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Has your stance on the World Cup changed for the better?

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Firsov99 said:
I welcome any format of best on best hockey. But the organizers should change the format. Three teams should qualify from each group. Group winners would get a bye, while the other four teams would play an extra round of playoffs.

If this format were used now, NA (a very good team) would most surely qualify for the playoffs, and the USA-Czech Rep game would not be meaningless.
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This would make the group stage almost meaningless, and lame.

My ideal tournament format (assuming max number of games is limited to 6), is a 6 team round robin, and a single game final between #1 and #2.
 
The whole format needs to be changed for sure, it's absolutely terrible tbh. The fact that you can head into your 3rd game with 2 wins after regulation, losing your 3rd and last game with an odd goal, and end up getting eliminated because of goal differential is just ridiculous. You should go through because you had more points than the 3rd best team in the group, not because you scored more goals than them, or didn't let in as many. Goal differential shouldn't be a tie-breaker, doesn't make the tournament look serious at all. Right now it's obvious that it's crucial.

I guess the current format makes it easier for the "underdog teams" to make an upset, as there are so few games and anything can happen really, but honestly, it's just not fair at all. 3 games for each teams, with a maximum of 5 games, are WAY too few games for a tournament that is supposed to be the replacement of the Olympics.

The hockey has been pretty good, but makes me a little bit pissed off that they haven't thought this through enough.
 
Lari said:
This would make the group stage almost meaningless, and lame.

My ideal tournament format (assuming max number of games is limited to 6), is a 6 team round robin, and a single game final between #1 and #2.
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At least it's better than the 2004 World Cup format.

Your "ideal" format would have even more meaningless games since some teams would be pretty much out of contention from the top two after a couple of losses. And the final should definitely be more than one game.
 
I will be a believer when they announce a 2020 World Cup. This can't be a gimmick every 8 to 12 years. Take it seriously or don't play it at all. I believe this can work and had they played one in 08 and 12 it could be huge by now. I hate having it in one location. Have a host country and move it around a bit. It could have been all in eastern Canada or western Canada. Same with the US.
 
I've gone from "whatever" to "Dis hocky gon b gud" when I check the highlights each morning on youtube...especially if TNA played last night.
 
Chimp said:
The hockey is great, the tournament is absolute garbage. No, I haven't changed my mind.

IF this wasn't created to refuse the NHL players to participate in the olympics, I would've been fine with it and enjoyed it alot more. Now this tournament is the equivalent of a sweet & sour sauce. **** the NHL.
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What this guy said. Except that I haven't watched a single game so no idea whether the hockey has been great or not. Also haven't watched NHL anymore for quite some time, i.e. after they started backing off from Olympic participation. Way to lose fans. **** those money grabbers.
 
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Was furious after the Team USA loss to Canada, but Team NA is saving it for me. Man, what fun it is to watch that team. I'm just glad I'm getting to watch it since the balance between the USA/Canada players are pretty even.

The game seems to be in good hands and you could make an arguement that Bettman's plan for expanding the game is working.
 
thank god for Team NA, or else this World Cup would be a bust

Canada too clinical
USA was a dud
Europe and Sweden are boring styles
Russia don't play as a team
Finland too young
Czech just too thin
 
I can say that it definitely has for me.

I was slightly apathetic for a pretty long time, once the exhibition games started I became much more interested. Seeing North America play really got me on board, also like the fact that Team Europe is holding its own. More interesting of a tournament than I originally thought it would be. Excited to see the outcome, and how far both of the teams I've mention will go.

Pretty upset that I didn't get tickets beforehand, especially considering how close I am to Toronto.
 
It is what it is. If it was renamed the NHL Cup/Tournament we wouldn't have to discuss it's place in the world. It's a nice tournament but it's an exhibition, invite-only thing and not like Olympics or WC's with qualifications and nation vs nation.
 
I don't like this hybrid version, a semi-international tournament - if you want just high quality play and are not interested in traditional national team tournaments, then reduce the European teams to three: Team Nordic, Team Rest of Europe, and Team u23 Europe. Then those who most resent their national teams being forced to play silly made up teams wouldn't need to mind.
 
I mean it's fun, a little bit short however. Functions as pre-season entertainment I guess, and being a fan of Finland first-hand it's fun to see how players have developed before the season (since Team Finland was basically U23 + Koivu :laugh:).

I can't tell if maybe it's special to north americans, but here in Sweden people arent all that high on World Cup; the WHC gets more hype.
 
Had the feeling my interest would go up once the tourney got started.
It didn't...
I still haven't seen a single game.
The hockey might be great but I can't get passed the fact that is played at the wrong time of the year.
My interest for international hockey at this point is...well, nonexistent.
There's so much other hockey I'd rather see at this point.
 
Mine did. It's like the world's top talent is split between 8 clubs, not 30. Kinda like in the o6 era.

Plus Russia is doing better than I expected but that likely ends tomorrow.
 
Everyone knew before tournament that Canada would won the tournament if they don't screw it up themselves. How about if we change participating teams so that there's like five team North Americas and three team Europes and make them draft players from their pools one by one. That way all the best players could participate and level of hockey would be even better...

To me this tournament was like watching figure skating. There was no passion for me even when Finland was playing against Sweden or Russia. I didn't watch the game between Finland and Young Guns.
 
Its not bad, but I'd still like to see proper international teams, even though we probably wouldn't win a single game. I mean, I am not sure when/if we're ever gonna have Hossa, Gaborik, Chara, Tatar, Sekera and Halak on the same roster.
 
CantHaveTkachev said:
thank god for Team NA, or else this World Cup would be a bust

Canada too clinical
USA was a dud
Europe and Sweden are boring styles
Russia don't play as a team
Finland too young
Czech just too thin
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There are some flashes of team work on russian side in this tourney. They actually do pretty good....
 
RorschachWJK said:
What this guy said. Except that I haven't watched a single game so no idea whether the hockey has been great or not. Also haven't watched NHL anymore for quite some time, i.e. after they started backing off from Olympic participation. Way to lose fans. **** those money grabbers.
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The NHL is a business before anything... Just like any other sports league in the world.
 
I have to laugh when people slam the NHL for this "money grubbing" tournament while at the same time extolling the virtues of the Olympics. News flash: the Olympics are also a cash grab except they ruin countries and cities while doing it.
 
ohcomeonref said:
I have to laugh when people slam the NHL for this "money grubbing" tournament while at the same time extolling the virtues of the Olympics. News flash: the Olympics are also a cash grab except they ruin countries and cities while doing it.
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The olympics are about 56 times more effective in creating ice hockey buzz than world cup in Canada.

After this failfish tourney nobody is trying deny players the olympics. Nobody is watching this.
 
Nope.
Still think it's a completely stupid idea and a waste of time.
For the record, I'm against NHL players in the Olympics as well. The Olympics are supposed to be for amateur athletes, not spoiled, over payed millionaires.

Just keep the NHL in the NHL.
I will say one good thing about the WCoH. I reminded me how much I enjoy football. I'll probably watch less hockey and more football going forward now.
 
I still think world cup is a cashgrab bs tournament, but at least one less gimmick team left. Canada - Russia might be a good game that I won't ever watch.
 
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