Better concept for the World Cup

[1Gold Standard]

Bu bu buuuuuuuut... the world's best players will be there! The NHL told me that that is what I wanted first and foremost! Are you trying to say that having gimmick teams might just make a tournament look a bit ridiculous to many fans? Or are you trying to say that players who aren't even playing on a national team, in a supposedly international tournament, just might not have the same motivation as players on legitimate national teams?

I think what they will discover when all is said and done at the beginning of October, (and by they I mean the NHL and the select few who swallow hook, line and sinker the NHL's marketing B.S.) what the overwhelming majority of fans of international hockey want are the World's best TEAMS and not a bunch of corporate suits arbitrarily deciding around a boardroom table who they deem the best players are...


I still believe this preseason exhibition marketing tournament will be a flop. The NHL will do its best to put a positive spin on it though...

let me know how it goes though...I'll be watching baseball. Go Jays.

 

[stars33]

International hockey isn't politics

ESPN chose the 1980 USA hockey win vs USSR in the Olympics as the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.
WHY???

BECAUSE in that certain example the mixture of sports and politics created such tension filled drama it was magical.
I am not saying all international tournaments are about politics. But it is a byproduct whether you like it or not.
I did root for Chile in this year's copa america soccer tournament because of there newly adopted free market principles.

 

[xxxx]

Bu bu buuuuuuuut... the world's best players will be there! The NHL told me that that is what I wanted first and foremost! Are you trying to say that having gimmick teams might just make a tournament look a bit ridiculous to many fans? Or are you trying to say that players who aren't even playing on a national team, in a supposedly international tournament, just might not have the same motivation as players on legitimate national teams?

I speak for myself when I say I like the tournament.

I don't see how having a talented U24 team and the-best-of-the-rest European team is ridiculous. It is new and something that hasn't been seen before.

 

[stars33]

I speak for myself when I say I like the tournament.

I don't see how having a talented U24 team and the-best-of-the-rest European team is ridiculous. It is new and something that hasn't been seen before.

I am asking you what is the point if team u-24 wins. What does this determine? This is tournament crowns the best (you fill in the blank).

 

[JackSlater]

I speak for myself when I say I like the tournament.

I don't see how having a talented U24 team and the-best-of-the-rest European team is ridiculous. It is new and something that hasn't been seen before.

You must willfully ignore what people (other than the NHL) tell you.

It is ridiculous because those two teams are not national teams - and this is supposed to be an international tournament. It's as ridiculous as putting a national team in the NHL playoffs. This has been explained too many times to count. The basic logic is incredibly easy to follow - if you have an international tournament, then you must include only national teams. Every team should be constructed under the same criteria as well. This tournament fails these two basic though important rules.

The reason we haven't seen it before is also very, very obvious - no league or organization has to this point been stupid enough to try to pretend that a tournament with national and non-national teams is international. A tournament where players ply against their own national team. Only an idiot would promote that as an international tournament.

 

[Canuckistani]

I speak for myself when I say I like the tournament.

I don't see how having a talented U24 team and the-best-of-the-rest European team is ridiculous. It is new and something that hasn't been seen before.

It hasn't been seen before for a very good reason: it's stupid beyond words.

Would you ever have wanted to see Connor McDavid play against Canada if the morons at the NHL hadn't insisted it was a good idea?

 

[Canuckistani]

I am asking you what is the point if team u-24 wins. What does this determine? This is tournament crowns the best (you fill in the blank).

You know it's a horrid idea when the NHL markets this monstrosity as being a tournament to determine the best hockey nation and at the end of it we might be no closer to finding out!

 

[xxxx]

I am asking you what is the point if team u-24 wins. What does this determine? This is tournament crowns the best (you fill in the blank).

The best team of the tournament?

I don't understand that underlined question. You mean like, nobody cares? I care and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. I heard you saying that this team doesn't have a fanbase. How so? Americans and canadians could easily find a way to cheer for them if they wanted, no? It's a team comrising of the best young players each country has to offer, I fail to see how that is not or couldn't be interesting. I can find quite many posters here from both countries who will cheer for those teams, so, it apparently can have a fanbase.

 

[Canuckistani]

The best team of the tournament?

The NHL says it will determine the best hockey nation.

Have you ever been to the nation known as "U-24 North America?"

 

[stars33]

The best team of the tournament?

I don't understand that underlined question. You mean like, nobody cares? I care and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. I heard you saying that this team doesn't have a fanbase. How so? Americans and canadians could easily find a way to cheer for them if they wanted, no? It's a team comrising of the best young players each country has to offer, I fail to see how that is not or couldn't be interesting. I can find quite many posters here from both countries who will cheer for those teams, so, it apparently can have a fanbase.

Colleges compete in athletics to see who has the best program so they can promote their schools with goal of making profits. Professional club team compete to win league titles to sell tickets and make profits. National teams compete to promote their countries. Soviet union wanted to dominate in all sports to show the greatness of communism. Many nations just want to medal to give their fellow citizens pride.
What is the purpose of team u-24 and team euro? What are they promoting, who are they representing, and what is the positive outcome for them winning.
A team winning the Stanley cup will reap profits from advertising and ticket sales. And also would bring joy to a city or state.
These fake teams accomplish none of this.

 

[Coach Travis]

I LOVE the format. Are the Euro & NA rosters a tad gimmicky? Sure but I don't need to watch Germany or Slovakia get their ***** handed to them. This is like a fantasy draft come to life!

