Team Europe should be like Team NA but the rest of the world

[Elvs]

Yeah, but Team Europe can't win this thing either. Their defense/goaltending isn't much better than Slovakias or Switzerlands would be on their own. The forwards are obviously better, on paper. But I don't see this Euromixed team going great lenghts (meaning giving 110%) to win games and risking getting hurt.

At least the guys playing for the real nations can hold eachother accountable for not working hard enough, not being focused etc. On this team, would a player worry what his teammates thinks of him? I don't think so. The right thing for these players to do is to get through this tournament without getting injured.

The U23 team, I can understand them working hard. They are young players wanting to prove they can beat the big guys, especially Team Canada and Team USA. Not to mention they have people actually cheering for them and media covering them.

But that doesn't make it right. Where is Sweden 2? Sure, they'd be a pretty bad team but where's my 2nd "national team" to root for? Canadians and Americans were given a 2nd team to cheer for. Meanwhile Slovaks, Swiss, Germans, Danes etc were given a team to hate and root against.

And in four years, I fully expect the NHL to change the rules. The U23 team will be a U21 team, or Canada/USA will get first dibs on the players. Anything to make sure McDavid and Matthews aren't stuck on the U23 team.

Making up gimmick teams and mixing them with national teams, working against everything international sports has ever been about, makes it difficult for people to take the NHL seriously. That's their mistake.

They could have made the right thing. Invite more countries or at the very least forget about the gimmick teams and just go with 6 national teams. Then you wouldn't have to deal with all these rants. No one would have said "OMG! How could they have invited Slovakia and Switzerland!? They should have made up two fantasy teams instead!" as no one would ever have thought of the possibility of the league doing something so odd.

Americans and Canadians would still have Canada and USA to cheer for, who have been playing great hockey against eachother in the exhibition games. And Europeans wouldn't have been crapped on.

 

[Stephen]

Team Kopitar is the worst idea ever.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yeah, but Team Europe can't win this thing either. Their defense/goaltending isn't much better than Slovakias or Switzerlands would be on their own. The forwards are obviously better, on paper. But I don't see this Euromixed team going great lenghts (meaning giving 110%) to win games and risking getting hurt.

At least the guys playing for the real nations can hold eachother accountable for not working hard enough, not being focused etc. On this team, would a player worry what his teammates thinks of him? I don't think so. The right thing for these players to do is to get through this tournament without getting injured.

The U23 team, I can understand them working hard. They are young players wanting to prove they can beat the big guys, especially Team Canada and Team USA. Not to mention they have people actually cheering for them and media covering them.

But that doesn't make it right. Where is Sweden 2? Sure, they'd be a pretty bad team but where's my 2nd "national team" to root for? Canadians and Americans were given a 2nd team to cheer for. Meanwhile Slovaks, Swiss, Germans, Danes etc were given a team to hate and root against.

And in four years, I fully expect the NHL to change the rules. The U23 team will be a U21 team, or Canada/USA will get first dibs on the players. Anything to make sure McDavid and Matthews aren't stuck on the U23 team.

Making up gimmick teams and mixing them with national teams, working against everything international sports has ever been about, makes it difficult for people to take the NHL seriously. That's their mistake.

They could have made the right thing. Invite more countries or at the very least forget about the gimmick teams and just go with 6 national teams. Then you wouldn't have to deal with all these rants. No one would have said "OMG! How could they have invited Slovakia and Switzerland!? They should have made up two fantasy teams instead!" as no one would ever have thought of the possibility of the league doing something so odd.

Americans and Canadians would still have Canada and USA to cheer for, who have been playing great hockey against eachother in the exhibition games. And Europeans wouldn't have been crapped on.

You're absolutely right. They should have invited Slovakia and Switzerland (or just had 6 national teams), left it at that and nobody would have said boo.

I'd bet heavily that things will indeed be different 4 years from now. They won't tweak the rules of how teams are made up though, they will just dispense with the non-national teams altogether. There should be enough negative feedback to ensure this IMO.

 

[BruinLVGA]

These two teams are chock-full of prospects and AHL fodder. They would get slaughtered by even the Czechs.

Are even half these guys NHLPA members? Considering they never, you know, played a game in the NHL.

In the past three Olympics, Switzerland played the Czech Republic twice (2006 and 2014). Switzerland beat them in both games, in regulation. With less folks who have NHL / North American experience than they have now.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Sure, they could win a game, maybe two. And I shouldn't of said "smoked". They could keep a game here or there close.

And I don't believe hockey is played on paper, but let's be honest, there is a fairly big separation between full-time regular established NHL guys and the AHL talent you have listed. Don't just list out partial teams with 2/3 of the guys not full-time NHLers and imply they could win the whole thing.

But they have zero chance of winning this tournament, or even a tournament where you have a single-elimination quarters/semis/finals. Maybe they can get hot and get to the semis, but that's about it.

Re bolded, at the 2013 IIHF WC (look at rosters of say Canada and you will be surprised at the names there...), Switzerland went 9-1. Unfortunately the "1" was the finals against host Sweden, who by the way called back the Sedins as reinforcement for this game... They didn't want to risk losing the Worlds at home (especially knowing they already lost 3-2 to Switzerland in the group stage)...

