World Cup

[JaysCyYoung]

It's quite bizarre. There are very few stubborn enough to maintain this argument after seeing how successful and brilliant this tournament has been. I'm surprised there are any naysayers left to be honest.

From what I've seen, the quality of the hockey has been pretty good, especially on Team North America. I have enjoyed some of the league's All-Star Games in the past too.

It's just not a proper replacement for the Olympics, and that's okay to acknowledge too. It's not necessarily one or the other.

 

[zeke]

the same olympics which allows gimmick teams like GBR?

 

[BKerr]

Why can't both? Money.

Nhl wants the IOC to cover the costs of travel and insurance.The nhl is also pissed about shutting down the season at the halfway point.

Fans and players don't come into the equation. It's always about the money.

So wait... .we care about the money that the Swiss Hockey Federation spends on developing players, but its all about the money when NHL owners don't want to shut down the season and send players to the Olympics without the IOC paying some of the costs of insurance.

Talking out of both sides or your mouth here?

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a real country.

 

[BKerr]

i'm not arguing, i'm mocking.

sochi was terrible hockey.

Sochi wasn't terrible hockey.

Sochi was the best Team Canada I've ever seen, playing the game at such a clinical and near perfect level. If you can't appreciate that, I don't know what to say.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Team Canada's performance in Sochi was the best defensive hockey ever played by any national team in the history of hockey. It was literally as perfect as you can get with humans playing the sport.

 

[zeke]

Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a real country.

so then it's FIFA and UEFA who use the gimmick teams.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

so then it's FIFA and UEFA who use the gimmick teams.

They use the home country teams for historic reasons, yeah. The Republic of Ireland didn't even have its own football federation until 1950 in their own right. Prior to that, Irish players from the north and republic played on the same all-island team (which is still seen in rugby). Like I said, it's a historic anachronism that isn't allowed in any other case.

 

[zeke]

Sochi wasn't terrible hockey.

Sochi was the best Team Canada I've ever seen, playing the game at such a clinical and near perfect level. If you can't appreciate that, I don't know what to say.

appreciate it? sure.

enjoy it? meh.

I mean i can appreciate the genius of Wagner's Ring Cycle but damn it's a grind.

 

[zeke]

They use the home country teams for historic reasons, yeah. The Republic of Ireland didn't even have its own football federation until 1950 in their own right. Prior to that, Irish players from the north and republic played on the same all-island team (which is still seen in rugby). Like I said, it's a historic anachronism that isn't allowed in any other case.

actually I've given you a number of different "anachronistic" international team setups, and you've used contradictory and specious justifications for all of them.

but in the end you've at least admitted the real reason - tradition, nothing more, nothing less.

you are just scared to try new things.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

The style Canada played in Sochi may have resulted in low-scoring games, but it definitely wasn't aesthetically displeasing or hard to watch for the average viewer. Every single player on that Canadian team could skate, they moved the puck brilliantly, played as perfect a possession game as you could possibly imagine, and they peppered the opposition with a ton of shots. It was all skill and all-world goaltending.

 

[BKerr]

Again, North American, screw that, Canadian fans don't give a damn.

They get their entertainment, all that matters. Kind of like gladiator fights, entertainment, who cares about the harm it does?

What ****ing harm? Its entertainment.... OH MY GOD WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN WHO NOW DON'T WANT TO PLAY HOCKEY? Bullshit.

You don't need a national team to inspire kids. How many Latvians were inspired by Zemgus Girgensons playing on the Sabres, a third line player on a terrible team two years ago. There was huge buzz about him. The number 1 song in the country was about voting hm into the all-star game.

 

[zeke]

by one team at least, who none of the others could at all approach talent wise.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

actually I've given you a number of different "anachronistic" international team setups, and you've used contradictory and specious justifications for all of them.

Nothing contradictory or "specious" about reality or facts. You haven't effectively provided any logical refutation for any of the facts or arguments that I have presented, or explanations for why various set-ups have occurred.

If you could refute them, you would have done so already.

but in the end you've at least admitted the real reason - tradition, nothing more, nothing less.

I never once denied that. I outright said that it is a "historical anachronism" that no other country is given the privilege of using. That's what happens when you invent something and are responsible for everything that follows.

you are just scared to try new things.

Nope. But I have a far greater appreciation for history than you do.

 

[BKerr]

Well actually, I would bet my bottom dollar that they were watching curling, or short track speed skating or a similarly useless event beforehand. People get Olympic fever.

Using Nielsen ratings is hardly accurate. Ever. In any genre.

So many great shows have been killed because of that ridiculous system.

The Gold Medal Hockey game was held on the final Sunday of the games. the only two events that day were hockey and the closing ceremonies. The closing ceremonies began hours after the golden goal was scored. They weren't tuned into the hockey thinking that they wanted to watch Curling or Bobsledding.

 

[Altair]

So wait... .we care about the money that the Swiss Hockey Federation spends on developing players, but its all about the money when NHL owners don't want to shut down the season and send players to the Olympics without the IOC paying some of the costs of insurance.

Talking out of both sides or your mouth here?

I have never said the IOC is without blame here.

 

[zeke]

You literally contradicted every other argument you made in this thread when you admitted the gbr issue was still ok becuz tradition.

 

[JaysCyYoung]

Nope. No contradictions whatsoever. You have nothing.

You didn't even know that the UK was a country and you expect people to take you seriously on this particular topic?

 

[BKerr]

Wanting to see good hockey over allowing people from other nations worthy of playing such as the Swiss or Slovaks or Danes see their teams compete?

Ya, nothing selfish there. Enjoy your amazing hockey. Who cares about europeans and their national teams anyways?

I'm off to go hunt some elephants in Africa because their ivory gives me joy.

Yes lets equate enjoying a hockey tournament to killing an endangered species for sport... makes sense.

 

[BKerr]

You're absolutely right: they're not life and death. But I also think you can be empathetic to people with quality national sides who feel excluded or offended that they were not able to participate in this tournament and were forced into a bizarre random amalgamation with other countries, some of whom they have historical enmity or rivalries with.

Sure and I've said I'd like to see a ten team tournament, with some qualifying down from 16 teams.

Some of the hyperbole here though from '87, its a little much.