Heres to a Valient fight by Team Canada!

Despite the sad ending You played hard and fought well like the True Canucks you were(about half of you actually being from the Canucks team) and even outlasting the American team. Europe you played well and deserve every bit to win it and i congradulate you for Great hockey played. we'll get em next time around, eh?

Don't we always out last the Americans. Well, not counting Stanley Cup playoffs...grumple...

And I was betting on Toronto, too.

It's shameful, how Americans are generally not that big fans of hockey, yet they're consuming our sport...

its all those bloody rink taxes! they say on average Montreal has to pay 80 mil a year on taxes compared to the US teams non taxed rinks.

[gimli7410]

i was looking around for more hockey threads and look what i found JD. as usual the canadians outlasted americans.

[Jonathan]

*sigh* At least Canada didn't win the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2000. I believe it was the Czech Republic.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by gimli7410
i was looking around for more hockey threads and look what i found JD. as usual the canadians outlasted americans.

What does that matter? We've won the Olympics too. Maybe we're not always the best hockey players in the world - but you better watch your back as hockey becomes more and more popular in the US. Remember - even Florida has a hockey team now. As more US cities get teams - the interest in hockey will grow. As interest in hockey grows - more Americans will play. As more Americans play - there will be better American players.

[GrayMouser]

As a Canadian, I can proudly say...who cares?

The World Hockey Championships are now, have always been, and look to continue to be, a bad joke.

They've gone through three stages of development.

1) During the Soviet bloc "shamateur" period; the best players from Canada and the U.S (there were one or two) couldn't play because they were professionals.

2) The relaxation of the ban on professionals, which coincided with the entrance of Swedish and Finnish players into the NHL;
the best players from Canada, the U.S. and Western Europe couldn't play, because of conflicts with the Stanley Cup.

3) The post-Soviet era, marked by a massive influx of players from Russia and Eastern Europe into the NHL; now, NONE of the best players in the world play in the "world Championships".

A total waste of time.

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by GrayMouser
As a Canadian, I can proudly say...who cares?

The World Hockey Championships are now, have always been, and look to continue to be, a bad joke.

What am I hearing? Every nation see the World Championships in every sport as something more important than their own countries' championships. Soccer for example, even though nations arrange their own championships (the German Bundesliga, the British Premier League etc.), the FIFA World Cup is considered something much more interesting and exciting.
Isolationistic Canada and USA must be the only countries who consider their own championships more important than the international World Championships (Stanley Cup being more important than the Ice Hockey World Championship and all).

Originally posted by GrayMouser
They've gone through three stages of development.

1) During the Soviet bloc "shamateur" period; the best players from Canada and the U.S (there were one or two) couldn't play because they were professionals.

2) The relaxation of the ban on professionals, which coincided with the entrance of Swedish and Finnish players into the NHL;
the best players from Canada, the U.S. and Western Europe couldn't play, because of conflicts with the Stanley Cup.

3) The post-Soviet era, marked by a massive influx of players from Russia and Eastern Europe into the NHL; now, NONE of the best players in the world play in the "world Championships".

Yes, it's quite bad that it conflicts with the Stanley Cup. Someone should do something about it.
But you are so wrong when you say that the best players can't play. Many of the players in NHL see it as a great honour to be part of the national team. Some of the best players temporary leave NHL to play in the World Championships. For example, I believe that every Finnish NHL player came to the World Championship this year.

Originally posted by GrayMouser
A total waste of time.

Maybe it's a waste of time for isolationistic countries, but certainly not for the rest of the world.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Jonathan
What am I hearing? Every nation see the World Championships in every sport as something more important than their own countries' championships. Soccer for example, even though nations arrange their own championships (the German Bundesliga, the British Premier League etc.), the FIFA World Cup is considered something much more interesting and exciting.

Isolationistic Canada and USA must be the only countries who consider their own championships more important than the international World Championships (Stanley Cup being more important than the Ice Hockey World Championship and all). world.

Hey - we're not Isolationist - but we have a very large country. We have tons of sports teams and there is enough revalry between our own country's teams. You guys are all the way on the other side of the world. The sports news would be two hours long if we had to see how European teams were doing as well as our own. So basically - most Americans and Canadians are interested in our own major league teams - which cover an entire continent.

It's not that we're isolationists per se - but your countries are the size of our states. How many hockey teams outside of Europe and North America take part in the World Championships?

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
How many hockey teams outside of Europe and North America take part in the World Championships?

In the Ice Hockey World Championships there are only a few countries, but that's understandable. Partly because many countries don't have the right climate to be able to play hockey too often, and partly because it's quite hard to qualify for the top division of the Championships.
It's another thing with soccer for example where many, many nations try to qualify and a great number of them get qualified.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Jonathan
In the Ice Hockey World Championships there are only a few countries, but that's understandable. Partly because many countries don't have the right climate to be able to play hockey too often, and partly because it's quite hard to qualify for the top division of the Championships.
It's another thing with soccer for example where many, many nations try to qualify and a great number of them get qualified.

yeah - and hockey is much more popular in the US than soccer is. Only the east coast and west coast really have soccer teams. Indiana had just gotten soccer into schools a little over 10 years ago I guess, whereas soccer has been huge in New Jersey since the 1970's. That's why the Soccer World Championships have been played here and New Jersey is trying to get them to hold them again at the Meadowlands. basically what I'm saying here - is that the US overall isn't as interested in soccer - and until that changes there isn't going ot be a lot of Americans following the World Championships.

The Hockey World Championship is basically like our NHL - except that it's with countries. But as I said - European countries are the size of our states. It's pretty much a European Championshipo with a few other countries thrown in.

[GrayMouser]

Isolationistic Canada and USA must be the only countries who consider their own championships more important than the international World Championships (Stanley Cup being more important than the Ice Hockey World Championship and all).

As I said, one reason for that is that our best players were deliberately excluded for years. Currently, ALL the best players in the world play in the NHL.

But you are so wrong when you say that the best players can't play. Many of the players in NHL see it as a great honour to be part of the national team. Some of the best players temporary leave NHL to play in the World Championships. For example, I believe that every Finnish NHL player came to the World Championship this year

I'm not up to date on the current Finnish situation, but I can pretty confidently assert that any player on any NHL club in the Stanley Cup play-offs who asked for leave of absence to play in the World Championships would get a short and sharply-worded explanation of exactly what a professional sports team expects for the millions of dollars they pay.

Any NHL player who plays in the World Championship is there because his team was eliminated from the Stanley Cup (not that that means that there might not be some good individual players)

The true test of world champions, where the best players play each other has only been found in the Canada Cup/World Cup (1976-1996), and the 1998 and 2002 Olympics.

Hopefully there will be another World Cup in 2004.