Shoutout to the league

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

They nailed this tournament.

Click to read more...

 

[DearDiary]

Having both medals and a trophy was ridiculous. That's really the only negative for me.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Tournament was much bettee than I expected and probably the best mainstream coverage the league has gotten in a looong time.

But they did catch lightning in a bottle due to some unfortunate sociopolitical factors.

 

[piqued]

Heartbreaking: The Worst League You Know Just Made A Great Point

 

[tarheelhockey]

Yeah, this whole thing was way better than expected. They got it right.

 

[garbageteam]

The moment worked well for them with the political clouds and even coverage/attention from both Prime Minister and President of countries.

It was a huge win for the NHL. They went from shitting on international hockey to suddenly embracing it more than they ever have in the sport's history. This is a fantastic moment for hockey and will be talked about for decades.

 

[bringbacktheskate604]

I haven't seen the numbers for all the games but the fact 1.5 million Finns out of 5 million is pretty damn cool

 

[MadLuke]

It made a lot of international news-live coverage, did work out great.

Maybe too long of a break before the last game and the Sweden game was meaningless, deflating the energy post canada-us first duel a bit.

Also, could be a market by market thing obviously, but it was not that easy to watch here, even for people with paid cable.

 

[NyQuil]

Excellent quality of hockey, a lot of drama, most games were close.

I hope they leaned their lesson with bizarre substitution rules than no one understands.

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

The intensity was incredible, loved every minute. Captured the casual audience too. Just don't get any funny ideas like doing this every other year. World cup and Olympics should have us covered for a while. Main reason for the quality was the 9 year break - this generation of players have been starving for international hockey.

 

[Matty Sundin]

Only thing I’d change is maybe have this tournament start August/Septemeber like the previous Canada cup/World cups so players can be a bit more fresh.

I don’t even think owners or management would hate these tournaments as much as it can also be a good way for players to get into game shape quicker playing intense hockey before the start of the season. It was unfortunate USA ran into injury problems. I also don’t think it’s fair majority of the league gets a 2 week vacation while other players don’t. All in all, these games were fantastic and something even the NHL playoffs have been missing for a while.

 

[Mathieukferland]

Also, I much prefer the prison rules on display to the IIHF 5 minutes for body contact, it made the games so much more intense when the games were continually 5v5

 

[Faterson]

They went from shitting on international hockey to suddenly embracing it more than they ever have in the sport's history.

You mean fournational, not international. Don't confuse the two.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

Skill level last night was fantastic. Speed and tape to tape passes from both teams.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

You mean fournational, not international. Don't confuse the two.

It was between four nations. International implies more than one nation, but not every single one.

No need to be salty. Slovakia wouldn't have been able to ice a team, and if they had they would have lost badly.