[GT] 2018 IIHF World Championships (May 4 - 20)

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by direwolf

Sure, but the bar for qualification must be pretty damn low for teams of that caliber to get in. There's nothing remotely fun about watching a team get embarrassed 13-1.

maybe, it's been 16 teams since 1998.

Great Britain and Italy are coming up next year. The two teams that have come up have gone straight back down for 10 consecutive tournaments. Let's see if Austria can break the streak tomorrow.

[Strange Brew]

Hockey is not soccer/football when it comes to world parity. Imagine a hockey tournament with 32 countries or heaven forbid, 64.

[devo22]

have to beat Belarus tomorrow to stay up. Not holding my breath though after those heavy beatings and especially that ####show against France today ... and honestly, we don't really belong in the top division anyway. Simply not good enough.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Hockey is not soccer/football when it comes to world parity. Imagine a hockey tournament with 32 countries or heaven forbid, 64.

yeah. as a comparison FIFA has over 200 members and IIHF has 47 in the world championship pyramid.

Korea started at the very bottom so it was an achievement for them to get to the top 16.

Top 6: Canada, USA, Sweden, Finland, Czechia, Russia
Next 8: Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Latvia, France, Denmark, Norway, Belarus

After that it's everyone else.

[getbak]

Canada takes on Finland tomorrow at 12:15pm MT. This will be a huge game for Canada's chances of winning their group.

A win over Finland will pretty much guarantee Canada either first or second in the group and a matchup with either Switzerland or Czechia in the quarterfinals. A loss to Finland will drop Canada into third place in the group and a likely meeting with Sweden or Russia in the quarterfinals.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Just thinking out loud here: I know you want to have the best teams in the final so the top teams are mixed amongst the pools. But wouldn’t it be more entertaining to watch all the teams who can compete with each other in one pool, and the bottom feeders in the other? Gold medal match will likely still be a decent game, or a Cinderella upset. All tourney long you watch competitive games & competitive quarter finals.

There is too much of a gap between the top and the bottom teams in international hockey.

[bigrangy]

^ you could do a double elimination playoff round, where the loser of a game in the top division drops into a second playoff pool

I don't know exactly what something like that is called, but I've seen it before and it could work.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Just thinking out loud here: I know you want to have the best teams in the final so the top teams are mixed amongst the pools. But wouldn’t it be more entertaining to watch all the teams who can compete with each other in one pool, and the bottom feeders in the other? Gold medal match will likely still be a decent game, or a Cinderella upset. All tourney long you watch competitive games & competitive quarter finals.

There is too much of a gap between the top and the bottom teams in international hockey.

That's basically what Women's hockey does. I don't know if it actually helps the lower teams improve or not. It prevents the really weak teams from getting embarrassed by the top teams, but that's because they don't get to play against the top teams.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by getbak

That's basically what Women's hockey does. I don't know if it actually helps the lower teams improve or not. It prevents the really weak teams from getting embarrassed by the top teams, but that's because they don't get to play against the top teams.

You’ll only improve if your year round competition improves. Getting smoked 3 or 4 times in a tourney doesn’t improve anyone’s skill.

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Could we seriously not get anyone better than McBackup?

[Textcritic]

Mikko Rantanen has scored to give Suomi a 1-0 lead over Team Canada. Conehead McHype-machine attempts to compensate by rushing alone into the Finnish zone on his next possession, getting outmanned on the boards, and promptly losing the puck.

[direwolf]

Canada ties it up, 1-1.

[direwolf]

Ugh... 2-1 Finland now. McBackup not looking great.

[Textcritic]

Suomi scores on the powerplay to make it 2-1. This followed by another sensational shift with Conman McDieFledermaus and his trusty sidekick The Tenderness skating around in the offensive zone really fast and not accomplishing much.

[Textcritic]

Hahaha! It's 3-1. McBackup fell down.

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Pull him ffs

[AC]

McBackup on his ass allows an ugly goal, 3-1.

[DeluxeMoustache]

You can’t not pull him. Attaboy Peters

[Zoller]

Mcbackup literally blew a tire

[getbak]

That's why he's McBackup and not McStarter. Trips on his own d-man and falls over giving Finland an easy tap-in for the 3-1 lead.

Kuemper in.


Well, at least Peters isn't afraid to shake things up with a goalie change.