I don't think so, I know so, cause I live in Europe. People who actively follow hockey here in Finland held the World Cups of 1996 and 2004 in very high regard. Many avid hockey fans here are even a bit elitist when it comes to these events. They think the traditional World Cup is way above the World Championships in prestige, and they despise the "stupid masses" who only really follow hockey for two and a half weeks in May when Finland fights for the WHC gold and don't understand how much more it would mean to win a real best-on-best international tournament. By turning the World Cup into a non-international event the NHL has turned many of these World Cup loving Finnish hockey fans against it.
I know people here in Finland who would never travel to the IIHF Worlds, cause it's considered such a hillbilly thing to do, but who were immediately interested when we started to plan our trip to Toronto this September. I myself decided I'm going when I first heard they were planning to bring back the World Cup (I think it was in 2014), and even though I absolutely hated the inclusion of the all-star teams, that wasn't enough to stop me. I've now booked hotel rooms in Toronto for eleven people.
That's a load of crap. I didn't badmouth the World Cup in 1996 or 2004, cause there was no reason to. I loved it, and I remember how excited I was to watch the finals between Canada and USA in the middle of the night in 1996 even though I had to go to school the next day (I think I might have missed the morning classes though). I won't be badmouthing the event in 2020, if it's a tournament for national teams, and I wouldn't be badmouthing this year's edition, if they'd just left the gimmicks out. I would love to see a best-on-best hockey tournament in Toronto for six or eight teams, where every player gets to represent their country. For me a tournament like that is way more prestigious than the World Hockey Championships in May, and I'm certainly not the only Finn who feels this way. Many best-on-best hockey loving people here in Finland even mockingly call the World Championships "the Skoda Cup" to show how little they think of it. By bringing in the gimmicks the NHL has downgraded the legitimacy of their tournament so much, that the difference in prestige to the WHC is nowhere near as big as it was in 1996 or 2004.
The idea that "you Europeans wouldn't like it anyway" is a really sloppy defense for the atrocious idiocy of bringing all-star teams into a supposedly international event. They could just as well bring in teams for left-handed people and people under six feet tall in 2020, and by your logic we as Europeans wouldn't be fit to criticize this idiocy, cause "we wouldn't like it anyway".
Good luck trying to find posts where I question the prestige of the World Cups of 1996 and 2004. To me the 2nd place in 2004 is the greatest achievement in Finnish hockey history along with the silver in Turin 2006. And this isn't me being "revisionist", I've felt this way ever since Finland made those back-to-back best-on-best finals. To me WHC golds just can't compare with best-on-best achievements. It's just such a shame that if Finland somehow manages to make it to the finals this time around, you can't put it up there with 2004 and 2006 in prestige, cause the asterisk (*the tournament featured two all-star teams along with six national teams, two of which were restricted by an age-limit in selecting their players) will always be there.
leave your bussiness in your private league. Even inmuch bigger business like Premier league they respect some crucial elements. Instead of it your league brings tourney like this. But sure when you have to watch your league setting up teams in desserts, holidays destinations instead of canadian cities, then I agree guy from Vesteras can not say anything either. Thx you bring the best from NHL to int stage.
. Still we share good neighbourly relations with the USA and I always love my travels there.
