This is pretty much how I feel summarized very succinctly. By all accounts, most of the games have been pretty free-flowing and exciting. That's great from a fan perspective and an entertainment standpoint.
The whole event just feels very forced (particularly from Rogers), artificial, put on and not as legitimate or important as the usual best-on-best international tournaments, and that's where a lot of my dissatisfaction towards it stems from. Like I said earlier, I don't at all begrudge anyone from enjoying this tournament and having a thrill from watching the North American kids display elite, all-world level skill. They're fun to watch.
In the end, it's just not a valid measure of hockey supremacy and it does very little to grow the game internationally, while also excluding several traditional hockey nations, and (more importantly) several emerging ones that could really benefit from the exposure. Canada's so much better than every other team in this event that it's silly.
