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Team Switzerland must play in World Cup20?

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Yeah, Switzerland and Germany come pretty close to the Czechs. Which doesn't say that much on the strenghts of the countries.

The gap between Switzerland and the Czechs is of course smaller than 10 years ago. When Switzerland beat CZE the first time 2006 in Torino it was a sensation and needed a performance by Aebischer beyond imagination. If Swi and CZE would play best on best now I'd say CZE is 60-40 favorite. Switzerland has a good, young team around Josi and Niederreiter. Only goaltending worries me a little bit.

But yeah, best on best hockey has to be at the Olympics. Where the best sportsmen meet all 4 years. And where nations can qualify. And where surprises can happen.
 
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The Swiss are really not a bad team nowadays, this is more of us rating them highly vs. rating the Czechs lowly. When's the last time you'd expect a Swiss team to utterly get embarrassed and dominated in a senior men's game? Sure it can happen (like it happens to top6 countries) but really, anytime I see them play Canada or Finland or the USA I expect a fairly cagey nervy affair, still slightly lopsided, but it's a game any team should be worrying about. A game vs the Czechs is close to a coin-toss nowadays. That's why it's absolutely ludicrous Switzerland should even be considered to be excluded with this farcical tournament happens again.

Germany's good at getting out the numbers with their population. Other "major" European countries (GBR, ITA, FRA, ESP) are not threats on the international stage. The fact that they can play somewhat competitively with top nations, have a decent crop of top players and are straight up comfortably ranked top-8 on IIHF would make me not terribly upset if WCH2020 happened and they were just conveniently included without a round-robin tourney.
 
It would be fair if six best non-NA teams of the 2019 world championships were invited to the World Cup. No more silly gimmick-teams like last time around.

Hopefully the competition gain regularity, once every four years is fine but once every 12 years isn't.
 
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jonas2244 said:
The world-ranking shows a pretty clear picture.

4. USA & Finland 3765 Pts.
6. Czech Republic 3690 Pts.
7. Switzerland 3590 Pts.
8. Germany 3575 Pts
----
9. Norway 3270 Pts.
10. Slovakia 3245 Pts.

The gap between Germany and Norway is huge.
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Shocked that Norway is #9, they really aren't very good. No better than the Slovaks, Danes, or even Latvians.
 
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VLK said:
It would be fair if six best non-NA teams of the 2019 world championships were invited to the World Cup. No more silly gimmick-teams like last time around.

Hopefully the competition gain regularity, once every four years is fine but once every 12 years isn't.
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I'd say the first modern World Cup was an ad-hoc experiment because the NHL wasn't sure if they'd get IIHF players so they set up a tourney format that could live off only NHL players. I couldn't imagine that with more time to prep the next one they won't try and make it more of a legitimate format.
 
I hope they keep the number of teams at eight, no more than that. The old Canada-cup with six teams was perfect but maybe unthinkable these days.
 
Why is everyone so stuck with having eight teams at the World Cup? Changing the format from six to eight teams was a far bigger mistake than trying those over-criticized "gimmick teams" that actually raised the level.

WC should be played with six teams where everyone faces each other one time and the four best teams reaches the SF. Having a German team playing was a waste and they just like Slovakia couldn't compete with the other teams. Switzerland nowadays might do better but still they can't challenge the other nations. Switzerland, Germany and the other teams outside big six have their chance at the Olympics.
 
Jahara said:
Why is everyone so stuck with having eight teams at the World Cup? Changing the format from six to eight teams was a far bigger mistake than trying those over-criticized "gimmick teams" that actually raised the level.

WC should be played with six teams where everyone faces each other one time and the four best teams reaches the SF. Having a German team playing was a waste and they just like Slovakia couldn't compete with the other teams. Switzerland nowadays might do better but still they can't challenge the other nations. Switzerland, Germany and the other teams outside big six have their chance at the Olympics.
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Hasn't Switzerland shown that they can challenge the top teams?
 
In single games they might be able to challenge them but they are still not that good to take place in six team World Cup. Getting the round-robin format back is the main thing and not complaining about Team Europe.
 
Jahara said:
In single games they might be able to challenge them but they are still not that good to take place in six team World Cup. Getting the round-robin format back is the main thing and not complaining about Team Europe.
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Its not just about ranking between teams as I get the idea of the World Cup, its also about that a team have to have a majority of the players playing in the NHL, and nowdays the Swiss can ice pretty many NHLers.
 
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A thought, what if they have the round robin portion take place in the preseason (Septemberish), and after that the matchups become set from the seeding of the round robin results. Then the knockout and medal stages dont occur until the "All Star break". so play those games in place of the All Star game in the years of a World Cup. Kind of like the Olympics would take the All Star breaks place.

So teams could play the Round Robin in preseason and Euro leagues wouldnt have to put themselves on hold for an entire tournament time length, and training camps wouldn't be as truncated. Also helps the issue that most guys arent in mid- season form in September. The matchups are set for a few months and can be looked ahead to during the season and can be an in season storyline of which countries are set to face off. Then in January the break can be extended a few more days and fit in a quarter finals, semi finals and final games. By then all the players are in perfect mid-season shape.

I think many would enjoy it more than the current All Star game which isnt exactly must watch television. Hopefully an Olympic agreement is reached and every 2 years the WC and Olympics are alternated. So there would be a traditional All Star game every other year (or something else in its place) I think splitting it up would help its popularity and relevance as something that is set to happen and people will anticipate the matchups. Kind of like UEFA Champions league


September: WC Round Robin
October-Jan: NHL season 1st half
Late Jan: WC knockout/ medal games
Feb-May: NHL second half
 
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