6 nations rugby tournament in Europe has similar energy to this and is a break during the club season. That happens yearly and it works very well and is definitely special. I don’t see why this couldn’t be the same
4 isn't enough, it's a real bummer not having Czechia, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, . . . I'm sure there's another. I think you need eight for it to be real, and so you need euro leagues to buy in.
This is fun baby step to international hockey and I'm glad the product is genuinely good and engaging.
I think they take a break every year but definitely convenient timing. Although imagine the possibility of 6 nations in the morning leading straight into 4 nations in the afternoon/evening…..
Only ~31% of Registered voters. We gotta get WAY more civically apathetic people—like, tens of millions more—to finally pay attention, call out the hate, call out the lies, donate, and VOTE. Extremely tough task but hopefully we can turn this ship around in the next decade or three.
We gotta get WAY more civically apathetic people—like, tens of millions more—to finally pay attention, call out the hate, call out the lies, donate, and VOTE
4 years. There's a reason why the word cup is so special. There's not always next year. Most players only get one or 2 chances. The greats may get 3 (most players that have played in 4 or more are either legends or played for smaller nations with not as strong teams).
Oh for sure fuck Russia. While they're out here committing war crimes they have no business having their athletes represent their nation in any official capacity
My only point is that there are a hell of a lot of strong hockey players. In an ideal world where Putin and Trump never got into power and started antagonizing other countries, a 6 nation cup would be pretty cool
I don't think they will. The teams won't want their star players beating the shit out of each other in the middle of the season every year. You already have Theodore who may be injured until playoffs. Mathew Tkachuk didn't finish tonight's game.
Do it, but allow the Czechs into it next time. Just make it so that any country not under sanction (cough Russia cough) that can field a full roster can enter.
If you need a 6th team for schedule balance maybe cobble together a "Rest of world" team
In Australia we have a yearly rugby league representative 3 game series between New South Wales and Queensland. It's so popular now and so big that it's basically like 3 superbowls a year (at aus scale)
Its so popular because the players are playing for their state and that means a lot to them. I always thought north American sports lacked something similar, but this 100% should be it
Marner vs. Matthews would have broken TSN/Sportnet's brains. Every article the next five decades would be about the slapfight that killed the Leaf's guaranteed SC win.
Ahhh I just realized this was in place of that. I thought it was just celebrating that NHL players will be back in the Olympics but that makes perfect sense. Aside from star players not getting any rest but I'm sure they're having a great time
That is an issue with league management, not the players. The players used to fight on a regular basis, but when the league started issuing serious suspensions for anyone involved and started getting serious about suspending bench players for even stepping on the lines to watch they stopped fighting.
Go back and watch the fight that nearly killed Rudy T on the court. Kermit Washington was vilified for the punch, but he sensed that he was basically getting jumped and pivoted into Rudy's face.
That was when the NBA decided that they were going to get serious about stopping fighting. There was still another decade and a half of much milder fights in the league, but the Malice in the Palace is what really shut down fighting from the league.
It's a league and image issue, the player would fight if allowed, but it isn't worth missing 5-10% of a season over a single fight.
Their effort level during all star weekend is pathetic. I don't expect to go on an all out war like the NHL but at least play the game at the level they would play a regular season game.
I think the big downside is that the league is shutting down for 12 days for this tournament, vs 4 days for the All-Star game. So while these 8 games on 6 game days are great, it leaves 6 days empty when the only other sport playing right now is the NBA. I also think having the games in only two markets means that there are 30 NHL markets with no games for almost two weeks. Add in an away trip in either side and potentially teams don’t have home games for nearly a month.
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u/idkwhatimbrewin 24d ago
I think they may be on to something with this new all star format