World Cup still trails Olympics in the minds of NHL players and coaches
The World Cup of Hockey, revived after a 12-year absence and reformatted to include six national teams and two hybrid teams, has been an artistic and competitive success. But it hasn’t gained the high level of regard that players and coaches have for the Olympics and playing for their respective national teams, a sentiment that the NHL’s marketing folks might not be happy to hear.
“The World Cup is great. It’s not the Olympics. Let’s not get confused,” said Canada Coach Mike Babcock, who will guide his squad in the best-of-three final against a squad of players from eight European counties. Game 1 will be Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre.
The World Cup was staged to promote hockey on a global level and to give the league and the players’ association leverage in their negotiations regarding players’ participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The main point of dispute — no surprise — is money.
In the previous five Olympic tournaments that have featured NHL players, the league, the players’ union, the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation have agreed upon certain conditions related to the costs of players’ transportation and accommodation — mainly that the IOC would bear those costs. The IOC, under current President Thomas Bach, has shown a reluctance to pay those considerable costs again. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said the league — which gets no revenue from the Olympics and shuts down its operations for several weeks to accommodate players’ participation — is not willing to pay all of those costs itself. Revenue from the World Cup will be split by the NHL and the NHLPA.
Rene Fasel, president of the IIHF, wants NHL players to compete in the Olympics again. “The World Cup of Hockey is a big international ice hockey event, and a very important tool to promote the game. I think it will be great to see the world’s top players competing in both this tournament and in Pyeongchang 2018 and beyond,” he said via email. “The players are ready to go to the Olympics, but they are also enjoying themselves here and the quality of play at the World Cup has been absolutely fantastic.
“I think for any hockey fan the idea of having a best-on-best competition taking place every two years instead of four is the ideal scenario. We hope that the World Cup can increase the global appetite for more international hockey and convince all of the stakeholders that it is worth it to have the top players competing in both of these tournaments.”
He also said the NHL has offered to help the IIHF in negotiating financial terms with the IOC. “The decision should be made before the end of this year at the latest if the NHL will participate,” Fasel said.
To keep the World Cup competitive, organizers decided not to invite national teams from countries that can’t match the depth of Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Russia and to instead form a united Europe team and a North American team composed of Americans and Canadians who are 23 years old or younger. The North American team won raves for its speed and enthusiasm, and Team Europe reached the final, so it was a success on that level.
But Babcock, echoing players’ previous comments, said that in future World Cup tournaments he’d prefer a format in which players represent their countries, among other format changes. Europe Coach Ralph Krueger said there are no easy answers regarding how to stage the World Cup in coming years.
“It’s a question of comparing the business future and marketing of the game vs. the now of the game,” he said. “On a purely marketing standpoint, this has turned out wonderful for hockey because the byproduct will be better hockey player in the eight countries-plus that we’re representing here. In the short term, it’s easier to follow a World Championship or Olympic format [and have] nations with rivalries because today we don’t have a rivalry, do we?”
Kings and Team Europe center Anze Kopitar said he has enjoyed his team’s run but is unsure about whether he’d like to see the same format again.
“I would be lying if I said I was completely sold on this concept for sure,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re getting into but it makes it so much easier if the guys buy in right away. We have a really good group of guys so it was a lot easier than I expected for everybody to kind of mesh and create the kind of chemistry that has brought us to this point.”
Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen
