Bill Daly on Possible World Cup

In an interview with Bill Daly of the NHL by blogger Steve Lepore of Puck The Media, Daly is asked about a possible return of the World Cup of hockey:

"BD: I do. I couldn’t tell you exactly when because I know its tied up with our relationship with the PA and our collective bargaining agreement, but yes. I think, again, historically that’s been a very valuable property for the league and the players’ association. I anticipate there will be a return of the World Cup in some form and that’s something that’s going to be discussed with, and resolved with, the players’ association. They’ve got other priorities right now. They’re working on them, and I certainly understand that." ~ Puck The Media

Thoughts:

1. As has been the focus of this blog before, we still have no way of knowing exactly what format a World Cup of hockey would follow to allow competitive games while still trying to be inclusive of as many nations as possible.

2. Some of the basis for furthering this idea in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement could come from the World Hockey Summit being Held in late August. One of the topics on the summit agenda is:

"Integrating the World Cup of Hockey into the international agenda and to consider a consistent rotation between the IIHF World Championship, the Olympics and the World Cup." ~ CHL

3. The only way the World Cup would be that different from the World Championships is if: A) More nations were included in an expanded tournament format. This is problematic because there are not really that many competitive hockey nations outside of the top 8. B) If it’s held during a time when the most players can participate. Unlike the World Championships which occurs during the Stanley Cup finals, having the World Cup in August will avoid player participation conflict. This will allow for the quality of play to be higher overall because all the top talent will be available.

NHL Teams to Play European Clubs in Preseason Exhibition (Update 1)

“The Coyotes will conclude their preseason schedule when they face off against Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) at Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia, on Oct. 6 in an exhibition game as part of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Challenge.” – NHL.com

“Columbus Blue Jackets will play an exhibition game at the new state-of-the-art Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden, on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. local time as part of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Challenge. The Blue Jackets will play a unified team comprised of two Swedish hockey teams – the Malmo Redhawks, who in 2009-10 played in HockeyAllsvenksan, and Rogle BK from Angelholm, who played the 2009-10 season in the Swedish elite league Eliteserien. The best 10 skaters and one goaltender from Rogle BK will join forces with the top 10 skaters and one goalie from Malmo to square off against the Blue Jackets. Coaches from each side will lead the team. The players will be outfitted in custom-designed red and yellow uniforms, the official colors of the province of Skane.”- bluejackets.nhl.com

“The Hurricanes will travel to Russia to face SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) on Oct. 4 before opening the regular season with two games against the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland.” News Observer

“The Boston Bruins are slated to play an exhibition game at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. local time as part of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Challenge. The Bruins will play the Belfast Giants Select, a unified team comprised of an All-Star selection of the best of the UK Elite League players from each team. Ticket sales and broadcast information for this game will be released at a later date.” NHL.com Addition: "They will play one exhibition game in Lieberec, Czech Republic, on Oct. 5 against HC Liberec" - TSN

“The Wings will play nine preseason games, including one that will take them more than 3,900 miles from home against the defending Swedish Elite League champion Farjestads BK in Karlstad, Sweden.” NHL.com

It’s likely that in the coming days the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild will announce preseason exhibition games against European clubs as these teams are opening their NHL seasons in Europe.

Tournament of Non-Playoff NHL teams vs. Europe

In a previous post I discussed the timing of the World Championships in relation to the Stanley Cup Finals and proposed that the World Championships occur after the Finals in a non-Olympic year.

Another possibility emphasizing international club play could be to have a tournament using non-playoff NHL clubs and European clubs. European domestic leagues finish their playoffs before the NHL playoffs start. This would be a good time for the champions of the respective European domestic leagues to play in a tournament against non-playoff NHL clubs. An example would be, league champs from The Russian KHL, Swedish Elitserien, Finish SM-liiga, German DEL, and the Swiss Nationalliga could all play in a tournament against five other NHL teams. It could be called the Europe/NHL Challenge.

