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Olympics: NHL participation in the 2022 Olympics

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Czechboy said:
I still wonder who celebrates if Team Rest of Europe beats Canada in that final?lol

What anthem do they play? Who gets to keep the trophy?

It was madness.

At that time, it should've been Slovakia and Switzerland going.

FTR... I was REALLY hoping that the Swiss and Slovak players would've boycotted it. If they create an even bigger team Europe and cut the Czechs then I hope they boycott it too.

I cannot think of another sport that has every done something like that before. And I don't think they did it out grand vision or developign the game. It was a stupid idea and still is.
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Do recall that it was an nhl only tournament. The reason they “couldn’t” have Switzerland and Slovakia there is that those nations wouldn’t have enough nhl players to field a whole roster so they went the gimmick rosters instead. Lesser issue fr big nations like Russia and Czech but I do know there are players not in the nhl they would have likely picked for their teams if they could select any player anywhere regardless of where they played.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Do recall that it was an nhl only tournament. The reason they “couldn’t” have Switzerland and Slovakia there is that those nations wouldn’t have enough nhl players to field a whole roster so they went the gimmick rosters instead. Lesser issue fr big nations like Russia and Czech but I do know there are players not in the nhl they would have likely picked for their teams if they could select any player anywhere regardless of where they played.
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The Czech team had a handful of non NHL players.. we like to bench our NHL players for euro ones. It's a tradition. Lol
 
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Czechboy said:
I still wonder who celebrates if Team Rest of Europe beats Canada in that final?lol

What anthem do they play? Who gets to keep the trophy?
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I considered that too as a bad idea. But I remember that at least slovakian fans cheered for that team rather wildly. I dont think there was any anthem going to be played.
 
They could have done with six teams too and cut the nonsense out. Canada and the USA were riding very high (and the tournament parameters favored NA teams) so essentially it would have likely gone to a Canada USA final. USA was severely handicapped losing its players to the NA U23 team.
 
garbageteam said:
They could have done with six teams too and cut the nonsense out. Canada and the USA were riding very high (and the tournament parameters favored NA teams) so essentially it would have likely gone to a Canada USA final. USA was severely handicapped losing its players to the NA U23 team.
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6 would be good too.. nice quick tourney... in and out! I'd like to see a round robin... they all play each other once.. best 2 teams meet in a best of 3 final.

However, that 6th spot would be controversial. Eg. if my Czechs get it, I wouldn't blame other nations for being pissed off.
 
I think I recall based on discussions at the time that USA lost out on about 5 guys that would have been chosen had it not been for the gimmick season. For some reason they chose not to pick Kessel either even though he was their 2nd best forward at the time. I thought maybe he was injured but I guess he was snubbed due to politics.
 
What does that have to do with whether the World Cup of Hockey was a good idea or not? Nobody needs a tournament to know Canada is the best at producing hockey talent, the NHL draft reveals that.
 
Gold Standard said:
based on what the NHL's expectations were, financially, the level to which they could gouge the Canadian hockey fan, the tournament fell far short of that. As for the caliber of the hockey? Can't really say as I didn't waste a minute watching it. I don't watch gimmicky tournaments pretending to be a best on best international tournament. The only thing I saw of that tournament were some YouTube highlights 6 months later.
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Not having a World Cup in 2008, 2012 and 2020 was more of a disaster. Best-on-best tournaments is always watchable and fun and the test with Team Europe will not change that.

Dull tournaments like WC and Euro Hockey Tour is actually more of a gimmick.
 
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The IIHF World Championship is not a "gimmick", it is a sanctioned event with with history that consists of actual national teams run by a governing body and with a real process for promotion/relegation between the various groups so that even the worst team in the world can eventually win the top group if they improved (in theory, obviously not so much in practicality). It is just considered a minor event compared to the Olympics.
 
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Jahara said:
Dull tournaments like WC and Euro Hockey Tour is actually more of a gimmick.
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How are these tourneys a gimmick? Especially the WC?

I won't argue if you find it dull or not.. that's personal opinion (eg. I love the WC's and most my neighbors don't even know when it's going on). I am curious about the gimmick part though.
 
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WarriorofTime said:
Does it make anyone else following Euros or the World Cup Soccer sad to know Hockey doesn't have the same level of international play/depth/top tier of teams? It's just one team loaded with Hall of Famers, a couple other teams that are pretty good, and some other teams that are total crap. I wish I could love International Hockey but it's just not as exciting as Soccer.
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Its also made worse when Bettman corrodes a (previously) best-on-best tournament into a joke, featuring non-national teams like Younggunistan.
 
