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What happened to WJC discussion here?

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novisor said:
When you have a tournament of 10 teams where realistically only 5 can win, removing one is a big let down (hoping the Czech Republic can fill this void). Any tournament without Russia will have an asterisk beside it whether people like to admit it or not.
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Soccer/football is played in literally every country in the world and yet there’s only been eight countries that have ever won the World Cup. It’s even worse in international basketball, but is anybody talking about the lack of competition in those sports or how it de-legitimizes those tournaments? The Olympics is literally a showcase of disparity and futility. Hockey is no different. Only a handful of countries play it well enough to win but for some reason this seems to come up every year at this time. Usually from the “Canada is the only country that cares” crowd.
 
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Speaking as a Finn, the best young players are already drafted and not participating. I don't care to talk about other countries prospects. WJC quality swings both directions.
 
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Honestly for me as a Finn, beating Russia is the best thing in these international tournaments. Those games usually tends to get very heated. International hockey is suffering a lot without Russia, but then again it's only a correct thing to ban them as of now.

Hockey needs stronger Germany and Slovakia.
 
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karhukissa said:
Honestly for me as a Finn, beating Russia is the best thing in these international tournaments. Those games usually tends to get very heated. International hockey is suffering a lot without Russia, but then again it's only a correct thing to ban them as of now.

Hockey needs stronger Germany and Slovakia.
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Switzerland and Norway too. There’s no reason they can’t be better.
 
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Macman said:
Soccer/football is played in literally every country in the world and yet there’s only been eight countries that have ever won the World Cup. It’s even worse in international basketball, but is anybody talking about the lack of competition in those sports or how it de-legitimizes those tournaments? The Olympics is literally a showcase of disparity and futility. Hockey is no different. Only a handful of countries play it well enough to win but for some reason this seems to come up every year at this time. Usually from the “Canada is the only country that cares” crowd.
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That's a terrible comparison. WC is played only once per 4 years. Maybe like 10 to 16 countries can even field a semi decent hockey team. In Soccer that number is 80 or so. Canada would never lose to the country ranked 40 in the IIHF ranking. In soccer that can easily happen and it does happen. Soccer has way more parity and is the number one sport almost everywhere. Hockey is number 1 only in Canada and Finland.
 
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They just had one a few months ago. Not having Russia is a massive blow... Basically taking out a consistent gold medal threat.

I've watched enough Canada games over the years where they just beat up on trash teams, I don't need to see it again and again. It gets boring. The only match ups im really invested in because they always produce such great games are Canada vs USA and Canada vs Russia. One of these match ups can't even happen, now in b2b tourneys you have to hope to get a playoff match up between Canada and USA which isn't a guarantee.
 
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Peasy said:
They just had one a few months ago. Not having Russia is a massive blow... Basically taking out a consistent gold medal threat.

I've watched enough Canada games over the years where they just beat up on trash teams, I don't need to see it again and again. It gets boring. The only match ups im really invested in because they always produce such great games are Canada vs USA and Canada vs Russia. One of these match ups can't even happen, now in b2b tourneys you have to hope to get a playoff match up between Canada and USA which isn't a guarantee.
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I mean Canada-Finland consistently have had great matches over the last 5-10 years as well.
 
And now, when I checked last time Russia wont the WJC was 2011. After that champions have been CAN four times and FIN/USA three times. SWE one time.
 
I think Russia not participating hurts quite a bit, at least in the group stage, and the scheduling doesn't help

Basically, it's only when the big 6 ( Can, US, Rus, Fin, Czh and Swe) face each other that we see considerable interest from large fan groups.

In a normal setting we would see 3 big games from each group, 6 in total. Without Russia its only 4.

Because of scheduling there's only been 2 big games so far ( Both with Czechia, which are the underdogs of the bunch), and they put the biggest 2 on the last day, New years Eve, when lots of people have other things to do.
 
Macbanan said:
I think Russia not participating hurts quite a bit, at least in the group stage, and the scheduling doesn't help

Basically, it's only when the big 6 ( Can, US, Rus, Fin, Czh and Swe) face each other that we see considerable interest from large fan groups.

In a normal setting we would see 3 big games from each group, 6 in total. Without Russia its only 4.

Because of scheduling there's only been 2 big games so far ( Both with Czechia, which are the underdogs of the bunch), and they put the biggest 2 on the last day, New years Eve, when lots of people have other things to do.
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I mean Slovakia did beat the US and has a realistic chance of finishing 1st in group B. Essentially every game in group B has been interesting and had something on the line.
 
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jcbio11 said:
That's a terrible comparison. WC is played only once per 4 years. Maybe like 10 to 16 countries can even field a semi decent hockey team. In Soccer that number is 80 or so. Canada would never lose to the country ranked 40 in the IIHF ranking. In soccer that can easily happen and it does happen. Soccer has way more parity and is the number one sport almost everywhere. Hockey is number 1 only in Canada and Finland.
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Technically they play the World Cup throughout because the qualification is as much a part of the tournament as the World Cup Finals.

Do the Faeroe Islands, Andorra and Liechtenstein participate in the World Cup? Sure they do.

Do they routinely get destroyed in the UEFA qualification groups? Absolutely.
 
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I enjoy the tournament for what it is. IMO what hurts this tournament most is how little the other countries that are in the tournament care about it. Cause of that it makes sense that its in Canada more often. I would have loved to see the US host it but unless it's a border city it's a hard sell.
 
I’d watch it but since I cut my cable many years ago, I don’t have TSN, it’s a waste of money to buy their streaming service as they don’t really offer things I’m interested in. So because its only on TSN, it’s no longer convenient for me to watch it so I pretty much have forgotten about the WJC over the years. I believe the down fall of the WJC is because of cord cutting and people no longer having access to watch it and have lost interest in it over years of not following it.
 
iFan said:
I’d watch it but since I cut my cable many years ago, I don’t have TSN, it’s a waste of money to buy their streaming service as they don’t really offer things I’m interested in. So because its only on TSN, it’s no longer convenient for me to watch it so I pretty much have forgotten about the WJC over the years. I believe the down fall of the WJC is because of cord cutting and people no longer having access to watch it and have lost interest in it over years of not following it.
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You can always sign up for a month, then cancel. That’s what I do.
 
Macman said:
Soccer/football is played in literally every country in the world and yet there’s only been eight countries that have ever won the World Cup. It’s even worse in international basketball, but is anybody talking about the lack of competition in those sports or how it de-legitimizes those tournaments? The Olympics is literally a showcase of disparity and futility. Hockey is no different. Only a handful of countries play it well enough to win but for some reason this seems to come up every year at this time. Usually from the “Canada is the only country that cares” crowd.
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Fully agree with you. International hockey has far more parity/competition than basketball, baseball, etc. Only soccer can compete in that regard. Just saying that removing Russia from a 10 team tourney does make it something worth noting when looking back at these tournaments.
 
At least we can always have these meta discussions about the death and non-existence of discussion proper.

Ain’t it great!

This might be my first and probably last post this year. Happy New Year, guys.

Bald Eagles versus Lions it is. Let’s have a good one!
 
Canes said:
Reddit discussions are usually awful though. It's mostly posters karma whoring, making the same jokes over and over again and if you say anything slightly against the hivemind you get downvoted into oblivion. All sports subreddits there are awful about this.
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Not to mention the layout for Reddit borders on completely unreadable for lengthy discussions.
 
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