WC: Quarterfinal scheduling

[ellja3]

I can't for the life of me find this info on the tournament website or Wikipedia. Basically, we know QFs will be played on May 17, two at 16:15 local time, two at 20:15. What I am looking for is which one of those time slots will be for, say, A1-B4 pairing. Or we don't know that yet and it will be determined once they will know whether hosts qualify?

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[Eye of Ra]

i dont know but i hate that 2 games are playing at the same time, why cant they spread it out instead .

 

[stv11]

Usually it isn't determined before all quarterfinalists are known as the home team always gets a prime time slot. There may be arena related constraints as well, for example last year Germany stayed in Cologne even though they were the lower seed and should have traveled to Paris.

 

[Lepardi]

for example last year Germany stayed in Cologne even though they were the lower seed and should have traveled to Paris.

Last year it was very easy to predict that Germany would be playing their QF in Cologne. But now it isn't as easy. I think it would be fair to make the 3rd and 4th teams in the Copenhagen group travel to Herning for the QF. So I thought A1-B4 and A2-B3 will probably be in Copenhagen and B1-A4 and B2-A3 in Herning. But could they maybe want to have Denmark play in Herning even though they won't be in the top two?

 

[Urbanskog]

Last year it was very easy to predict that Germany would be playing their QF in Cologne. But now it isn't as easy. I think it would be fair to make the 3rd and 4th teams in the Copenhagen group travel to Herning for the QF. So I thought A1-B4 and A2-B3 will probably be in Copenhagen and B1-A4 and B2-A3 in Herning. But could they maybe want to have Denmark play in Herning even though they won't be in the top two?

I don't see why would they insist on that. Copenhagen is just as much their home ice as Herning.

 

[Lepardi]

I don't see why would they insist on that.

In order to have some spectators in the arena in Herning on Thursday.

 

[Kookel]

If Denmark qualifies to the quarters they will stay in Herning and Russia or Sweden have to travel to the other arena to face them

 

[ellja3]

Thanks, guys.

If Latvia happens to qualify and have the early game, I'll be in the middle of an important workshop, which sucks. Otherwise I'd hardly care.

The games being played at the same time is ridiculous. There must be a good reason why they couldn't spread the QF to two days, otherwise it's just silly.

 

[Kookel]

I was wrong! Denmark is going to Copenhagen if they advance in 3rd or 4th place. Been confirmed

 

[Faterson]

The games being played at the same time is ridiculous. There must be a good reason why they couldn't spread the QF to two days, otherwise it's just silly.

Thursday is the only possible day, but it does suck. There simply must be a free day both before and after the quarterfinal game for every team. This wasn't always the case in the past, and it was extremely unfair for the teams that had to play back-to-back games, one of which was the crucial quarterfinal play-off game. It's always said, and rightly so, that winning or losing the quarterfinal game is the separation between success or failure in this tournament.

In order for the four quarterfinal games not to overlap, they'd need to be spread over two days, Wednesday and Thursday, which means Tuesday would need to be a free day for every team, and all group play would need to be completed by Monday. That's just not realistic if each team is to play 7 games in the round-robin group. That would be 7 games in 11 days – insane. As it is now, it's 7 games in 12 days, which is an extremely packed schedule, too, with several back-to-backs for each team. The only solution, I guess, would be to start the tournament one day earlier, on Thursday instead of Friday, but perhaps that's unrealistic.

And, it doesn't really make sense to spread out the 4 quarterfinal games over the whole of Thursday, given that it's a regular weekday and most fans wouldn't be able to watch anyway. The 4:15 pm start is tough enough.

On the whole, the current tournament model with the two large round-robin groups is a lot better than the previous nonsense with lots of 4-team and 6-team mini-groups in various tournament stages. That was confusing like hell, and mostly also unfair. Whereas now in the two large round-robin groups, the battle for the 4 play-off spots tends to be very exciting every year, right down to the final day or final minute of final group game. (The relegation battles are nice as well.)