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WarriorofTime said:
No offense to them but they have one world class player and not a lot after.
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sweden made playoffs 2 tournaments in row. not lost a single game so far. calling isak, forsberg, kulusevski, svanberg, zlatan and lindelöf för crap players is funny.

and your comment about poland, yes they have 1 world class player but also others who are good.

its not like usa or canada is better than sweden or poland
 
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Eye of Ra said:
sweden made playoffs 2 tournaments in row. not lost a single game so far. calling isak, forsberg, kulusevski, svanberg, zlatan and lindelöf för crap players is funny.

and your comment about poland, yes they have 1 world class player but also others who are good.

its not like usa or canada is better than sweden or poland
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The post was talking about a hypothetical match between ALBANIA (who is garbage) and Poland. Not Sweden and Poland.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Sweden is obviously a pretty good (not world class but dangerous) team. They have a very easy match (on paper) with Ukraine to at least make the quarterfinals. Isak is going to be a star.
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yes sweden is not a top team, but our soccer team plays with a lot of grit unlike our hockey team. i would say its 50 - 50 beetween us and ukraine, they got some pretty good players actually.
 
WarriorofTime said:
The IIHF World Championship is not a "gimmick", it is a sanctioned event with with history that consists of actual national teams run by a governing body and with a real process for promotion/relegation between the various groups so that even the worst team in the world can eventually win the top group if they improved (in theory, obviously not so much in practicality). It is just considered a minor event compared to the Olympics.
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World Cup is sanctioned by the NHL and all the best national teams is there. They even have the best players unlike several other international meetings. Canada Cup/World Cup has never had any kind of promotion or relegation and the need have not been there since it is invitational and the dynamics in the hockey world is like it is. There are the big six and during the years the other teams have been to weak. Missed that.

Czechboy said:
How are these tourneys a gimmick? Especially the WC?

I won't argue if you find it dull or not.. that's personal opinion (eg. I love the WC's and most my neighbors don't even know when it's going on). I am curious about the gimmick part though.
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It is quite obvious why it is a joke. The best players are NOT playing unlike World Cup. World Championship was, unlike its name, more of a European Championship until the 70's when the best Swedish players left for playing in NHL. Then it has been a strange mixed thing that do not have much credibility in a sporting sense. But people still seem to like it, even though it is just a weird thing. EHT has lost more and more relevance during the years. Nonsense tournaments with D-grade players.
 
Jahara said:
World Cup is sanctioned by the NHL and all the best national teams is there. They even have the best players unlike several other international meetings. Canada Cup/World Cup has never had any kind of promotion or relegation and the need have not been there since it is invitational and the dynamics in the hockey world is like it is. There are the big six and during the years the other teams have been to weak. Missed that.


It is quite obvious why it is a joke. The best players are NOT playing unlike World Cup. World Championship was, unlike its name, more of a European Championship until the 70's when the best Swedish players left for playing in NHL. Then it has been a strange mixed thing that do not have much credibility in a sporting sense. But people still seem to like it, even though it is just a weird thing. EHT has lost more and more relevance during the years. Nonsense tournaments with D-grade players.
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The best players not being there doesn't make it a gimmick. The Olympics wont have some of the best tennis players as they've declined to go.. does that make the Olympics a gimmick too?

A gimmick would be Team Rest of Europe or a U23 combined team of America and Canada.

You mention that they best national teams were there at the World Cup.. not true..

Canada didn't have all their available players (eg. Connor McDavid)
US didn't have all their available players (eg. Austn Matthews)
Swiss and Slovaks were not there at all

Canada has been in 5 of the last 6 World's finals.. definitely not a Euro Championship.

I thought the point of EHT was to try out different players and combos?
 
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Czechboy said:
The best players not being there doesn't make it a gimmick. The Olympics wont have some of the best tennis players as they've declined to go.. does that make the Olympics a gimmick too?

A gimmick would be Team Rest of Europe or a U23 combined team of America and Canada.

You mention that they best national teams were there at the World Cup.. not true..

Canada didn't have all their available players (eg. Connor McDavid)
US didn't have all their available players (eg. Austn Matthews)
Swiss and Slovaks were not there at all

Canada has been in 5 of the last 6 World's finals.. definitely not a Euro Championship.

I thought the point of EHT was to try out different players and combos?
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It is a pointless tournament without relevance and sporting significance. Just because it has been there for years don't make it any good. People just seem to accept it that way. Baffling.

Most of the best tennis players has been playing the Olympics during this century so that is a dull comparison. The latest golf tournament in the Olympics was more of that. And do people say that Team Europe in Ryder Cup is a gimmick? Never heard that complaint.

Canada has never had all their best players at the World Championships. Sweden and Finland had it until the 70's while the Czechs and Soviet had all their best until the 80's, with some exceptions. But you don't seem to understand the comparison with the Euros.
 
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