2016 World Cup of Hockey

[MarkGio]

World Cup is inherently different from the Olympics.

The Olympics has been a diplomatic gathering for many countries for a long time, even in times of armed conflict. It's where sport and athleticism replace guns, economics, politics and religion. The Olympics has it's issues, but when you look at the amount of participating countries over the years and see their people come together to compete in sport, it gives hope for peace, because a lot of those countries do not get along and cannot be in the same room with one another as politicians.

This is why so many protesters use the Olympics to leverage a message of social responsibility. This is why so many counties use the Olympics as a medium for political leverage. It's a bigger stage than what the NHL can provide. All the NHL has are contracts of athletes. Without those, they are nothing.

The World Cup is a money maker for the NHL and NHLPA. The league sees the Olympics as a disruption to it's normal profiteering and wants to replace it with an alternative that involves cutting out all the sports programs propped up by ice hockey and instead have 30 franchises pocket the money.

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I'd say save the U23 type stuff for the All Star Game.

If a player is that good, they should make their country's roster on merit alone. There will be the occasional snub, but that happens all the time anyway. Half the fun is arguing about show should have made team Canada in the first place.

Not when that player is a Canadian. IMO, the only players on the U23 team that would have made their country's roster are Gaudreau (USA), and McDavid (CAN). You look at that U23 roster, and it'd be a damn shame that 20 of those players weren't in a best-on-best tourny. That being said, the player's national teams should get 1st dibs.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

The World Cup is a money maker for the NHL and NHLPA. The league sees the Olympics as a disruption to it's normal profiteering and wants to replace it with an alternative that involves cutting out all the sports programs propped up by ice hockey and instead have 30 franchises pocket the money.

The NHL and NHLPA have only ever gone to the Olympics to raise their profile and make more money. It was always about profit and never considered a disruption to their normal money-making operation, since it was about making more money.

I'm curious though. What sports programs are propped up by hockey and taking the money out of the pockets of NHL owners?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

Not when that player is a Canadian. IMO, the only players on the U23 team that would have made their country's roster are Gaudreau (USA), and McDavid (CAN). You look at that U23 roster, and it'd be a damn shame that 20 of those players weren't in a best-on-best tourny. That being said, the player's national teams should get 1st dibs.

no way McDavid makes team Canada. Giroux is amazing and he was on the fringe. Even Hall and Gallagher are currently ahead of McDavid on the pecking order

[Locke]

If there was no U23 team McDavid would have stayed at home.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

no way McDavid makes team Canada. Giroux is amazing and he was on the fringe. Even Hall and Gallagher are currently ahead of McDavid on the pecking order

Corey Perry, former Hart trophy winner and 50 goal scorer, wouldn't have been on the team if everyone was healthy. I'd say at least six more players would need to get injured before McDavid made the team.

Monahan would've made the team before McJesus.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

The NHL and NHLPA have only ever gone to the Olympics to raise their profile and make more money. It was always about profit and never considered a disruption to their normal money-making operation, since it was about making more money.

I'm curious though. What sports programs are propped up by hockey and taking the money out of the pockets of NHL owners?

I think that's short sighted. At one point in time the NHL was a joke. It competed with the WHL, and years before that, it's players were part time tradesmen who played in it's league in the evenings. At those times the NHL had no problems sending it's "athletes" to the world stage because it was basically the ultimate promotion, where the NHL "employs the best hockey players in the world".

Now, and 4 billion dollars later, the NHL acts like a rich snob and forget where it comes from. All while the Olympics is still trying to accomplish it's mandate that it's held for 100 years.

But at a time when ice hockey and the Olympics were on friendlier terms, Winter Olympics got federal funding, which was supported when people watched the hockey games. It was a big deal to Canada when it wasn't so big business

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Monahan would've made the team before McJesus.

LOL at the delusion of some of you people. McDavid very probably would've made the team. Even if it would mostly have been for marketing reasons. But he wouldn't have been at all out of place, and yes, he would have made it on merit, easily, before Sean Monahan.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

LOL at the delusion of some of you people. McDavid very probably would've made the team. Even if it would mostly have been for marketing reasons. But he wouldn't have been at all out of place, and yes, he would have made it on merit, easily, before Sean Monahan.

