I think hockey benefits from the world stage of the Olympics, making it a bigger deal than any hockey World Cup could ever be. Unlike soccer, hockey doesn’t have a world wide presence on its own.
I don't care at all about NHL players going to the Olympics. Maybe the hockey won't be as exciting, but I can still look forward to the short-track speed skating relay events. That's basically roller-derby-light with razor sharp knives!
Honestly, the Olympics won't be complete until they include this competition.
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"You know, that's kinda why I came here, to show that I don't suck that much" ~ Devin Cooley, Professional Goaltender
I think hockey benefits from the world stage of the Olympics, making it a bigger deal than any hockey World Cup could ever be. Unlike soccer, hockey doesn’t have a world wide presence on its own.
Hockey has more of a worldwide presence then people think but the NHL is too business and north-american centric. The IIHF has 76 members.
If the NHL structured it's World Cup differently it could grow the game. Like soccer, make it's qualifying regional. Give Asia 1 spot in a 12 team tournament. Yes they will get killed the first few editions but just the fight between Korea, Japan and China to gain that birth every 4 years will increase funding and will produce a NHL player or two. That Chinese market that every talks about, where sports like basketball, curling and snooker have made inroads, the NHL has no strategy for.
Let's take the Japanese phenom Aito Iguchi. What's his path to the NHL? To move to Vancouver at 13? He will not get a penny from Japan. How do we get more Japanese players like him without national incentive? A 33% chance at a World Cup berth or even an Olympic berth would instantly create a national program. The Olympics were in Nagano in 1998 and it created nothing. If the NHL goes to Beijing in 2022 it'll also create nothing. It has to be from the ground up.
Curling is a good example of how Asia has pumped money into a sport because of opportunity. They were given 2 spots in the World Championships since 2010 and have slowly improved.
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I know it won’t make it anymore meaningful for the people trashing the tourney and calling the players bums, but to me seeing a guy react like that just goes to show how much this will mean for these guys.
I’m sure nhlers weren’t exactly ambivalent but I can’t imagine their reactions would be the same given the opportunities they regularly get.
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I don't mind this. No longer predictable, more adversity for Canada and the US. And not full of millionaire all star teams that will walk over most of the teams like it's nothing.
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I have long hated the Olympics as a corruption of "sporting ideal." The politics, the bribery, the doping, the cheating, the flag waving proxy wars based on "medal counts." As far as Olympic Hockey, I am glad that there will be no disruption of an NHL season, and no dilution as far too many guys from my favorite team played far too many games, that for this fan, had no meaning, and led to needless exhaustion.
Posting anti-Olympic sentiments is the limit of my interest in the whole endeavor, as I am sickened at the thought of judged exhibitions, like ice dancing or figure skating, being passed off as "sports". (Bring back BARREL JUMPING! at least this has an objective way to judge success!), and it harder to buy off officials when success is easily measurable. And for those that think Hockey games can't be fixed, I invite them to read on the shenanigans that occurred in the finals of the 1972 Men's Basketball game, one of the first events to begin to spoil the Olympics for this sports fan.
I just don't understand this argument and think people just use it as a knock against sports they don't like. Sorry if that's not the case here.
The athletes athletes being rated on how well they perform specific feats of athleticism, how is that not a sport? If you only count "ball crosses the line" activities as sports you are severely limiting yourself to a handful of activities.
So you would really just dismiss all freestyle skiing including aerials and moguls, most snow boarding, ski jumping, boxing, diving and gymnastics as non-sports and take those athletes out of the Olympic Games? I wholeheartedly disagree.
I'm looking forward to a non-nhl Olympics. I think the competition will be intense with many evenly matched teams even if the game play is not nhl calibre. I watched a fair bit of Spengler Cup and World Juniors and often times the TSN guys would start talkinh about how the various countries were approaching their Olympic team selection and preparing for the games. The impression that I received from their comments is that the USA probably wasn't doing enough in preparation for the games. It is obviously impossible to tell what will happen but the US team doesn't seem that impressive or exciting. I expect that the Euro teams will dominate.
As an aside, I really dislike the position and the bargaining from Bettman leading up to the decision. I know the NHL is trying to put together a strong campaign for growth in China and that they will likely be fairly eager to go to the games in China but I hope that the IOC keeps the NHL players out in 4 years just to spite Gary.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by craigwd
I just don't understand this argument and think people just use it as a knock against sports they don't like. Sorry if that's not the case here.
The athletes athletes being rated on how well they perform specific feats of athleticism, how is that not a sport? If you only count "ball crosses the line" activities as sports you are severely limiting yourself to a handful of activities.
So you would really just dismiss all freestyle skiing including aerials and moguls, most snow boarding, ski jumping, boxing, diving and gymnastics as non-sports and take those athletes out of the Olympic Games? I wholeheartedly disagree.
Craig...there have been incidents of judges trading scoring favors...this sort of politics invalidates any results, imo, and the history of the Olympics is rife with this kind of corruption. So, no, non-objectively quantifiable exhibitions are hard for me to call "sports." Do they require athleticism? Yes. But, corrupt judging aside, judged events are too subject to judges interpretations of perfection.
Edit: as for Boxing, it IS quantifiable, if you count, with some accuracy, blows landed. Moreover, it, at least, is one of the most traditional of Olympic events, dating back to Homeric times.
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Last edited by thefoss1957; 01-02-2018 at 09:34 PM.
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I hate the fact that after 20 years, NHL stars are not participating. It was something to look forward to. World Cup of hockey can never replace that. It's no World Cup, it's just countries with enough NHL players, juniors and some bunch of loners together, who dont even speak the same language... Concept is simply brutal. You can't compare hockey to soccer, soccer has a world cup, but it's history is almost as long as modern Olympics history. You can't just recreate that kind of legacy out of nothing. Hockey doesnt have that so it was nice to have this major event every 4 years, everyone could look up to it and dream about it. But what do we have now? Guys like Ehlers or Draisaitl do not know if they will ever be able to participate in a major event. Maybe there won't be team "Europe-minus-hockey-countries" nextime and those guys will have to stay home.
That being said, I understand the reasoning and agree with OIC being corrupt and exploiting their position. But next cycle, after this Korean joke is over, NHL will be suddenly all intrested. Chinese market? Don't be fooled, NHL doesn't care about market, about chinese fans buying caps and stuff. They care about chinese capital, white collars buying out whole franchises. Think that's ridiculous? Just look across the ocean, there is a sellout of hundred years old trademarks right now. Italy? AC Milan, Inter Milan. Spain? Espanyol Barcelona, Atletico Madrid. England? Aston Villa, Manchester City, Birmingham,... France? Lyon, Nice, Auxerre,... The list goes on and I think it's not going to stop in Europe with those soccer clubs. And that is why I think we will see NHL in Beijing 2022.
