International Non-Tournament Games

[uncleben]

I will be using the US as an example.

This year the US played 3 international games with ex-NHLers such as Tim Stapleton, Dan Sexton and Andy Wozniewski

Full roster and stats can be found here.

What exactly are these games?
Are they exhibition? Do they count at all to IIHF rankings? Would this team be managed by USA Hockey?

How and when are these games organized and decided to be played? It appears Canada, as another example, did not play any of these games, but the Czech played upwards of 11.

More importantly, why is information on these international games so hard to find?
Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but other than eliteprospects, I cannot find any references to these games being played - where, when, logs, boxscores, etc.

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[Purple hippo]

They are International friendlies, played during the International break. We here in Europe have three during the course of the season and no, none of the results count towards the IIHF World rankings. None of them I believe are actually organized by the IIHF. I dont know how involved USA Hockey is with the roster, if I remember how Hockey Canada handles the Spengler Cup roster, they allow the coaches who see the players the most to pick the roster.

The Czechs play in the EHT (Euro Hockey Tour) which is a four round tournament with the Swedes, Finns and Russians. They all host their own tournament throughout the year, which is why they play so many friendlies. Some countries, such as Slovakia, Germany (Deutschland Cup where the USA plays), and Swiss, host their own tournament and usually invite the same countries over and over again in an agreement between the Federations.

The smaller countries play in the EIHC (Euro Ice Hockey Challenge) in which somebody hosts the tournament and invites like minded or slightly higher valued countries to test themselves. Unlike the EHT, not every country plays every single break or in multiple tournaments though the EIHC is held every break.

The EIHC has its own website and pointstreak account if you are really interested. Information on the Deutschland Cup for example is on the DEB website, the EHT tournaments can be found on Eurohockey.com. Eurohockey probably has all the information on the other smaller tournaments as well but I havent looked recently for them.

 

[Sanderson]

The team probably played in one of the plenty exihibition tournaments that happen throughout the season.

There are quite a few breaks in the season to accomodate these tournaments. Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Czech Republic have their own series of four tournaments, each country hosts once. The other nations have a multitude of small tournaments with differing participants, like the Slovakia Cup, Deutschland Cup, Arosa Challenge or the International Tour. There is also the Spengler Cup, which is mostly a team-tournament but also has the USA or Canada send a team now and then. Those two also send teams to the other cups as well, though that gets decided on a year-by-year basis. These teams are always managed by USA Hockey or Hockey Canada and usually consists of players playing in Europe. Sometimes these tournaments have their own website, sometimes you can find boxscores elsewhere.

Here is an example from the 2012&13 season:
http://www.scorespro.com/ice-hockey/europe-iihf/slovakia-cup/

The only thing that counts for the IIHF-rankings are the last Olympics and the last four World Championships, with the results having a lower impact the further they are away from the current year. These rankings exist purely to determine seeding for the WCH and qualification for the Olympics. As such, only these tournaments count.

 

[uncleben]

Man we really miss out here in North America... Canada does Spengler Cup, but it gets little attention. We also participated in and won the first ever Pan-American Tournament this year, and there was ZERO acknowledgement here.

I knew there were other tournaments like Deutschland Cup and EHT, but there is no recognition of international friendlies in North America at all. Even with the US competing in 3, I've heard of none, and still can't find pressers or other information on them.

I feel like the beyond the obvious ones such as NHL, Olympics, World Juniors, barely the WC and other exceptions (the CHL in Canada and to an extent the AHL and maybe the ECHL) there is not the same passion of sport as there is in Europe.

NHL is what it is, as are the big international tournaments, but you'd be lucky to see a handful of AHL games televised, and everything else is really restricted locally.

I'd love to see international tournaments and friendlies, and more appreciation for the lower tier leagues. On a national or continental level we seem to only be interested in the big fish.

 

[novisor]

I feel like the beyond the obvious ones such as NHL, Olympics, World Juniors, barely the WC and other exceptions (the CHL in Canada and to an extent the AHL and maybe the ECHL) there is not the same passion of sport as there is in Europe.

NHL and World Juniors in Canada reign supreme, and the olympics but that is only once every 4 years.
The ECHL gets absolutely no attention, I've never even seen a game on tv in my life. AHL gets marginal attention, playoffs are covered slightly more if there is a Canadian team involved.
CHL is relevant to the communities in which it operates.

1. NHL
2. World Juniors very popular for the 2 weeks they are on
3. Olympics when on are number 1 but for this list number 3 because they aren't annual.
4. CHL
5. WC
6. AHL





7. ECHL?