Although the timing wouldn’t be ideal (during the Stanley Cup Finals) this would be a good way to grow the game in Europe with competitive games and without the dispute over player participation that the World Championships has. The incentives of the tournament would be the draw for the clubs to participate. For NHL clubs it would be a chance at redemption for not making the Stanley Cup playoffs. It would also be an opportunity for recent signees from NCAA and CHL hockey to display their skills for their future NHL clubs. For NHL fans it would give them a chance to keep following their team. For European clubs it would be a chance to prove themselves as the best in Europe, and the best against NHL competition. For all clubs involved a monetary prize to the winner would be good motivation.

Overall, this is a broad idea centered on the possibility of increased competition between NHL and European club teams as a way to grow the game worldwide.

Blackhawks vs. HC Davos

This is a video of a Patrick Kane goal during a Victoria Cup exhibition game in 2009 between the Chicago Blackhawks and HC Davos of the Swiss league.

World Hockey Summit will Provide Progress

The World Hockey Summit will take place August 23-26th in Toronto. An important key theme of the summit for the purpose of this blog is:

“Examining the potential of a long-term international hockey event agenda for national team and club teams, as well as the co-operation between the IIHF and the NHL to grow the game.”

As discussed before, co-operation between the IIHF and the NHL is an important aspect to growing the game internationally. Right now the two organizations seem to be operating quite independent of each other. With the IIHF holding the World Championships during an Olympic year and always during the Stanley Cup playoffs it fails to gain any real relevance in North America and continues to cause conflict over player participation. A realistic approach is going to have to take place with the summit seriously debating a few key issues:

Should the World Championships take place during an Olympics year? It doesn’t really make sense to determine a world champion twice in one year. This year the Olympics maintained itself has the most important, popular, and competitive tournament between national teams. After playing a long NHL season, an Olympic tournament, and possibly a first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is it really that appealing for the elite players to continue playing at the World Championship?

Should the World Championships take place at another time, rather than during the Stanley Cup Playoffs? The answer to this question is undoubtedly “yes”. Having the World Championships at another time would allow the IIHF to build on the popularity of an Olympic like tournament. By having the best players available, the World Championships would gain relevance in North America. In addition, the support for the World Championships is very strong as evident by the sellout Germany vs. USA game at a 76,000 seat futbol (soccer) stadium in Germany.

Ultimately, it comes down to the ability of the IIHF and the NHL to compromise. In a non-Olympic year the Stanley Cup Finals finishes around mid June. Having the World Championships after the finals may be a good solution. The players from the Stanley Cup finals still may not participate due to massive fatigue but at least it would give players knocked out in earlier rounds time to recover and participate in the World Championships. In addition, the World Championships will be over before the NHL draft and the subsequent free agency period.

Rangers vs. Metallurg Victoria Cup GWG

Here is some video from the 2008 Victoria Cup in which the New York Rangers managed to rally from a 0-3 deficit in the 3rd period to win against Metallurg Magnitogorsk. This is the game winning goal by Ryan Callahan which is also depicted in the header image for the blog.

Notice how much time the Rangers had to break the puck out and the awful turn over by Magnitogosk that led to the game winner.

Best Model for International Hockey

Recently with the ongoing FIFA World Cup many have been thinking about the international model that would fit best for hockey. While some such as Bruce Peters of puckworlds.com has debated the Olympics vs. a World Cup as the best model for international competition between hockey nations. The greatest obstacle is centered on the debate of tournament size. There truly are not enough competitive national teams to hold a tournament of 32 without having blow out games. Because of this international hockey’s most important, relevant, and competitive tournament is the Olympics. Trying to change that model would come with difficultly. Ultimately, expansion of the Olympic tournament or a move to a 16-32 team World Cup is far in the distance largely due to the uncompetitiveness of teams outside of the elite hockey countries in the world.

What I want to present is another view on international hockey (influenced again from the soccer model) that highlights the importance of international competition not between national teams, rather between club teams. Ultimately, in the long run growing the game at the club level is what will create more hockey nations suitable for a larger national team competition such as an expanded Olympics or a World Cup.

