Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
They should really just change the format of this tournament and make it more like how the Women’s Olympic tournament was set up.
12 teams overall.
Group A: Seeding Bracket
Canada
Russia
USA
Sweden
Finland
Czech Republic
Group B: Qualifier Bracket
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Austria
2 other qualifiers
All of the 6 teams in group A make it to the quarter finals and their round robin games are for seeding. The top 2 teams of the qualifying bracket make it to the quarter finals as the 7 & 8 seed.
You’d get more evenly matched games, the top teams all play each other at least once, and it wouldn’t end up in these games that are just complete blowouts.
IMO it would result in a much higher quality of tournament overall.
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I'm not sure it would, this is why the women's game is stagnant. It takes years, even decades, of beatings to get better. Look how much Switzerland has improved. In fact, Switzerland would now beat the Czechs on most days.
And if the Germans weren't handcapped and on back-to-back days, they would have held Canada to a more respectable score. The goal of the tournament is not only for quality, it's also for development of players all over the world.
The smaller countries may not be competitive all the time as a collective but they keep improving. A first overall pick (Hischier) from Switzerland would have been a pipedream 10 years ago.