 

[Lepardi]

IIHF - Tournament Info 2018 IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

The top-two teams of each group will stay at their venue. If Denmark qualifies, they will play at 20:15.

 

[Ducks76]

How is the tournament tree now?
SWE sv LAT
USA vs CZE
FIN vs SUI
SWE vs LAT

Semis: Winner from which pairings against each other?

 

[stv11]

Semifinals are SWE/LAT vs USA/CZE and FIN/SUI vs RUS/CAN

 

[MNNumbers]

Thursday is the only possible day, but it does suck. There simply must be a free day both before and after the quarterfinal game for every team. This wasn't always the case in the past, and it was extremely unfair for the teams that had to play back-to-back games, one of which was the crucial quarterfinal play-off game. It's always said, and rightly so, that winning or losing the quarterfinal game is the separation between success or failure in this tournament.

In order for the four quarterfinal games not to overlap, they'd need to be spread over two days, Wednesday and Thursday, which means Tuesday would need to be a free day for every team, and all group play would need to be completed by Monday. That's just not realistic if each team is to play 7 games in the round-robin group. That would be 7 games in 11 days – insane. As it is now, it's 7 games in 12 days, which is an extremely packed schedule, too, with several back-to-backs for each team. The only solution, I guess, would be to start the tournament one day earlier, on Thursday instead of Friday, but perhaps that's unrealistic.

And, it doesn't really make sense to spread out the 4 quarterfinal games over the whole of Thursday, given that it's a regular weekday and most fans wouldn't be able to watch anyway. The 4:15 pm start is tough enough.

On the whole, the current tournament model with the two large round-robin groups is a lot better than the previous nonsense with lots of 4-team and 6-team mini-groups in various tournament stages. That was confusing like hell, and mostly also unfair. Whereas now in the two large round-robin groups, the battle for the 4 play-off spots tends to be very exciting every year, right down to the final day or final minute of final group game. (The relegation battles are nice as well.)

I like the 2 8-team groups. Very fair, for sure.

To elaborate on your thoughts above:
Because there are 4 games Monday and 6 games Tuesday, it is required by scheduling that at least one of the 1/4-finalists played a back-to-back on Mon-Tues. Thus, Wednesday must be an off day as you said. (Actually it might be possible to arrange that the top 4 teams in each group were off on Monday, but there is no way to guarantee that at the start of the tournament. There is too much chance that the 5th or 6th seed crashes the knockout portion.).

Then, starting backwards:
Finals on Sunday
1/2-finals on Saturday (that means back-to-back for the medalists)
And, you can't play on Friday, too, because that's 3 in 3 nights.
So, Friday HAS to be an off day also, and thus, ALL 4 1/4-final games must be Thursday.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

I recall in 2012 & 2013 the QFs were staggered somewhat.

 

[ES]

I recall in 2012 & 2013 the QFs were staggered somewhat.

That was partly helped by tournament being shared between Finland and Sweden which have one hour time difference (Sweden has CET and Finland EET)

Finnish games were 13.00 and 18.30 with Swedish games 14.45 and 20.15. With the time difference, the game starts had 2h45 minutes between them.

Moreover, 2012 was a bit better since Thursday was Ascension so not a lot of people were working at that time.

Probably just enough to fit all games in a row if no game goes to OT. In those years, only QF going OT was between Canada and Sweden in 2013 - which was the last game of the bunch.

When all games are held in same timezone, something like this could be doable.
City 1: 14 and 18
City 2: 16 and 20

Just checked 2017 WJC times: 13 and 17.30 in Toronto, 15.30 and 20 in Montreal.

 

[Faterson]

Well, tell that to the NHL: only two play-off games per night (in the play-off second round very recently), yet they schedule them practically simultaneously. Happened at least 3 or 4 times this April/May. The TV schedules are all-powerful, even though it means viewers can only watch one of the two games...