Since I started watching hockey I have been watching half of important tourneys at 2 am, like world cups, japan, us, canafian olympics etc. and you just described it as it is something new for you, which quite surprised me. It just generally looks that everything is suddenly shocking and new at least for NHL while the rest of the world can somehow handle it quite easily.
You are fully entitled to reject whatever you want. It is just harder and harder to predict what is valuable for NA fans when they can be completely crazy about U23 NA team and something like world cup no matter squares in Toronto were empty during finals. No offence, I fully respect and admire NHL and its legacy and achievement. Just its boss has obviously personal disorder nagotiating with everybody from "power" perspective pushing this league more and more to influence int. stage to be respected as the most important world power in hockey. It is disgusting, danger and out of any basic rules. That guy just cares about himself at first, then about NHL, then about NA fans and thats all. Iam quite fed up with his behaviour, he is like worm polishing his ego. I dont understand where that tolerance towards him and his decisions came from in North America. It just seems to me that NA fans respect and feel too loyal to NHL that they dont openly critize him (at least on int forums) because they feel they should stay together, ie NA fans with NHL, against the rest of the world.....
I am not quite sure how you gathered that staying up late or getting up early to watch international hockey is new for me, it is not. I have been doing that for world juniors and olympics for ages now,i was up before the crows called to watch the sochi hockey, maybe something was lost in translation here?.
What I am saying is that I won't be watching at abnormal hours for olympic hockey without the best players because it is essentially meaningless for me now and most Canadians I have talked to seem to feel the same way, if they replay the Canadian games during prime time I may be induced to watch i suppose, it is hockey after all and eventhough it will now be a heavily watered down tournament that signifies absolutely nothing there will still be a team representing us.
There was a time before our best players could play that I would watch no matter what time because we could not send our best players and I wanted to support them and hope for the big upset, our miracle on ice so to speak. But the genie is out of the bottle now, we have had(everyone has) all our best now and I and many Canadians just cannot go back to 2nd rate olympic hockey in this day and age, it just isn't the same. It's now a bogus tourney that doesnt mean anything more then winning the spengler cup does, it really doesn't. Without nhl player involvement that is what it has been reduced to for most Canadians.
I do understand your frustration with the NHL over this matter and I agree with a lot of it but it's a money thing, just like the "world championships" are a money thing and where it is catered to European fans , I just don't and have never seen any backlash from european fans that it is 99.5 % always in Europe, they seem to be o.k with that.
It's a European tradition and party and they are just fine keeping it that way.
The NHL is doing what they think is best for their business and market in this matter, they could very well be wrong but they are following the same mental process that the IIHF does concerning the so called world championships, i don't see any unease or protest from European fans about it.Their attitude is, "hey, you didnt bid on it so don't complain to us about what times the games are on". They have always been rather smug about it!!
O.K, whatever I guess.
Hey, I would very much prefer the best pros stay playing in the olympics, it has brought a lot of joy to me as a Canadian fan. But i just do not see how what European fans want should play any part in their decision whether to play or not, they are such a tiny sliver of the NHL market, miniscule.And N.A fans are just a tiny sliver of the WHC market and it shows and decisions are made accordingly. Let's be honest, though you may be one of the precious few that actually do stay up at ungodly hours to watch the NHL games you are a fairly rare beast, there just are very few European fans doing that, they follow their domestic leagues mostly.
You can't expect it to be any different here.
Bottom line, it appears that the NHL is not going to the 2018 winter games and I and many Canadians won't be getting up at 3 a.m to watch Cory Emmerton and his ilk play for a gold medal that does not mean very much in our view.
I really believe you can understand this. Just because it would still be highly valued in Europe doesn't mean it will or even should be to us.
