[activeStick]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

From that standpoint I would agree, but as it stands now there's probably only 8 countries that can ice a competitive team consistently: Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Switzerland. So 6 teams was a lowball on my part.

I just feel bad for the "throwaway" teams like Belarus, Denmark, Latvia, and Germany who come to the tournament and win 0 games and lose by 5 or 6 goals every games. It can't be much fun for those kids, can it? It's not fun as a fan watching it.

But I guess it's not a huge deal, I don't watch the powerhouse vs underdog games anyways.

It can't be fun to get slammed by the elite teams, but I bet those kids would rather be in the tourney than not. You can't get better as an individual or even a country if you're not playing the best.