I don't think Babcock/Armstrong are into marketing. Otherwise they'd pick Subban.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

LOL at the delusion of some of you people. McDavid very probably would've made the team. Even if it would mostly have been for marketing reasons. But he wouldn't have been at all out of place, and yes, he would have made it on merit, easily, before Sean Monahan.

I'll grant marketing reasons, but merit?

[Flash Walken]

Kevin Lowe would've gotten his one Oiler selection as per usual.

Remember Anson Carter, Olympian? Eric Brutal Brewer?

[GirlySports]

anson carter was never an olympian, that was the Worlds

[getbak]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

I think that's short sighted. At one point in time the NHL was a joke. It competed with the WHL, and years before that, it's players were part time tradesmen who played in it's league in the evenings. At those times the NHL had no problems sending it's "athletes" to the world stage because it was basically the ultimate promotion, where the NHL "employs the best hockey players in the world".

When did the NHL ever send its players "to the world stage" prior to the 1972 Summit Series?

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

I think that's short sighted. At one point in time the NHL was a joke. It competed with the WHL, and years before that, it's players were part time tradesmen who played in it's league in the evenings. At those times the NHL had no problems sending it's "athletes" to the world stage because it was basically the ultimate promotion, where the NHL "employs the best hockey players in the world".

I think you might be thinking of the WHA.

Pretty much every professional league in the world began with players who worked other jobs. If the NHL was a joke in the beginning because of it, so was the English Premier League, the NFL, and Major League Baseball. And everything else.

The Olympics was for amateurs, until it wasn't in 1988. NHL players didn't go to the Olympics as some sort of promotion. They were professionals. They weren't invited, they weren't sent. It just didn't happen. Amateur teams were sent or a national team made up of amateurs was sent.

It would be cool though, in a cruel sort of way, to see footage of Gordie Howe giving it his all against some Italian college boys on an outdoor rink in 1956.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

anson carter was never an olympian, that was the Worlds

But Carter was invited to one of the Olympic summer camps which was insulting in itself. At the same time Iginla was not invited.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I think you might be thinking of the WHA.

Pretty much every professional league in the world began with players who worked other jobs. If the NHL was a joke in the beginning because of it, so was the English Premier League, the NFL, and Major League Baseball. And everything else.

The Olympics was for amateurs, until it wasn't in 1988. NHL players didn't go to the Olympics as some sort of promotion. They were professionals. They weren't invited, they weren't sent. It just didn't happen. Amateur teams were sent or a national team made up of amateurs was sent.

It would be cool though, in a cruel sort of way, to see footage of Gordie Howe giving it his all against some Italian college boys on an outdoor rink in 1956.

yeah in 1988 all sporting bodies had to make a choice. Do we sent our pros? Soccer made it under 23. Baseball and Boxing did not at all. Basketball did with the Dream team in 1992. Hockey followed in 1998. Tennis sent their pros right away in 1998.

The NHL just feels it's costing too much. So they have to revisit this every 4 years while the other sports that do send their pros are ok with it.

[JerryUnderscore]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The NHL just feels it's costing too much. So they have to revisit this every 4 years while the other sports that do send their pros are ok with it.

The NHL thinks it costs too much because it's a two week break that cuts into their revenues. Big time hockey is played and they don't get a single cent from the tickets, march, etc.

That's basically why they want to bring back the World Cup. If they can replace olympic hockey with World Cup hockey, they get all the profits.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Because nostalgia

Come on. Back then, the Canada Cup was the only time you could see best on best play The older tournaments were clearly a bigger deal than this one. Nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Unlike soccer, hockey doesn't have the talent spread across multiple leagues to make this remotely interesting.

The best team in the NHL is going to beat every other team in that crowd, every time. It would be like having the Broncos play the Eskimos.

Also - if the NHL isn't going to send their players to the Olympics, they are not going to send their players to play in some kind of league competition where they have nothing to gain and have to split revenue between a bunch of different leagues.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

no way McDavid makes team Canada. Giroux is amazing and he was on the fringe. Even Hall and Gallagher are currently ahead of McDavid on the pecking order

McDavid makes team Canada without a doubt. He's better than Giroux.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by JerryUnderscore

The NHL thinks it costs too much because it's a two week break that cuts into their revenues. Big time hockey is played and they don't get a single cent from the tickets, march, etc.

That's basically why they want to bring back the World Cup. If they can replace olympic hockey with World Cup hockey, they get all the profits.

Yup so they made a mistake going to Nagano. They already had a World Cup. They are trying undo this mistake.