Quote:
Originally Posted by UKflames
GB's lack of finish nearly cost them their position in the top group but they managed to pull it out of the bag and will be back again next year :-)
I know a lot of people hate this minnows versus the super powers and the high scoring one sided results but for anyone that watched the GB celebrations when they won, tell me they don't deserve to experience this tournament any more than the Canada's or the Russians. They earned it the hard way.
|
I think it felt more pointless when you had four team divisions with often just one punching bag in a division. It made the differences look so black and white, that there's just good teams and insignificant teams. Losing a game to an underdog was just embarrassing, and winning felt like nothing.
This new(ish) eight team division system shows there's much more of a spectrum. You get to see teams like Latvia or Denmark dominate games, which makes them feel a lot less irrelevant, and you have more upsets.
Plus, the "small" nations are also inching closer to the "big" nations, even though the latter are now regularly sending genuine superstars to the tournament, and in general the number of NHL players in the tournament is way up from what it used to be.