WJC: Open Letter To Canadian Hockey Fans

[Frederik95]

Hockey is a great sport, always nice to see other non-traditional countries take an interest. I think a German and a Swiss player winning some major NHL awards this year bodes well for the future of international hockey. It also is a hard sport to make more accessible but I'd say overall it's in a decent spot. The NHL absolutely needs to make its players available to the Olympics though.

You'll have to excuse a certain amount of Canadian arrogance. We're not the best in the world at much and hockey is religion here. People tend to take it a little too seriously sometimes.

I agree that the future of hockey is great. It has some fantastic prospect coming up from around the world and its helping a ton to see. This makes it even more important to keep the current development going and keep the current formula, and treat blowouts as growing pains that will help the future of hockey in my opinion anyways

 

[Frederik95]

An Open Letter to Non-Canadian Hockey Fans:

Stop calling us "classless" for blowout wins, then mock us for "barely winning" two days later. And, if you have to call us classless for winning by several goals, why not call out other teams that do the same instead of just us?

Stop assuming that we all have the same mentality as Don Cherry.

Stop thinking that fans waving the flag and/or cheering their boys is only considered arrogant, obnoxious and classless when Canada does it.

Stop exaggerating our general behavior and putting words in our mouths to make yourselves look like victims.

I do apologize for not making it clear enough that it wasn't all Canadians that this apply to. Most are absolutely awesome. I spend a semester in Vancouver and I can't praise Canada and its people enough.
However, there is a very small minority who are using platforms to bash the smaller nation and wishing for an elitist hockey spectrum. This is what I'm trying to show a different perspective towards. It's not hate towards Canadians.
It's to show why I think we need the World Junior to stay in its current format to further the growth of hockey.

 

[WaW]

I know fans of the "mid tier" won't like to hear this because the gap between the CZE and Switzerland/Slovakia/Germany isn't what it used to be, but I think the best solution to at least reduce non-competitive games is to get rid of previous year positioning as the group setup and always make sure Canada, USA, Sweden, Russia, Finland, and CZE are split evenly among the two groups.

Years like this one make the group with only two powers pretty rough to watch most of the games in that group.

 

[Frederik95]

what would a potential team europe look like?

This year i would say you keep the Stutzle line as the first no doubt.
I would add in either Latkoczy or Hlavaj as the starter.
Outside that im less sure. If you want fringe nation players. Rossi is a must, but after that... im not sure

 

[Frederik95]

I know fans of the "mid tier" won't like to hear this because the gap between the CZE and Switzerland/Slovakia/Germany isn't what it used to be, but I think the best solution to at least reduce non-competitive games is to get rid of previous year positioning as the group setup and always make sure Canada, USA, Sweden, Russia, Finland, and CZE are split evenly among the two groups.

Years like this one make the group with only two powers pretty rough to watch most of the games.

That i can understand. This years group with Austria was honestly just silly. Although the players still loved it im sure.
An idea would be to do the seeding on the world rankings over the past 5 years or something. That should take away from a group like that.

 

[WaW]

That i can understand. This years group with Austria was honestly just silly. Although the players still loved it im sure.
An idea would be to do the seeding on the world rankings over the past 5 years or something. That should take away from a group like that.

Yeah that might work, and they should probably be 4 pots too. Last 5 tournaments aggregate to have 1 pot with the top 4 teams from the last 5 years, 1 pot with teams 5-6 over that stretch, one with 7-8, and one with 9-10.

Next year should be a bit better.

So far Group A is set up to be:
1st place
4th place
Sweden
Slovakia
Switzerland

Group B
2nd place
3rd place
Germany
Czech Republic
Austria

 

[Bondurant]

I am just waiting for Iceland to make a splash on the international stage. Their domestic league is about to blow up.

 

[Frederik95]

Yeah that might work, and they should probably be 4 pots too. Last 5 tournaments aggregate to have 1 pot with the top 4 teams from the last 5 years, 1 pot with teams 5-6 over that stretch, one with 7-8, and one with 9-10.

Next year should be a bit better.

So far Group A is set up to be:
1st place
4th place
Sweden
Slovakia
Switzerland

Group B
2nd place
3rd place
Germany
Czech Republic
Austria

I would love that seeding process! Makes it so much better and keeps it more level each years and prevents a loopsided group which helps all.
Next year will be better. A is the stronger or harder group, but its not without chance for either Slovakia or Switzerland.

 

[Frederik95]

I am just waiting for Iceland to make a splash on the international stage. Their domestic league is about to blow up.

Bring on Gunnar Stahl as the MVP!

 

[OrrNumber4]

Great letter. I agree; honestly, I favor expansion.

 

[kabidjan18]

Credit to most canadians, americans, russians, and their fans, they don't make a stink about it.

The few people who do have a really hard time answering a fundamental question: how are all your complaints not simply solved by turning off your own TV and not watching.

 

[Onehitwonder]

I dont think blowouts are an issue these days. The margings used to be a lot bigger. Especially in the "grown ups" world championship teams like Germany, and Switzerland give any top team a hard fought battle every time. I remember when the top teams were expected to beat them by +5 goals every time. Now we are happy to scrape a W against them.

The margins are bigger in u20 of course, and will get bigger in olympics too when the best are there. Still the margings have declined.

I would increase the number of teams by 2 or 4. If longer schedule becomes a problem, then make more groups, and make every game matter, just like in Fifa world cup. It would make lesser nations more invested in junior hockey.