 

[Qvist]

Just make it a 7 game series between Europe and North America?

That would peak my interest way more than this joke tourny.

Nope. There's only one way to make this serious, and that is a tournament of national teams. Otherwise, it's an all-star game of one sort or another. And hence a joke.

 

[FiLe]

If they really needed to include gimmick teams for those who don't think that the NHL series video games is enough for them, here's the proper way it should've been done...

1) First let the proper NTs pick whoever they want. Only then assemble the gimmicks out of the players that didn't make those cuts.

2) Treat the collection teams as a sideshow, not part of the competition proper. As in, no points should be awarded from games versus them.


That way fantasy enthusiasts get to watch their gimmicky all-star teams play, but the event isn't tainted by the prospect of having a non-national team win a supposedly "international" tournament.

 

[JackSlater]

I LOVE the format. Are the Euro & NA rosters a tad gimmicky? Sure but I don't need to watch Germany or Slovakia get their ***** handed to them. This is like a fantasy draft come to life!

Thank you for succinctly describing why this edition of the tournament is in fact so idiotic. It is indeed like a fantasy draft, where random groups of players are thrown together. If only the other teams, national teams, weren't bound by nationality. Then it could be a full on fantasy draft.

 

[xxxx]

Thank you for succinctly describing why this edition of the tournament is in fact so idiotic. It is indeed like a fantasy , where random groups of players are thrown together. If only the other teams, national teams, weren't bound by nationality. Then it could be a full on fantasy .

Don't team NA and team Europe have pretty clear restrictions as to how select the teams? Yet it's random?

 

[Canuckistani]

Don't team NA and team Europe have pretty clear restrictions as to how select the teams? Yet it's random?

It's random because different rules apply to different teams.

Finland, Sweden, Russia and Czech can select their full squad, irrespective of age, while Canada and USA cannot.

 

[xxxx]

It's random because different rules apply to different teams.

Finland, Sweden, Russia and Czech can select their full squad, irrespective of age, while Canada and USA cannot.

That is true. But the selection itslef of any of the eight teams, is not random, which is my point.

 

[Epsilon]

I LOVE the format. Are the Euro & NA rosters a tad gimmicky? Sure but I don't need to watch Germany or Slovakia get their ***** handed to them. This is like a fantasy draft come to life!

Right because Germany and Slovakia are always having their "***** handed to them" in international competitions. Canada really handed Slovakia their ass in the 2010 Olympic semifinals, what a blowout!

 

[Canuckistani]

That is true. But the selection itslef of any of the eight teams, is not random, which is my point.

The NHL could also include Team Left-handed, Team born-in-August, Team grandfather-was-a-Partisan-in-WWII and Team been-to-Asia-on-vacation, and selection would also clearly not be random.

But none of those teams would have any more business being in an international tournament than Team born-in-North-America-before-Oct-1992.

 

[Canuckistani]

I LOVE the format. Are the Euro & NA rosters a tad gimmicky? Sure but I don't need to watch Germany or Slovakia get their ***** handed to them. This is like a fantasy draft come to life!

Yeah we don't want anyone getting clobbered do we?

2006 Olympics: Russia 5-0 Sweden, Sweden 7-3 Czech, Finland 4-0 Russia
2010 Olympics: Canada 7-3 Russia, USA 6-1 Finland
2014 Olympics: Finland 5-0 USA

Get those bums out of there!

 

[JackSlater]

Don't team NA and team Europe have pretty clear restrictions as to how select the teams? Yet it's random?

The restrictions are random, considering that each of those teams is constructed under restrictions applying only to that one team. So yes, very obviously random. Perhaps arbitrary is a better word. Idiotic is the best word to describe it though

 

[FiLe]

The restrictions are random, considering that each of those teams is constructed under restrictions applying only to that one team.

This. In a proper tournament there is only one restriction: The player picked to a team must be a national of the country his team represents. That applies to all teams, no exceptions, and there are no other restrictions. That's it.


In this "World Cup", however, we have grand total of four different restrictions that apply to different teams, creating a clusterbuss never before seen in international sport.

1. We have four (4) teams in which the participants must be nationals of the country they represent.

2. We have two (2) teams in which the participants must be nationals of the country they represent and be born before a certain date.

3. We have one (1) team in which the participants must have been born on a certain continent, and be born after a certain date.

4. We have one (1) team in which the participants must have been born on a certain continent, but are ineligible if they are nationals of the countries mentioned in clause #1.

[MOD]

 

[Doshell Propivo]

How about this... Take all of the players in the NHL and divide them into 30 teams from different cities across North America. Play a full season and the top 16 make the playoff tournament where it is best-of-7 series. Winner wins the Stanley cup.

 

[PatrikOverAuston]

I would have loved to have seen a return to the early days of the NHL All-Star Game format with the Cup winners somehow participating. Something like:

-Team Canada
-Team USA
-Team Europe
-Cup Champs

This would also help ensure the tournament follows at least a semi-competitive, NHL-style game, as the Penguins employ a unique system suited to success at that level. The other teams would need to respond in kind.

 

[Doshell Propivo]

I like the Ryder Cup idea.

But I think a US - Canada 8 game series in cities across NA would be incredibly competitive. Maybe two games each in (Montreal, Toronto, New York and Chicago).