’s the way I see it as well.Year 1: All-Star
Year 2: World Cup
Year 3: All-Star
Year 4: Olympics
Repeat
This is something that soccer has already figured out with their cadence for the World Cup and Euros/Copa America. No need to complicate things. I also think that over-saturating with internationals will cause them to lose their shine a bit, and that having a bit of distance between All-Stars will bring some of the excitement back.
You're reinventing the wheel. That annual best-on-best international hockey tournament already exists, and has for decades. It's called the World Championships. It just needs to be moved from May to February (and canceled in Olympic years, as in the past). All that needs to happen is for the NHL to stop sabotaging this event.
European leagues don't want it in February either.You're reinventing the wheel. That annual best-on-best international hockey tournament already exists, and has for decades. It's called the World Championships. It just needs to be moved from May to February (and canceled in Olympic years, as in the past). All that needs to happen is for the NHL to stop sabotaging this event.
Would you be hoping that the NHL would release all its willing players in February, during some sort of break in the season, then? Or would it not include NHL talent? Right now, it's set up in the best way to get as many NHL players as possible, without having it take place in the summer.You're reinventing the wheel. That annual best-on-best international hockey tournament already exists, and has for decades. It's called the World Championships. It just needs to be moved from May to February (and canceled in Olympic years, as in the past). All that needs to happen is for the NHL to stop sabotaging this event.
As much as I love watching international best-on-best, what would the NHL's big incentive here be?