 

[Jaska]

Look at the scoring leaders ATM! Three Germans in top five! Things like this are likely to expand the hockey community, and that is a good thing.

 

[SotasicA]

This is fine for the WJC. And IIHF champs etc.

But honestly, for a best-on-best adult tournament, I'd rather have a six team invitational tournament with a round robin, so that you get to see every team play each other. It doesn't make sense to stop the NHL (or delay the start of the season) so Crosby and McDavid can go play against Austria or Denmark.

And in the current format for both World Cup & Olympics, a lot of classic matchups just don't happen. You finally get all the best players together, but we don't we get to see Canada vs Russia? Are you kidding me?!

Make the round robin games count by not having semi finals, but just have the top 2 teams play each other for championship.

 

[jd22]

As a Canadian, I agree with you - even if it is just for the possible underdog stories. I was cheering for Germany vs Russia yesterday, and they had a legitimate shot to win it.

I also despise the pressure that the Canadian media manufactures and places on these kids. And the arrogance that comes with it from Canadians - if Canada doesn't win gold, it was a failure. Blah.

If anything, Canada should be, perhaps, following the Norway model in nordic events where Norway provides training and funding to many other nations, otherwise high level competitions is just Norway competing versus Norwegians. They've gotten so good that the international nordic sporting events can't survive as international events without their help.

 

[Mickey Marner]

If it's any consolation, Canadians don't care for Campbell and Cox either.

 

[MMANumminen]

They'd have to call it the CANADA CUP again..........

I wouldn't have a problem with adding a Team Europe to the tournament.

If you put team Europe there, you can call the tournament whatever you want. A clown cup would be perfect

 

[karhukissa]

I am just waiting for Iceland to make a splash on the international stage. Their domestic league is about to blow up.

I've been waiting for this since The Mighty Ducks 2.

Great article OP. From what i've understood, Danish league is getting better which is great. Quite a few Finnish players there and they all are saying that infrastructure is good and there are passionate fans.

Many times it's a chain reaction. For example Finland had Kurri, who was idolized by Selänne and pretty much every young hockey player since had him as their idol. And now we have new idols in Barkov/Heiskanen/Aho etc. whom these young kids look up to.

Young Danish players needs more heroes, Ehlers is great but couple more would help. Also i'm sure that Ehlers looked up to Nielsen and thought that he can do it aswell, make it to the NHL.

 

[Exarz]

Holy smokes, are people actually advocating for a Team Europe? This is an IIHF event, an actual World Championship and not some gimmick NHL tournament where you can add some kind of all star-team to make it more competitive

 

[Daeni10]

The stuff I had to read about my German team online about the Canada game was not pretty. Sure it's the minority but thats also the kind of stuff you easily remember. Obviously it's a 2 class tournament, but there is not a single world championship where this is not the case. I think considering the circumstances we saw a pretty good tournament overall. Every team was competitive besides Austria (Swiss were 2 one goal games away from qualifying) and Germany-Canada was a pretty special situation as it was not only the 4th string goalie, but also 14 skaters playing on a back to back against Finland and Canada after not being able to train much if at all due to quarantine. And remember that it was a pretty competitive game against Finland the night before.

Overall I think the tournament is perfect as it is now. Not too many teams so most games are competitive, yet enough teams to grow the game in some countries. You can watch all the medal games in Germany for example, where as 5 years ago you couldn't even see the German games. In my opinion the seeding is more of a concern and the IIHF should take a look regarding this. Maybe even some system that includes U18 performance as the teams that play will be a mix from u18 players and returning players from last year.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

I love blowing out Euros. Never take that away from us.

 

[Stoat]

Years like this one make the group with only two powers pretty rough to watch most of the games in that group.

Did you watch other than team Canada's matches?

The system we have for groups right now is the most fair we can have. Teams have earned their spot in either group.

The system is there to keep tournament fair and competitive, not to give "better matches to watch".

 

[filip85]

I wrote an open letter to all Canadian hockey fans. Just like you, Europeans from smaller hockey nations love the World Juniors. It's an amazing tournament to watch and in its current structure, it helps the entire hockey world. Even if it comes at the price of a blowout from time to time. So to those wanting to stop the blowouts by removing teams from the juniors or recreate Team Europe. Please take a second to read the perspective of someone from a nation that isn't fighting for gold, but something completely different and let me know what you think of it. Dear Canadian Hockey Fans

?? How's that ? I can only see this mickey mouse tournament as booster for canadians hockey ego...

 

[HungryFrank]

Not only that I wouldn't cheer for Team Europe, that team would be the reason I'd never watch World Cup of Hockey. That team name makes as much sense as Mother Puckers or something like that.

 

[golfortennis]

You can always use basketball as an example. In 1956, US college kids absolutely destroyed every other country by an average of about 50 points, with no game closer than 30. By 1972, the Soviet Union was competing with them(they did not beat them, but it was a tight game), and by 1988, the college players were no longer the sure thing they once were(although roster composition was an issue).

In 1992, the NBA Players are allowed to compete. Once again, 1956 all over again. But by 2002, they aren't automatically winning world championships, they finish 3rd in 2004, and today, the NBA is populated by a large percentage of non-Americans. The US has won since, but that was because they needed to really put an emphasis on Olympic hoops. They couldn't just roll out the ball and claim the gold.

The best way for a country to improve is to see first hand the best level of play. Yes you will take your lumps early on, but history shows that is the best way to eventually get to a higher level.