WC: Which tournament is more important and more interesting?

[Bear12Good]

Russian NHL players will never refuse to participate in the World Championship!
Are going on the first call!

 

[QnebO]

I don't care if Olympics didin't have a single NHL player, it's still more important than a tournament, that has collection teams. I am not interested at all staying nights up for games that will have no emotion.

I take Olympics with only European players, or even with only amateurs way more seriously than this kind of exhibition. WOrld Championships, too. The u20 juniors is way more interesting than gimmick-team world cup, sad but so true.

I'm ready to bet big amount that this is the only time we see this concept and they will hoist real world cup in 2020.

 

[Don Corleone]

For Russian NHL players win the world championship is more important than winning the Stanley Cup

I really doubt that. Not only is the NHL a more competitive league it is also by far harder to win. Players spend in many cases years with their NHL teams and to them their teammates, staff etc. can be very close so finally winning the Stanley Cup with them would seem to be the more important thing than winning a 2 week annual tournament. The players just dedicate far too much time and energy to their NHL teams to view it less important. Just look at the celebrations and the way feel if they knocked out of the playoffs compared to the World Championships, the body language says it all. I could understand that some might feel this way as they are patriotic, as many Russians are, but ask yourself would you rather win the hardest thing possible that might take you years to win, many dont win the cup ever, than a short tournament that if you are are a quality Russian player you are going to probably win at least once by default by just attending.

 

[QnebO]

What is more important is personal preference. No way mainstream reasoning (going with stanleycup) or bear12 can talk for every Russian player. Actually any one can only talk for themself. I believe there is lots of fans who care more NT SC. I am one of them. At least olympic gold for NT would be bigger than SC to me.

 

[Don Corleone]

Russian NHL players will never refuse to participate in the World Championship!
Are going on the first call!

This is something I agree on and good for the Russians for being such goods sports attending nearly every year. No other country has as many quality players attending time and time again. The Worlds would be such a better tournament if the players from other countries did the same.

 

[Urbanskog]

Obvious answer. For fans from top 6 teams it is world cup. For others it is definitely world championships. Hockey fan will definitely cheer for their nations even if it is not so prestigious tourney. I have no team at world cup so WCH have definitely more meaning to me because I can cheer for my country.

Utmostly untrue. I prefer the Division III of the World Championships over this invitational preseason tournament with non-countries participating.

 

[1Gold Standard]

This is something I agree on and good for the Russians for being such goods sports attending nearly every year. No other country has as many quality players attending time and time again. The Worlds would be such a better tournament if the players from other countries did the same.

Not entirely a good thing either. It perhaps hurts player development to a degree by having such a heavy dependence on Russian NHL established players to rush back to Europe at their 1st opportunity year in and year out. Who knows! perhaps Kuznetsov would have been a better player years sooner if he had been given a more predominate role with the NT in his KHL years instead of either being cut or being pushed down the NT pecking order by those NHL players rushing back once their NHL teams are eliminated.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

I'll watch both unless Finland gets a crappy team in WC without the youngsters.

 

[xxxx]

The World Cup and it's not close and never will be.

 

[Don Corleone]

Utmostly untrue. I prefer the Division III of the World Championships over this invitational preseason tournament with non-countries participating.

I do not believe you. Have you even watched a Division III game? If you have then compare it to any game of the last World Cup. The level of play is so much worse that I get a good laugh even thinking about it. Or maybe you do prefer to not watch quality.

 

[Urbanskog]

I do not believe you. Have you even watched a Division III game? If you have then compare it to any game of the last World Cup. The level of play is so much worse that I get a good laugh even thinking about it. Or maybe you do prefer to not watch quality.

I have not watched Division III games because streams are scarcely available. I do watch Division IA and IB every spring though.

 

[xxxx]

The answer to the question is purely subjective and should not be debated. One considers one of these more interesting and important from his/her personal POV, and other considers the other.

Only one of these tournaments, however, has real legitimacy. The other is something that's tacked-on against all the other things hockey we can watch.

