2016 World Cup of Hockey

[Josh]

The 2016 World Cup of Hockey official website: http://www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm.../worldcup/2016

[Josh]

How do you guys rank the teams? Here are my rankings:

Canada
USA
Sweden
North America
Russia
Europe
Finland
Czech Republic

[Jasmine]

Canada, USA & North America?? Why?

[Josh]

Canada, USA & North America?? Why?

For Mexicans? :sombrero:

[Jasmine]

Hum, I can't put a smiley (its flipping me back to the main page automaticaly).........

[Josh]

Hum, I can't put a smiley (its flipping me back to the main page automaticaly).........

Strange. I'm trying to reproduce the issue but have no problem putting them in myself. Are you able to click the little happy face button and pull up the list? What browser are you using?

:rain:

[Jasmine]

Trying again .......... :peep: ............and it works. Of course. Mind you it could very well be my laptop just playing tricks on me............. its fonctionning on borrowed time.

....Anyways, that's the one I wanted to put yesterday cause the wall shouldn't be up yet by then, right? loll

[Josh]

Trying again .......... :peep: ............and it works. Of course. Mind you it could very well be my laptop just playing tricks on me............. its fonctionning on borrowed time.

....Anyways, that's the one I wanted to put yesterday cause the wall shouldn't be up yet by then, right? loll

Well glad it's working now. And yeah, the wall was the perfect smily, hahaha :lol:

[Jasmine]

So, joke aside, here is the explaination of Team North America's existance:

Team North America is a new concept in international hockey. It features the best players age 23 years and younger as of Oct. 1 from Canada and the United States playing against the best hockey nations in the world in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Team North America general managers Peter Chiarelli and Stan Bowman named eight American players and eight Canadian players among the first 16 selections for Team North America in a roster announcement Wednesday, the first step in putting together a never-before-seen team capable of taking on established national-team superpowers..... etc

[Josh]

So, joke aside, here is the explaination of Team North America's existance:

I mean, it kind of makes sense.. the tournament is already a joke anyways and truth be told, that junior NA team is one of the best in the tourny. I actually predict they'll finish 4th in the final rankings. But I definitely agree that in any respectable international tournament, it would be ridiculous.

[matchesmalone]

Before the final teams were announced there were a lot of rumblings of Marchand making Team Canada. I told my friend if Marchand is on the team, I won't be cheering for them. Marchand is on the team, so I will be cheering for Team North America now. This is not at all unprecedented for me: in 2006, after Team Canada was announced, featuring the likes of Adam Foote, Todd Bertuzzi, Kris Draper, Bryan McCabe, Shane Doan, etc., I decided there was no way I was going to cheer for such an inevitable disaster, and went with my guys Alfredsson and Sweden instead. Lo and behold Canada was an embarrassment and Sweden won the Gold.

The reasons are very different this time: in 2006 they were pragmatic - I didn't want to cheer for a team I knew had no chance of winning, or even being competitive, whereas this reason my reasons are moral - I don't want to cheer for a team featuring despicable parasitic human scum. Too bad Ceci and Lazar didn't make Team N.A. and Stone is already too old, but oh well, it's sure to be the most fun team to watch in the tournament, if nothing else.

I really don't think players will be looking at this tournament like a joke. It's a very rare instance of best-on-best in the world - and indeed the only such instance now that NHL players have played in their last Olympics. Players are going to take it very seriously and are going to represent their countries with pride, heart and intensity, and I expect the quality of hockey to reflect that. In fact, it will be very much like the Olympics, but instead of only playing for national pride, players will also be getting a cut financially this time. There are many fans who won't be taking it seriously going in, but by the end of it will be on the edge of their seats cheering on their country and/or their favorite players, and by the next time this tournament comes around, everyone will realize that this is our new Olympics and will anticipate and respect it accordingly.

[Josh]

Before the final teams were announced there were a lot of rumblings of Marchand making Team Canada. I told my friend if Marchand is on the team, I won't be cheering for them. Marchand is on the team, so I will be cheering for Team North America now. This is not at all unprecedented for me: in 2006, after Team Canada was announced, featuring the likes of Adam Foote, Todd Bertuzzi, Kris Draper, Bryan McCabe, Shane Doan, etc., I decided there was no way I was going to cheer for such an inevitable disaster, and went with my guys Alfredsson and Sweden instead. Lo and behold Canada was an embarrassment and Sweden won the Gold.

The reasons are very different this time: in 2006 they were pragmatic - I didn't want to cheer for a team I knew had no chance of winning, or even being competitive, whereas this reason my reasons are moral - I don't want to cheer for a team featuring despicable parasitic human scum. Too bad Ceci and Lazar didn't make Team N.A. and Stone is already too old, but oh well, it's sure to be the most fun team to watch in the tournament, if nothing else.

I really don't think players will be looking at this tournament like a joke. It's a very rare instance of best-on-best in the world - and indeed the only such instance now that NHL players have played in their last Olympics. Players are going to take it very seriously and are going to represent their countries with pride, heart and intensity, and I expect the quality of hockey to reflect that. In fact, it will be very much like the Olympics, but instead of only playing for national pride, players will also be getting a cut financially this time. There are many fans who won't be taking it seriously going in, but by the end of it will be on the edge of their seats cheering on their country and/or their favorite players, and by the next time this tournament comes around, everyone will realize that this is our new Olympics and will anticipate and respect it accordingly.

Great post, you've helped change my perspective a bit. Was there confirmation of no Olympics though? I thought they were still willing to go as long as the out-of-pocket costs were covered?