The difference between Switzerland being an elite team instead of only a very good hockey team is consistency, being able to pull runs like that often instead of once every blue moon. But they're most definitely capable of it.

 

[Booster*]

No, in so many ways.

 

[Babula]

NA has no opponent once again. pls beat them someone. crossfingers for the rest....

 

[BruinLVGA]

Good rant. I agree with you though. Winning is the whole point, but there are plenty of people that complain that the NHL is boring because it's not entertaining enough. The mid 90's aren't called the start of the Dead Puck era for nothing. Too many teams, watered down product, too many coaches, too many players playing like robots, etc, etc.

Personally, I guess I haven't really been emotionally attached to the international tournaments. I'll watch, because it's a great stage, but I'm not "USA!, USA!" or anything. They're not handing out a gold medal for this tournament, so it's not the same as the usual international tournament. It is what it is. Maybe that's a sham to some people, and maybe it's just a simple pre-season tournament to others. They tried to get as many NHL players as possible, and still have an international feel to it. People accept it for that, or they don't. Either way is ok.

Ahahah sorry, I get very passionate about things.

People always complain about something, it's not something new. And yet, they always watch their teams play. I think hockey will be just fine.

You see, the difference is that in North America you have 3 nations. Plus the USA is as big as a continent and Canada is huge too. I understand that you don't get too emotionally vested in international competitions. In daily life, it's Americans as far as the eye can see for a mighty long time before you get to Canada (I am not talking about Mexico because I am talking this in a hockey point of view).

In Europe, that's different, there's 30+ nations, all with their language and ways of life. It is normal for a European to have this intense sense of competition against all neighbors.

I am not against the World Cup per se. I consider it a pre season, friendly tournament with nothing at stake. Just a prolonged exhibition. The biggest negative thing is the weird teams (nations & a team representing a continent & another team representing another continent but with an age limit?).
Where I have a huge problem is when they (the NHL) are trying to sabotage an established competition done the proper way (= teams of the same type - nations - qualify by direct results or standings generated by results) like the Olympics, by trying to replace it with the World Cup. I am completely against this.

 

[westc2]

Team USA got screwed by having to send some of their best players to the U23 team. The only country that can afford to do this is Canada right now.

 

[Stephen]

They should just name it Team Austro-Hungrian Empire.

 

[Xokkeu]

Team USA got screwed by having to send some of their best players to the U23 team. The only country that can afford to do this is Canada right now.

One? I'd take Dylan Larkin, Jack Eichel and Johnny Gaudreau over Justin Abdelkader, Brandon Dubinsky and David Backes. I'd even have a hard long thought about Seth Jones being on the team over Byfuglien or Erik Johnson.

 

[KingsFan7824]

You see, the difference is that in North America you have 3 nations. Plus the USA is as big as a continent and Canada is huge too. I understand that you don't get too emotionally vested in international competitions. In daily life, it's Americans as far as the eye can see for a mighty long time before you get to Canada (I am not talking about Mexico because I am talking this in a hockey point of view).

In Europe, that's different, there's 30+ nations, all with their language and ways of life. It is normal for a European to have this intense sense of competition against all neighbors.

Absolutely. It can be a very different perspective. If the 50 US states were each their own country, it would be more similar to Europe today. That's not quite how history worked out though. Plus most or all the top players from Europe are playing professionally in the NHL, and not in their home countries, until these international tournaments come around. If the best Canadians and Americans were over in European leagues every winter, it could also be different.

I'm not saying you should cheer for Team Europe. I get why it doesn't do much for fans, or players, outside of Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic. It's weird to have a team like that thrown together.

Where I have a huge problem is when they (the NHL) are trying to sabotage an established competition done the proper way (= teams of the same type - nations - qualify by direct results or standings generated by results) like the Olympics, by trying to replace it with the World Cup. I am completely against this.

I think sabotage and replacing the Olympics are words that are a bit too strong at this point. They're trying to make some money with this tournament, and I'm still going to guess that any talk of pulling out of the Olympics is still just negotiation. This current tournament is the NHL trying to create some leverage against the Olympics in terms of insurance and all that. Have to wait and see on it though.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Absolutely. It can be a very different perspective. If the 50 US states were each their own country, it would be more similar to Europe today. That's not quite how history worked out though. Plus most or all the top players from Europe are playing professionally in the NHL, and not in their home countries, until these international tournaments come around. If the best Canadians and Americans were over in European leagues every winter, it could also be different.

I'm not saying you should cheer for Team Europe. I get why it doesn't do much for fans, or players, outside of Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic. It's weird to have a team like that thrown together.

I think sabotage and replacing the Olympics are words that are a bit too strong at this point. They're trying to make some money with this tournament, and I'm still going to guess that any talk of pulling out of the Olympics is still just negotiation. This current tournament is the NHL trying to create some leverage against the Olympics in terms of insurance and all that. Have to wait and see on it though.

Much too strong IMO. Every time I read this nonsense like the NHL is somehow ruining some imaginary future I just want to roll my eyes but what can you do, the paranoia is just too strong and can't be reasoned with it seems.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Much too strong IMO. Every time I read this nonsense like the NHL is somehow ruining some imaginary future I just want to roll my eyes but what can you do, the paranoia is just too strong and can't be reasoned with it seems.

This seems "much too strong".