Yeah, right there.

 

[Don Corleone]

Yeah, right there.

Hahaha burn them with a flamethrower

 

[habsrule4eva3089]

Let's see, everyone around the Hockey World watches the World Championships.

Only Canadians and a handful of Americans will watch the nhl cash grab.

Which tournament means something now? An International tournament, a celebration of our game attended by Hockey fans around the planet and watched by a Worldwide audience, or a tournament to raise more awareness of the sport to Americans so the nhl can make more money off them and Torontonians?

 

[FiLe]

Yeah, right there.

Those two claims are not mutually exclusive. It's up to an individual viewer, which they consider more important and interesting.

However, only one of them is recognized by the sport's global governing body, and will count in their results and rankings. It's also the one that follows the traditional international formula.

 

[BayStreetBully]

I don't care how Canada does in either the World Championships or the World Cup.

The difference is I like to watch the World Championships to see the lesser known countries like Norway, Denmark and Kazakhstan play. I like seeing their progress every year. For travel purposes though, I'd skip 2016 in Russia and rather go in 2017 when they host it in France and Germany.

I'm also interested in Division I A play. The quality of hockey from nations like Poland, Italy, Hungary, Korea and Japan is pretty good, not to mention the countries that always bounce up and down. It's great for Hungary that they got promoted last year. It would be great to see another new country do the same this year- perhaps even Korea or Japan.

 

[xxxx]

Those two claims are not mutually exclusive. It's up to an individual viewer, which they consider more important and interesting.

However, only one of them is recognized by the sport's global governing body, and will count in their results and rankings. It's also the one that follows the traditional international formula.

Oh, I forgot, This is a must.

 

[JackSlater]

Neither is important or all that interesting. The World Cup under the old format was far superior though. I suppose now I would lean toward the IIHF tournament, sadly.

Is this just about the addition of Team Europe (and U24)? So would the World Cup somehow be better if it had just the top 6 nations, with no extra assembled teams?

They've had awesome six team Canada Cups in the past.

Yes, removing the gimmicks would basically fix the World Cup and put it right up there with the Olympics.

 

[Bear12Good]

Neither is important or all that interesting. The World Cup under the old format was far superior though. I suppose now I would lean toward the IIHF tournament, sadly.



Yes, removing the gimmicks would basically fix the World Cup and put it right up there with the Olympics.

The main thing that the World Championship was a good team with strong players

 

[xxxx]

Yes, removing the gimmicks would basically fix the World Cup and put it right up there with the Olympics.

So if I'm reading it correctly, it's about those two teams and not about the quality of hockey, which is the thing for me. We just differ on those two teams, but we should agree that the quality of hockey will - most likely - be right there with the SC playoffs.

 

[Dave is a killer]

In my opinion
Olympics
Stanley Cup Playoffs
World Cup
WJC
World Championships

 

[JackSlater]

So if I'm reading it correctly, it's about those two teams and not about the quality of hockey, which is the thing for me. We just differ on those two teams, but we should agree that the quality of hockey will - most likely - be right there with the SC playoffs.

It's about four teams not being national teams in a supposedly international tournament. I expect that the hockey will be of high quality, probably not the level of playoff hockey but that's speculation.

 

[FiLe]

Oh, I forgot, This is a must.

It matters to me somewhat - mostly since it's a guarantee of sticking to the true-and-tried formula - but like I said, this is a subjective topic, so it doesn't have to matter to you.

 

[MXD]

As it is :

Olympics
SC
WJC



WHC

WC

____

Potentially, with vision :

Olympics
WC
SC
WJC






WHC

 

[stars33]

I am more interested in the World Championships. Check out the IIHF website and view the ranking system. Nations get points depending on where they place. These rankings are used for the Olympic qualification system.

Teams ranked 1 - 8 after 4 years is directly qualified to the Olympics teams 9- 11 host one of 3 qualifying rounds. The lower rank your Nation is the more qualifying rounds you have to play to make the Olympics.

So these games have meaning to something bigger unlike the World cup.