How can the World Championship improve as an event?

[Lepardi]

This from a country that fielded pros at amateur competitions and kept their best players on the same 2-3 club teams year-round for the purpose of peaking at the Olympics/WHC against amateurs or C-squads thrown together at the last minute.

1977-1991 at the WHC/Olympics: USSR 22 wins, Canada 1 win, 4 ties
1976-1991 at the Canada Cup: Canada 5 wins, USSR 3 wins, 2 ties

Easy to see who had the real advantages and where.

Everybody knows that the WHC or the Olympics have no relevance when we try to figure out who was the strongest hockey nation in the 1970s and the 1980s. The Canada Cups, however, could have been relevant, had the competition been fair and square. But I do think that Alan Eagleson rigged the tournaments for a good cause, because I'm happy that the west won the cold war.

 

[ulvvf]

Because the World Cup is organized by the NHL, and NHL teams pay their luxurious salaries.

So they get paid for being in the NWC, or is it part of their contract? Either way, you do not know before you have tried.

 

[Yakushev72]

The NHL didn't suffer a significant loss of status by virtue of winning in 1972. The Challenge Cup loss in 1979, on the other hand...

Recall that 1972 demonstrated that strong national teams existed in Sweden and Czechoslovakia as well. Each of whom tied Canada in exhibitions.



The Canada Cup was created to tap into the excitement surrounding international hockey after 1972, not in order to rescue the reputation of the strongest league in the world.

And it's always ammusing to hear Russians talk about the unfair advantages of the Canada Cup.

This from a country that fielded pros at amateur competitions and kept their best players on the same 2-3 club teams year-round for the purpose of peaking at the Olympics/WHC against amateurs or C-squads thrown together at the last minute.

1977-1991 at the WHC/Olympics: USSR 22 wins, Canada 1 win, 4 ties
1976-1991 at the Canada Cup: Canada 5 wins, USSR 3 wins, 2 ties

Easy to see who had the real advantages and where.

The NHL suffered a far greater loss of prestige in international hockey after the 1972 series than after the Challenge Cup. Going into the Challenge Cup, there was a general expectation that the NHL All-Stars could lose. By contrast, prior to the '72 Series, there was a general belief that the NHL and Canada were in a league by themselves in hockey. After the '72 Series, the NHL and the Soviets were ever after considered equals in talent and skill.

 

[Rob]

Move it to September.