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Originally Posted by Nino33
IMO as someone from NA who's been following hockey for decades, the idea that "North American players and fans probably mostly the World Cup of Hockey is more important" is completely untrue
NA fans/players as a whole I think care about "best-on-best" regardless of what you name it.....so an Olympics with access to all players (and thus best-on-best) would be just fine for those in NA, it's the Olympics with 2nd/3rd tier players or lower that NA wouldn't care about
Last year's World Cup was not massively popular in NA. The format/fake teams turned people off and so it wasn't considered a true best-on-best.....I think it was paid attention to as just a fun tournament to watch. The Olympic hockey next February, with lower quality players, only diehard Olympic fans will care in NA (it won't even be considered a fun tournament to watch)
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Thanks for this. Team Europe or NA really was not the best idea. Rather less teams but as you said best-on-best at the World Cup of Hockey. Why not even again a more games series between Canada and Russia? Olympics without the NHLers are less interesting, of course. Yet it is less an invitation tournament as the World Cup and therefore for many smaller Nations more important to put the game in the focus of the public. To grow the game worldwide it isn't enough to align two NHL games in Stockholm or another city once a year. In this context the Olympics and even the World Championship in May probably means much more outside NA. The NHL is for example as good as no topic in the main media in Germany, unfortunately also the top German league don’t get much main media attention. Internet and streaming has improved a lot in the past years. But that's only for those already interested. That does not improve the position of hockey towards the almighty football (soccer). But there are several hours of media reports about hockey, live broadcasts with millions of viewers at the best time when Olympics occur. The most viewers don't mention if these are really the best players or the best of the rest. But they get an impression what hockey could be. Hopefully some are sustainably infected. More stars, more stories, a faster game, more action and maybe that effect more people or is more sustainable. It’s a pity that it does not come this time. The NHL is the best league in the world with distance, but I also wish that the game in such a big market as Germany at least grow a bit more in the future. And for that the Olympics are decisive, even if it means that Draisaitl, Seidenberg, Rieder, Grubauer and so on are not there.