Who else has very little interest in the Four Nations tournament?

[Bradely]

It did not get my attention.
I don't see it as a real International tournament, and feel it is an easy championship when compared.

But the quality of hockey played was way above my expectations.
prefer this to usual All Star.

Make no mistake. Regardless of whether this was a good tournament or not, the fans of whoever loses the final will immediately devalue this as not being a true best on best, and fans of whoever wins will claim it to be the greatest international tournament of all time…here on HFboards.

True.
Czech were last year world champs. Not there.
Russia, while I don't miss them, are still a hockey force etc.....
This a an NHL product. Nothing wrong, but nothing more.

 

[I Hart Conor Garland]

Elias Pettersson

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

This thread is full of some many dorks saying this wasn’t going to be good. I mocked them then and it looks even worse now.

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

I just didn't feel it was as interesting by limiting it to 4 teams. Not including Russia is absurd considering the talent they have. I would have also enjoyed seeing the Czech Republic play. Though I know Slovakia has limited NHL numbers, they have some exciting young players.

I am enjoying it though. Without having any hockey, it's been good to watch hockey and the games have been fun. So I still stand by it being dumb to exclude certain countries, but I'm watching and enjoying the games.

 

[Faterson]

Not including Russia is absurd

It's not absurd but necessary. European countries would decline to participate if those were invited. (South Africa in its day wasn't allowed to participate in sports events, and everyone understood it was a necessity.)

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

It's not absurd but necessary. European countries would decline to participate if those were invited. (South Africa in its day wasn't allowed to participate in sports events, and everyone understood it was a necessity.)

It is because players like Kucherov and Vasy shouldn't be punished for anything done by their politicians.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

It is because players like Kucherov and Vasy shouldn't be punished for anything done by their politicians.

...get US citizenship then...

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

...get US citizenship then...

So unless they do that they support Putin? That's wild.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

So unless they do that they support Putin? That's wild.

...not what I said...

 

[Faterson]

It is

You're apparently not reading properly. Are you seriously suggesting ditching 6 or more European countries, just so your apparently favorite European-Asian country can participate?

Well, the result would then be even worse than what we have now: it would be a Three Nations Face-Off, instead of a Four Nations Face-Off. (Unless you also invite Mexico or North Korea to join.)

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

You're apparently not reading properly. Are you seriously suggesting ditching 6 or more European countries, just so your apparently favorite European-Asian country can participate?

Well, the result would then be even worse than what we have now: it would be a Three Nations Face-Off, instead of a Four Nations Face-Off. (Unless you also invite Mexico or North Korea to join.)

...that North Korean team would get real thin real quick after Dear Leader takes a few loses...

 

[PhysicalGraffiti]

You're apparently not reading properly. Are you seriously suggesting ditching 6 or more European countries, just so your apparently favorite European-Asian country can participate?

Well, the result would then be even worse than what we have now: it would be a Three Nations Face-Off, instead of a Four Nations Face-Off. (Unless you also invite Mexico or North Korea to join.)

Clearly I was talking about the part where you claimed it wasn't absurd to disallow Russia.

Also you suggesting that if it were open to more teams, that countries in Europe would boycott, seems a bid hyperbolic. That many other players think that their Russia teammates and friends shouldn't be allowed to play on a stage like this because of their President?

And cute to say that because I want to see actual competition and stop political grandstanding, I must love Russia. Geopolitical issues shouldn't affect the players that have nothing to do with their President.

Then again we have many on this site that feel it's best to blame an entire country for their dislike of a nation's leader. So probably falling on deaf ears.

 

[Zine]

...get US citizenship then...

Not quite. The way things are going, the Euro Federations may refuse to play the USA too.

 

[Mad Dog Tannen]

Why does the most anticipated game of this tournament have to start with a series of staged fights is beyond my understanding. If they felt they had to fight right from the start, they could have sorted it out in the corridors or somewhere, ffs. This is "fun" on a WWE level.

Sounds like someone cheers for team Sweden. Lol.

There won’t be fighting in the Olympics next year. We will get best of both worlds. Real hockey then in 2 years hockey to let Europe play, then in 2 years real hockey again. And so on.

 

[Macbanan]

Clearly I was talking about the part where you claimed it wasn't absurd to disallow Russia.

Also you suggesting that if it were open to more teams, that countries in Europe would boycott, seems a bid hyperbolic. That many other players think that their Russia teammates and friends shouldn't be allowed to play on a stage like this because of their President?

And cute to say that because I want to see actual competition and stop political grandstanding, I must love Russia. Geopolitical issues shouldn't affect the players that have nothing to do with their President.

Then again we have many on this site that feel it's best to blame an entire country for their dislike of a nation's leader. So probably falling on deaf ears.

It really is not hyperbolic at all that Sweden, Finland and Czechia would not participate in a tournament with Russia right now. I can say with 100% certainty that Sweden would not participate.

I mean, even playing for a team in Russia officially gets you banned from the national team. And it's not only restricted to hockey either. It's a very popular stance. We don't owe anyone to play friendly international games with them, it's 100% peaceful pressure.

You can have opinions about whether it's right or wrong (not on Hfboards) but it is real.

 

[Old Man Jags]

Clearly I was talking about the part where you claimed it wasn't absurd to disallow Russia.