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[matchesmalone]

No confirmation yet, no. But the IOC has already stated that it won't be covering the costs of transportation, insurance and such - they paid 14 million last time. Bettman has already shown trepidation about going to the Olympics in the past, and with it being in South Korea next time, I just can't see the NHL going, regardless what Ovechkin says or does.

I mean, of course the NHL would love to try to grow hockey in China, which Pyeongchang could contribute to greatly, but at the same time, the NHL would want to have control over media and branding over there, and China simply wouldn't allow that.

Anyhow, I do think that having Team Europe is a bit disrespectful to Slovakia and Switzerland, both of whom are capable of holding their own at these tournaments, but you can see that the NHL wanted to give all eight teams a chance to win, not just be there to compete and try to survive. I mean, Europe certainly won't have the depth to compete with the likes of Canada or Sweden, but with Krueger at the helm pushing that Swiss trap, dump and stay back style hockey that always gives Canada fits, and featuring a host of very good two-way players like Nielsen, Tatar and Hossa, led by Josi and Kopitar, if one of those goalies can step up and steal a game or two, you never know. Ugh, what a terrible sentence though. Dangling participle and everything. But I'm too tired and lazy to try to figure out how to re-work it.

[Josh]

No confirmation yet, no. But the IOC has already stated that it won't be covering the costs of transportation, insurance and such - they paid 14 million last time. Bettman has already shown trepidation about going to the Olympics in the past, and with it being in South Korea next time, I just can't see the NHL going, regardless what Ovechkin says or does.

I mean, of course the NHL would love to try to grow hockey in China, which Pyeongchang could contribute to greatly, but at the same time, the NHL would want to have control over media and branding over there, and China simply wouldn't allow that.

Anyhow, I do think that having Team Europe is a bit disrespectful to Slovakia and Switzerland, both of whom are capable of holding their own at these tournaments, but you can see that the NHL wanted to give all eight teams a chance to win, not just be there to compete and try to survive. I mean, Europe certainly won't have the depth to compete with the likes of Canada or Sweden, but with Krueger at the helm pushing that Swiss trap, dump and stay back style hockey that always gives Canada fits, and featuring a host of very good two-way players like Nielsen, Tatar and Hossa, led by Josi and Kopitar, if one of those goalies can step up and steal a game or two, you never know. Ugh, what a terrible sentence though. Dangling participle and everything. But I'm too tired and lazy to try to figure out how to re-work it.

I'm curious to know what you think of my rankings and what yours are. This is what I had originally:

Canada
USA
Sweden
North America
Russia
Europe
Finland
Czech Republic

After your posts, I'm kind of tempted to put Europe above Russia and North America above Sweden.

[matchesmalone]

Yeah I'd say your rankings are pretty solid. But for the sake of argument, I'll go with,

Canada
Sweden
USA
Europe
North America
Russia
Finland
Czech Republic

At the top end, it's going to be very tough for anyone to beat Canada. The match-up between USA and Sweden is interesting, and it really points back to my comments in the Cup Finals thread. Lombardi, GM of USA and architect of the big bad Kings that won two Cups at the beginning of the #corsi era, has decided to go with a similarly heavy team. On North American sized ice, they will certainly strike fear into the hearts of the smaller, less talented European teams, but as I was saying, I'm not sure that's the way to go anymore, and I think Sweden could very well do to USA what Pittsburgh is currently doing to San Jose.

Murray is showing in the finals right now that North America's goaltending can compete with the best of them (and I think either of the other two could be just as good), and their forward group is as good as just about anyone's, but their defense is so inexperienced that their young goalies will be tested and will need to be on top of their game. Also they are going to struggle mightily in the faceoff circle against the elite teams, which could mean a lot of time spent in their own zone, so again, goaltending will be key. Murray looks great behind Pittsburgh's team defense, but if North America's young defense starts to get exposed, as I suspect it will, is Murray (or whoever ends up starting by the medal rounds) going to be able to hold up under the pressure? The other key for N.A. will be speed: they'll be one of the fastest teams in the tournament and they'll need to take advantage of that. Since they're probably going to spend a good deal of time in their own zone, they'll need to find ways to create and capitalize on odd man breaks in transition.

I think Finland is on the verge of being among the elite teams in international competition, but right now their top young players - Ristolainen, Laine, Terravainen, Barkov - are still too young, and the old guard - Koivu, Jokinen, Filppula - aren't quite what they used to be. I was tempted to put them in last, but their goaltending will be the difference-maker between them and the Czechs.

Europe is similar to Finland and Czech in terms of depth, but the latter two don't have gamebreakers like Josi, Hossa and Kopitar. Experience and two-way play will be the difference-maker between Europe and N.A. Europe is stacked with high-level two-way players; their P.K. will be top-notch and every line will be able to match up favorably against any line on any team except for the big three. Even against Russia, as long as Boedker/Kopitar/Hossa can hold their own against Ovechkin/Malkin/Tarasenko, the second lines should be about close to evenly matched and Europe wins the bottom six matchups handily. That said, I think their defense will prove to be too old and slow to keep up with the big three, and that's what will keep them from medalling.

I don't have a lot of faith in Russia's team for this tournament. Their powerplay will be devastating, but with NHL-sanctioned officiating, the KHL players will get frustrated with teams - especially the three N.A. teams - getting away with a lot that would usually get called internationally, and the KHL players are going to struggle generally with the North American rinks and style.

Why on earth do the Czechs get their own team but not the Slovaks? I won't deny they're the better team, but not by much. Feels like splitting hairs to me.