Ice Hockey World Championships
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by user Alex Holowczak
In the Final, Sweden beat Czech Republic 4-0.
In the Bronze Medal Game, Finland beat Canada 5-0.
Which brings up a couple of topics of debate...
1. What is happening to North American Hockey? It is very rare, for such an absence of American players. It is more explainable in the World Championships with the NHL Playoffs still going on, but still, it's a pretty dire result. I think Canada appeared over-confident, because everyone knows they SHOULD win.
2. Why are the World Championships held at a time when the NHL is going on? All the best players in the world are away, which will make the best teams struggle. The Europeans do well because they have players playing the rules in their leagues. But NHL players need time to get used to the different rules. Wouldn't it be better for the IIHF to hold the tournament in August, after the NHL has finished, and in order to let the best players play? If they did, they'd bring in more money, becuase people will pay to see the better players on show. Considering the World Championship is so hugely important (it holds ranking points for Olympic Qualification), it seems to me to be bad marketing from the IIHF to continually clash it with the NHL Playoffs. The Olympic Qualification is no problem for Canada, admittedly (they are hosting it in 2010), but the NHL stars need to play for a country like Germany. They were playing in Division I of the minor divisions, because their NHLers were away. As a result, Germany were beating Hungary 16-0 or something ridiculous like that. Perhaps more people would care about this tournament if it were held in August.
Date
Thu 05/25/06, 2:00 am EST
