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Dirtyf1ghter
Registered User
- Aug 7, 2019
- 2,632
- 1,712
The goal of the hockey planet is to grow.
Today there are 9 competitive nations capable of playing for a medal.
Denmark, Austria, Belarus, Norway, Latvia have never been stronger. All these countries have a lot of room for improvement.
Today, a senior 16-a-side world championship is more relevant than an 8-a-side or 12-a-side championship.
But I think we have to go further with an elite world championship at 24 and a world B championship with just as many teams.
6 groups of 4 teams then Round 16. All eliminated teams play a classification match. The last 3 go down. All teams play 6-7 games.
For the big nations, that means fewer games to play, and therefore more motivating.
For a nation like Japan (24th IIHF), it is an opportunity to play against a big nation but also two more affordable middle nations (Denmark, Belarus) then to play against totally affordable teams to play maintenance.
This formula makes it possible to stabilize European nations with strong demographics (France, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Ukraine) and to promote hockey in Asia (Japan, China, South Korea).
It would also be necessary to move the championships (in raising the curtain of the NHL season for example) or during a truce of 2 weeks.
Playing 10 matches in 14 days at the end of the season including 7 group matches is not motivating.
Today there are 9 competitive nations capable of playing for a medal.
Denmark, Austria, Belarus, Norway, Latvia have never been stronger. All these countries have a lot of room for improvement.
Today, a senior 16-a-side world championship is more relevant than an 8-a-side or 12-a-side championship.
But I think we have to go further with an elite world championship at 24 and a world B championship with just as many teams.
6 groups of 4 teams then Round 16. All eliminated teams play a classification match. The last 3 go down. All teams play 6-7 games.
For the big nations, that means fewer games to play, and therefore more motivating.
For a nation like Japan (24th IIHF), it is an opportunity to play against a big nation but also two more affordable middle nations (Denmark, Belarus) then to play against totally affordable teams to play maintenance.
This formula makes it possible to stabilize European nations with strong demographics (France, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Ukraine) and to promote hockey in Asia (Japan, China, South Korea).
It would also be necessary to move the championships (in raising the curtain of the NHL season for example) or during a truce of 2 weeks.
Playing 10 matches in 14 days at the end of the season including 7 group matches is not motivating.
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
No. What we need to do is to include even more nations.
Canada
USA
Finland
Russia
Sweden
Czech
Slovakia
Germany
Switzerland
Denmark
Norway
Latvia
Belarus
Are all given.
Kazasksthan, Italy, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Japan, UK and KHL China are decent and would not make a fool of themself in A-division.
Thats 22 teams.
Canada
USA
Finland
Russia
Sweden
Czech
Slovakia
Germany
Switzerland
Denmark
Norway
Latvia
Belarus
Are all given.
Kazasksthan, Italy, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Japan, UK and KHL China are decent and would not make a fool of themself in A-division.
Thats 22 teams.
But with NHL-Stars we ve the old order. Than we ve Top 5 Nations + Czech. The rest ve no chance.
Switzerland winning a bronze medal in a best on best tournament wouldn't be anywhere near the most surprising things to happen in pro sports.
With that said, 12 teams at the Olympics is just about perfect.
Only a couple of weeks ago, Latvia scored 8 goals against Hungary in one single period. I'm perfectly fine with 16 teams in the World championship, but I'd like to see the 4 group format and the middle round brought back, which helps reduce a few blowout games.
I do not believe that! Clearly a surprising victory would be possible. But nothing more.
Hockey is a sport where bounces, goaltending and power players are huge factors - especially in any one singular game. When you have Hischier, Fiala, Niederreiter, Meier and Josi - you can score against anyone in just one game. If they are lucky with the seedings, they could avoid Canada in the quarter finals. And from a pure motivational standpoint, they should have the upper hand against pretty much any other team in the bronze medal game. All of the top 5 nations enter that tournament with only winning gold in mind.
Despite this is not enough for a best on best tournament. Enough for a usually WC but not for this.
