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The Four Nations Tournament Thread

You guys think Kevin Blankinen will see a game or is it a forgone conclusion that it's Saros net?
 
Slapshot_11 said:
You'd have a point if this was the Olympics, its just some cash grab the nhl has pulled out of thin air
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Every international tournament is just some cash grab pulled out of thin air.

Why do the Olympics matters? We want them to. No other reason than that. There was a time the USA and Canada literally didn't care about ice hockey at the Olympics and were sending amateur squads. Then they started caring.

WJCs are a big deal in Canada? Why though? TSN hyped it up and now people care. Ultimately it's only a junior tournament and CAN/USA typically don't have their best players available. It's the purest example in hockey of a cash grab that was morphed into some test of patriotism. I don't see why the 4 Nations or some other version of the World Cup (of Hockey) could not be the same at some point.
 
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bossram said:
Every international tournament is just some cash grab pulled out of thin air.

Why do the Olympics matters? We want them to. No other reason than that. There was a time the USA and Canada literally didn't care about ice hockey at the Olympics and were sending amateur squads. Then they started caring.

WJCs are a big deal in Canada? Why though? TSN hyped it up and now people care. Ultimately it's only a junior tournament and CAN/USA typically don't have their best players available. It's the purest example in hockey of a cash grab that was morphed into some test of patriotism. I don't see why the 4 Nations or some other version of the World Cup (of Hockey) could not be the same at some point.
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Note bolded. You missed 2 major reasons.

1. For a ton of years the Olympics were for amateurs only. Pros were not allowed to play.

2. Once pros were allowed in, it also required agreement from both the NHL to release players and for the NHLPA to agree for them to go.

This tourney is mostly a gimmick. Russia is missing for good reason. But I suspect Czechia and Switzerland might be annoyed, since both were ranked higher than the US and Sweden in the most recent IIHA rankings of countries (men) in May 2024.

And this is a one of. It's not likely to happen again. And a lot of top players will be missing. Lots of countries not represented.
 
ChilliBilly said:
Note bolded. You missed 2 major reasons.

1. For a ton of years the Olympics were for amateurs only. Pros were not allowed to play.

2. Once pros were allowed in, it also required agreement from both the NHL to release players and for the NHLPA to agree for them to go.

This tourney is mostly a gimmick. Russia is missing for good reason. But I suspect Czechia and Switzerland might be annoyed, since both were ranked higher than the US and Sweden in the most recent IIHA rankings of countries (men) in May 2024.

And this is a one of. It's not likely to happen again. And a lot of top players will be missing. Lots of countries not represented.
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There’s really no way to make other countries happen because this is run by the NHL and there aren’t enough guys from other nations to fill out those teams.
I imagine making this a truly international tourney might be more difficult because you would need to pull players out of the other pro leagues in the middle of the season to make it happen.
 
Tough decision for our Captain. We can sit here and say it's a "meaningless" tournament (it is) but to the players, it always means something to represent your Country.

Gonna have to cheer up our Captain at our first home game back.
 
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Pretty much worked well out for this tournament.
Almost everyone, most importantly Hughes, gets two weeks rest, ep1 gains some confidence/fun playing with the top swedes, and Lankinen will get a game and all the vibes.
 
DFAC said:


YES BABY YES
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Thank god.

This is the right choice, he just took way to long to get to it.

He so very clearly needs this time to rest, recover and rehab.

Hell, he still might not even be back to 100% in two weeks because he’s dealing with two different injuries.

Playing in this tournament would’ve delayed his recovery at best, and aggravated his injuries further at worst.

Very relieved to hear this news.
 
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I’m sure Hughes is devastated, but huge for the team for him to get another full 2 weeks off. I imagine he saw how this team performed while he was out and felt a lot better about our trajectory.
 
Deeds26 said:
Tough decision for our Captain. We can sit here and say it's a "meaningless" tournament (it is) but to the players, it always means something to represent your Country.

Gonna have to cheer up our Captain at our first home game back.
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I think more than just his country, he will not get a chance to play with his brother(s). But I am overjoyed that he will not play.

1 - He needs to heal, good for Nucks.

2 - Major blow to the strength of the US team, who I hope finishes last. Since trump got elected I wish them nothing but ill.
 
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