Also you suggesting that if it were open to more teams, that countries in Europe would boycott, seems a bid hyperbolic. That many other players think that their Russia teammates and friends shouldn't be allowed to play on a stage like this because of their President?

And cute to say that because I want to see actual competition and stop political grandstanding, I must love Russia. Geopolitical issues shouldn't affect the players that have nothing to do with their President.

Then again we have many on this site that feel it's best to blame an entire country for their dislike of a nation's leader. So probably falling on deaf ears.

You seem to imply that European nations might not boycott because their players surely would not think their Russian team mates and friends should not be allowed to play because of their president? As if the players' views are in any way relevant to the decision to play or boycott. The Finnish and Swedish ice hockey federations (and certainly the Czech federation, if the tournament involved more nations and the Czechs could actually participate) would not allow their national sides to play against Russia, and for a very clear reason. As long as sport has been around, it has been used for propaganda purposes, and autocratic nations like China and Russia use it a lot more as state propaganda than democratic ones do. Maybe that is why Russia has been sanctioned - completely unrelated to, and preceding, the current conflict - because of the most extensive state programme of systemised, government-sanctioned doping to bring glory and medals to the country. So yes, sadly sports and politics are related in a big way, autocratic countries use sports more than any other countries do as a tool of propaganda, and that is why taking a principled stance matters and is right. Does it mean that some players who are not supportive of the conflict don't get to play? Yes. Is it unfair to them? Yes. Does this outweigh the moral imperative of keeping a country that is actually occupying large parts of another and currently prosecuting such aggression out of sports and not normalising their status as long as the conflict rages? No.

 

[Duffy13]

Going to eat shit here, I didn't think this would be near as good as it has been, and I was so wrong.... Happily wrong!!

Good luck USA, but I hope you eat shit Thursday too haha.

 

[Old Man Jags]

There seems to be some confusion here among many posters about those who said prior to the tournament that they were not too interested in it. Lots of "this has aged like milk" type comments. But why? I doubt many of those who were not that interested in the tournament thought that the games would be terrible. I certainly didn't - why would anyone think that, many of the best players were going to play, and they were going to play for their countries. They all have some pride so nobody should have expected them not to try. But: it's a new exhibition tournament with no tradition limited to four nations only, a somewhat artificial construct replacing the also artificial all star event, and in my case my interest is automatically a bit lower if my own country does not participate in the event. Does't make the games less fun (and certainly does not diminish the quality - all of these four teams are currently better than my own country (Czech Rep)), but I am just less invested emotionally in a tournament which the team I support has no stake in. This doesn't relate to the quality of the contest - I am hugely emotionally invested in the world championships, even though no team in those championships is as good as these four teams composed of top NHL talent. All that said, after the emotions of the Canada - US game, it is pretty cool that those two will play again in the final, and I cannot deny a passing curiosity about which of the two will win

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I wasn't down on it, and it has even exceeded my expectations. But I wonder if it wouldn't have been better as just a pair of rivalry 3 games series (US/Canada, Sweden/Finland).

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

They play hard so its good

 

[Satans Hockey]

I wasn't down on it, and it has even exceeded my expectations. But I wonder if it wouldn't have been better as just a pair of rivalry 3 games series (US/Canada, Sweden/Finland).

That's definitely an interesting idea and you could have had the winner of each play in the final but a 3 game US vs Canada series would probably have way too many injuries.

 

[Tawnos]

They absolutely can – the NHL just prefers to sabotage international hockey, that's all.

There's the annual World Championships, you know, instead of this gimmick tournament.

The World Championships could absolutely be moved from May to February, so that we could have true best-on-best hockey every February like this. (The World Championships would not take place in Olympic years, obviously, as was usual in the past.)

The only entity that is an obstacle to this solution is the NHL, of course – no one else. The entire rest of the hockey world including the IIHF would welcome it with open arms.

According to one poster... this is absolutely false. Apparently the NHL and KHL agreed about a decade ago to a schedule that would involve shutting down for international tournaments in February and it's the IIHF that's the roadblock to the agreement.

@vorky care to provide the details?

 

[Schennanigans]

I’m glad I was wrong about the tournament. The hockey has been great and I’ve tuned in for most of the games. I was even thinking there could be tweaks to have more games played than there are. But it’s a risky tournament to have as it can screw up your teams playoff chances if injuries happen. And those chances of happening are high since the intensity is high in these games.

 

[NyQuil]

It's a bit of a unique tournament because again, there hasn't been best on best in almost 10 years, and even then, the US and Canadian teams were weakened by the presence of Team North America.

Would it have the same impact if there had been NHL players participating in 2018 and 2022?

I think the owners will be happy that it's a one-off given the risk of injury and they can collectively look to 2028 and 2032.

It'll be regular All-Star games in between the international events.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

It's a bit of a unique tournament because again, there hasn't been best on best in almost 10 years, and even then, the US and Canadian teams were weakened by the presence of Team North America.

Would it have the same impact if there had been NHL players participating in 2018 and 2022?

I think the owners will be happy that it's a one-off given the risk of injury and they can collectively look to 2028 and 2032.

It'll be regular All-Star games in between the international events.

These are exactly my thoughts. A perfect storm scenario because of the drought + a sprinkling of the non-hockey stuff.