Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
Perhaps it was my post that sparked this?
The problem I see with your 32 team idea is that it doesn't have any 'hook' aside from 3 on 3. If more people will tune in for 3 on 3 than 5v5, then the NHL should be moving that direction regardless. The same diehard fans that follow every moment of the pre-season would do the same for this, but I don't see it attracting anyone new.
One of the reasons 3v3 OT is so good is that you see the very best players over the boards pretty much the entire time (unless you're the Oilers and only have 2 good players). Without real stakes playing time will be more evenly spread...I'm not super interested in seeing what Bennett Janko and Hamonic do every 3 minutes.
Canada Cup/World Cup is at least a bit of an established brand...certainly not to Olympic levels, but people will tune in to watch any group with a version of Team Canada on their jerseys. Elite depth and more interesting line combos...McDavid-Tavares-Subban? Sounds fun. Crosby-Mackinnon-Marchand out for a Nova Scotia special shift, because why not? Hall-Eberle-J Schultz...
Whatever version it is, the most important thing is probably a substantial cash prize to the winning team...
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It was your post, I just couldn't find which thread it was in when I looked again, or I would have linked to it.
I think you'd see better players than you're suggesting. For the Flames, I think you would see lines like:
Johnny Monahan Gio
Lindholm Tkachuk Brodie
Bennett Backlund Hanifin
No chance you'd get as deep as seeing Hamonic or Jankowski.
I think there could be 'real stakes' as well. As the years go by, I think this championship would gain prestige and with that you would see at least regular season level effort in these games and maybe something close to playoff effort for the last couple games.