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WJC: Expanding The World Juniors

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ORRFForever

ORRFForever

Registered User
Oct 29, 2018
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If they were to expand the World Juniors to 2 divisions of 6, that would increase the number of games by 10. So the questions become :

1) Are there 2 countries that could be added who wouldn't embarrass themselves?

2) How do you fit in the additional 10 games while leaving New Years Eve as the BIG night for the Round Robin?

3) Is it too much of a good thing?

It is doable if :

The IIHF were to have 2 games on Christmas Eve, 3 games on Christmas Day, and 1 additional game from Dec 26 until Dec 30th = 10 games.

I'm sure TSN would NOT object - if given the choice between NBA games and World Junior Games on Christmas Day, TSN would happily take the WJR's.

Any thoughts?
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It would be more meaningful with less teams in the top division in my opinion. It is more purposeful for teams to play other teams on the same competitive level. Those are the interesting match-ups (in my humble opinion).

To watch your team lose w/o a glimmer of hope against top six well what is the fun in that? What is the fun watching Canada vs Kazakhstan? I would prefer 8 teams in the top divisions, 8 in the IA and 8 in IB etc. Each division divided into two groups of four. With the top two playing finals and the 4th placed teams relegation play-off.
 
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Or. Expand the lower division. And the top one will be locked only for the top teams. Sorry Slovakia...


WTF im talking about... :huh:
 
The size is fine as it is. There are some years where the worst top-6 countries that year have struggled even against the relegation team, and often teams 8-9 can have pretty good games against the mid-pack. Yeah you'll get the rump team that Canada puts up double digits against every year or so, but Canada practically can beat up anybody to a pulp in this tournament on a good year. Defences are not as tight in the mid-lower level teams in jr's as in the senior's tournaments where they can usually keep it fairly close.

I think you'd rob the opportunity of some pretty decent up and coming rosters like recent German, Austrian or Danish teams if you took away the bottom two. That said, there is no argument now or in the forseeable future for any more teams at all.
 
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Maybe China one day.

It's amazing how FEW countries play hockey at a high level.
 
The hope is that they can get 12 decent quality teams.

I personally thought that when the Slovaks had their own team that by now we would have Germany, Switzerland emerge to make 9 teams plus any of Norway, Austria, and the old soviet republics make the last squad for the current group of 10. This is where we are at.

but I don’t see any of those nations emerging to be consistent nations to grow the tournament to 12 teams.
 
StreetHawk said:
The hope is that they can get 12 decent quality teams.

I personally thought that when the Slovaks had their own team that by now we would have Germany, Switzerland emerge to make 9 teams plus any of Norway, Austria, and the old soviet republics make the last squad for the current group of 10. This is where we are at.

but I don’t see any of those nations emerging to be consistent nations to grow the tournament to 12 teams.
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I definitely thought we would be further along than we are. Both the Czechs and Slovaks have fallen off more than I thought they would, particularly considering how much better they looked shortly after the split.

I’m happy the Swiss have made positive strides, though this year looks like a bit of a speed bump. Germany is coming along nicely now, but they’ve had some setbacks in what was supposed to be their breakout tourney this year.

Other than that, nobody has really made a serious challenge. It’s actually arguable that we should have less then 10 teams as that last team or sometimes two get manhandled pretty badly.
 
Statsy said:
I definitely thought we would be further along than we are. Both the Czechs and Slovaks have fallen off more than I thought they would, particularly considering how much better they looked shortly after the split.

I’m happy the Swiss have made positive strides, though this year looks like a bit of a speed bump. Germany is coming along nicely now, but they’ve had some setbacks in what was supposed to be their breakout tourney this year.

Other than that, nobody has really made a serious challenge. It’s actually arguable that we should have less then 10 teams as that last team or sometimes two get manhandled pretty badly.
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I think it is also just naturally more difficult with an age capped tournament. Denmark had a mini golden generation and managed to keep their team up for a number of years. The second that group of players phased out, they dropped. Germany is currently in the middle of a resurgence, the big test is can it be sustained or in a couple years do they follow the path of Denmark? I think at the senior level you see teams like Denmark and Germany a lot more competitive for a substantial amount of time. Success at the junior level is more about building a sustainable program that isn't dependent on a handful of elite talent to keep you in the main group anymore. It would be pretty awesome if Germany could eventually develop into a nation similar to the Swiss.
 
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Rob said:
Ten is the right number. More teams means more blowouts.
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Exactly this. Yes, it's fun to watch the occasional blowout but too many just wouldn't be good to watch. With the current 10 teams, there's usually a few blowout games but not too many where it becomes pointless to watch them.
 
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Hockey is not deep enough for 10 teams at this level. Czechs are arguably number 6 behind big 5 and their last medal was 2005.

I know the occasional country sneaks out a bronze every 3 to 5 years but it's been 5 teams for 15 years.
 
Ten is the correct number IMO but there should be change in relegation/promotion system which would make it more likely that is is ten best countries of that age group which are in the tournament.
 
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