Within soccer there are numerous times throughout the season that club teams will play teams from other leagues/countries. The IIHF almost had this right with the development of the Champion’s League modeling the European futbol model . Unfortunately, because this year’s season of the IIHF’s Champion’s league was canceled it failed to gain any popularity or legitimacy. However, at the end of the day the Champion’s league will still only be between European club teams therefore it will remain irrelevant outside of Europe. As of right now the re-launch of the Champion’s League has been canceled due to financial disagreements between member clubs, the IIHF, and sponsors (CHL re-launch scratched).

A potential explanation of the cancelation of the resurgence of the Champion’s league may be due to the ongoing development of a Pan-European league which is detailed by Risto Pakerinen at ristopakarinen.com/hockey. In this model, the domestic leagues of various European nations will be broken down into divisions, with cross divisional (therefore cross national) games taking place. This model has more viability then the Champion’s league but also has some downfalls as well (which I will take up in later posts). Another form of almost meaningful cross national club play is exemplified in the competition for the Nordic Trophy between Finish and Swedish club teams which will turn into an expanded tournament called the European Trophy. (Also more on this in later posts).

Ultimately, the sad but true fact is that the idea of international club play becomes more relevant to everyone when North American clubs are involved. As of right now the only tournament that comes close to this notion is the Victoria Cup played between the winner of the Champion’s League, and an NHL challenger. In 2008, the New York Ranger’s played Metallurg Magnitogorsk and rallied to win in the third period being down 0-3. In 2009, the Chicago Blackhawks played the Zurich ZSC Lions and lost 2-1 in a game that was taken seriously by the Lions by not by the Blackhawks. While these games were good in theory, in practice they meant little for the participating NHL clubs who were on their preseason tour through Europe. Before their respective Victoria Cup games the Rangers played an exhibition vs. SC Bern and the BlackHawks against HC Davos.

At times the Victoria Cup games proved to be very entertaining with the flair of European fans shown with waving flags and unison song. North American clubs vs. European clubs are the type of matches that the IIHF should be looking into to promote the game in Europe. When I say North American I mean NHL and AHL clubs. Looking at pure competitiveness AHL clubs can almost certainly compete with European club teams. How cool would it be to see the recent Calder Cup champs vs. a German or Swiss clubs team? Or to take it a step further why can't a handful of NHL or AHL teams play in a club tournament with other European club teams? The Washington Capitals vs. Dynamo Moscow CSKA Moscow would be pretty cool.

So I already know what you’re thinking. When are NHL/AHL clubs going to find it in their schedule to play in a tournament with European Club teams? As of right now, it almost certainly has to continue in the preseason. Continue to play for the Victoria Cup, possibly expand the tournament to include more NHL clubs and European clubs. Have European clubs tour through North America, or even showcase their game for North American fans against other European Club teams.

Overall, the framework for increased international club play under the current model is limited. Drastic changes would need to take place for Hockey to be on the level of soccer and the World Cup. Another limitation directly effecting the competition of club teams is the lack of a transfer agreement between the NHL and other leagues. When a transfer agreement is finally created European club teams will be properly compensated for the transfer of their players to the NHL which will give the European teams more financial mobility. Changes in the NHL regular season schedule may need to happen which will allow more time for games against cross pond competition. It comes down to incentive (money, competitiveness, and economic strength of a Pan Euro League). If the European club teams can find a way to make it worthwhile for North American clubs to play European clubs, then Hockey may be on its way to modeling the format which soccer has become so successful with.

Welcome!

I have wanted to make a Hockey Blog for a long time now and I finally found an aspect of hockey that I think has a lot of potential for academic and intelligent exchange.

Hockey as a sport has a very long way to go before it reaches international status and success. One day international hockey, domestic leagues, player transfers, tournaments, and competition will model European Futbol (Soccer). Although this model is very much a pipe dream at this moment, there are signs that hockey is headed in this direction. Therefore, it will be the goal of this blog to bring you those developments and exchanges of thought between intelligent hockey bloggers to document this development.

The international aspect of hockey is evident in every National Hockey League game played, the debate over European vs. North American training is constantly on going, and the meaning of the game from a European perspective is largley unknown in North America. Having said that, now is a more relavent time then ever to discuss hockey on an international level!

Jon S.