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Anyone surprised by the rash of injuries before the World Cup?


wren223

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On 9/3/2016 at 7:18 PM, Nuckles80 said:

Tickets were ridiculously overpriced and haven't sold out. Have you seen the pepsi add where they are 'thanking fans'...

 

NHL is in damage control, its not going well and fans aren't buying into the money grab. They should have revived the Canada cup and had pure country teams only vs the dog an pony show of under 21 and 'Europe'....

 

Bettman is probably having an aneurysm - if Toronto nuts won't over pay for hockey you know its really BAD

Would it be better to have Germany and Norway in the tourney and have them get their butts handed to them game after game? I actually like the idea of team Europe and team North America instead. A lot of Euro players would never have the opportunity to play in this tourney otherwise. And team NA is a good balance to that as the majority of players in this league are still NA. Many get left out on team Canada and team USA that could/should be on the team. Often younger guys who are often told, "your time will come". Under this plan their time is now.

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27 minutes ago, Baggins said:

Would it be better to have Germany and Norway in the tourney and have them get their butts handed to them game after game? I actually like the idea of team Europe and team North America instead. A lot of Euro players would never have the opportunity to play in this tourney otherwise. And team NA is a good balance to that as the majority of players in this league are still NA. Many get left out on team Canada and team USA that could/should be on the team. Often younger guys who are often told, "your time will come". Under this plan their time is now.

The quality of hockey will be better, I am not sure if I mentioned that in another post but I'm not disputing that. Rather, the actual winner if U23 or if some impossibility occurs and its "Team Europe" , really won't mean much to hockey fans since those teams will be different next time (if there even is another tournament in the future). The great thing about international tournaments is pitting country vs country to have 'bragging rights'.

 

One of the best parts of the Canada Cup (and now the Olympics as its taken over,  but even that may be done), is that it really was a 'who is the best country' in the world tournament. Now we may never have that again (if NHL players don't go to the Olympics) - which is what takes some of the pride and excitement away from fans.

 

I think there's a reason why people are less interested in this tournament than the NHL had hoped and that's the main reason. When the Canada Cup was played, Canada shut down, people were in bars, people were at home with piles of friends-all watching together somewhere, glued to their TVs, I still get shivers when I see that pass from Gretz to Lemieux vs Russia and that series, I remember where I was and who I was with. Most people I know in Toronto could care less about this tournament and are focused on the Jays and Raptors - that says something! While that is an 'anecdotal example' one simply has to look at how ticket sales went to guage what the interest has been like, and its been poor. To  me, the way they structured this tournament was indeed as a money grab, look at the price of tickets on ticketmaster, the fact they were trying to sell full packages only, then had to move to half packs, then moved to single games because of the lack of interest and cost. Tickets are still available on Ticketmaster and scalpers who bought up rows of seats are now selling at a discount to their 'pack' prices even after US exchange on Stubhub.

 

An alternative (I don't disagree with not allowing weak teams in) is to go with a six team format until other countries show they may be "ready" to compete and thus can be let in That would be one hell of a tournament and all you need to determine who's the best.

 

Canada

Russia

Czech

USA

Finland

Sweden

 

This tournament seems like it was based on some 'marketing person or consultant's' view of how the tournament should be structured vs really understanding the fans of the game. What's worrisome is that Bettman still doesn't 'get it' after what close to 2 decades at the head of the NHL? Sometimes common sense is not so common.

 

 

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