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World Cup

zeke said:
ah that they are. good call. so those guys make up the bottom half of one of the worst lineups in the khl.
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They've made the playoffs almost every year since they joined the league....and there's only 6 non latvians on the team, so nope and nope.

Nice try though.
 
Deckie007 said:
+1

No need to twist yourself into a pretzel trying to justify your love or hate for it. Probably won't see anything quite like this again anyway. I'm enjoying the competitive hockey. Can't wait for for the next NA game.

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Bettman fanboys like zeke are making me hate it. That's probably unfair, especially since it's just a fun little thing not meant to be taken seriously, so I really should just enjoy the entertainment component and not get freak out over it like the real tournaments.

I'll give it a chance and watch some games, maybe have fun.
 
zeke said:
Really I can't help but believe this all comes down to Bettman. For Euro fans its more of a generalized NHL hate/jealousy, though they're not immune from the Bettman hate either.


I mean this is nothing new - everytime Bettman's NHL tries something new, they get crushed for it at first.

- expansion? horrible.
- instigator rule? horrible.
- salary cap? horrible.
- shootout? horrible.
- 4-on-4 OT? horrible.
- world cup? horrible.

every single time.

and in retrospect, the hate looks so silly.
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The instigator rule is still one of the worst rule implementations in any sports league ever. As are shootouts. Most expansion has been awful and predicated on going into thoroughly disinterested markets.
 
zeke said:
yes it is.
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Perhaps with a rather large asterisk.

Team North America is a fun concept team, and perfect marketing tool for the league - but it would have no place in any other international tournament. Just like Canada would never be allowed to arbitrarily split the country and start entering an Eastern and Western team into the Winter Olympics.
 
Aberdeen said:
Maybe they should have a qualifying tournament for secondary countries? The winner goes to the world cup.
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Yeah, I mentioned this earlier as something I wouldn't mind. Take the top 8 IIHF ranked teams as automatic entries and have a qualifying tourney for 2-4 more teams.
 
BG said:
Perhaps with a rather large asterisk.

Team North America is a fun concept team, and perfect marketing tool for the league - but it would have no place in any other international tournament. Just like Canada would never be allowed to arbitrarily split the country and start entering an Eastern and Western team into the Winter Olympics.
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I've already seen Quebecois posters online agitating for some sort of Team Quebec representation in future formats.
 
Since the tournament is already fashioned with gimmicky teams, I'd be interested to see how the Cup winning team stacked up. It would be nearly impossible though, given that most teams would have traded players, or have hold-outs by this time.
 
It really should just be Team Canada that splits. That's probably what they wanted but just couldn't figure out how to do it.

One of the canadian teams would still win.

Not that USA would have taken anyone other than Gaudreau anyways, though.
 
Preston_Mizzi said:
I'm enjoying the World Cup of Hockey.

It has been entertaining and exceptionally fun to watch.
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Yesterday's Canada-US game wasn't entertaining. Think of all the quality scoring chances Canada gave up, and compare to their airtight performance at Sochi. We're not seeing the same conscientiousness from the players because the stakes aren't as high. The players clearly do not care as much.

Not a very inspired effort by the Americans, either.
 
vernonfiddler said:
Yesterday's Canada-US game wasn't entertaining. Think of all the quality scoring chances Canada gave up, and compare to their airtight performance at Sochi. We're not seeing the same conscientiousness from the players because the stakes aren't as high. The players clearly do not care as much.

Not a very inspired effort by the Americans, either.
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Don't forget that this is effectively training camp for many of these guys. They're not yet in mid-season form.
 
BG said:
Don't forget that this is effectively training camp for many of these guys. They're not yet in mid-season form.
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Yeah, while I agree that the timing of the winter olympics isn't ideal for NHL participation, it does give the benefit of the players being in top form instead of training camp form.
 
Have a Team Europe and a Canada B Team.

Canada A

Benn - Crosby - Seguin
Thornton - Tavares - Giroux
Stamkos - Getzlaf - Marchand
Carter - Toews - Bergeron
(Duchene - O'Reilly - Perry)

Keith - Pietrangelo
Doughty - Burns
Vlasic - Weber
(Bouwmeester - Muzzin)

Price
Holtby
(Crawford)


Canada B

Hall - McDavid - Nash
Couture - Spezza - Schwartz
Monahan - Johansen - Stone
Little - Brassard - Scheifele
(Huberdeau - RNH - Eberle)

Letang - Subban
Giordano - Brodie
Rielly - Ekblad
(Barrie - Seabrook)

Luongo
Mason
(Dubnyk)
 
vernonfiddler said:
Yesterday's Canada-US game wasn't entertaining. Think of all the quality scoring chances Canada gave up, and compare to their airtight performance at Sochi. We're not seeing the same conscientiousness from the players because the stakes aren't as high. The players clearly do not care as much.

Not a very inspired effort by the Americans, either.
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quality scoring chances? where? when?
 
Really hope you guys are watching. Amazing stuff by McDavid and Matthews. These guys have made better plays in that 1+ minute than entire game last night. Unreal stuff.
 
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