The good, the bad and the ugly about World Cup
Tournament is running on fumes now that Canadian win seems inevitable
Finally, it’s almost over.
We should rephrase that. There were parts of the World Cup of Hockey that we really liked. From Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews playing on the same line for Team North America to watching Sidney Crosby take yet another step in his evolution as one of the greatest players of all time, the tournament had its moments.
Unfortunately, with Canada holding a 1-0 best-of-three series lead against Team Europe in what seems like an inevitable outcome in the championship final, the World Cup is running on fumes. We just want it to end already.
With the tournament wrapping up, here is what we liked, what we noticed and what we think could be improved for the best-on-best event:
OUTCOME WAS FOREGONE CONCLUSION
Like the 2014 Olympics, when Canada allowed only three goals, the problem with this year’s World Cup is that it lacked drama. The Canadians have outscored opponents 22-7 and trailed for only two minutes and 41 seconds. Based on the ages of its core players — Sidney Crosby, John Tavares and Drew Doughty are all under 30 years old — don’t expect that to change the next time around. If anything, with Connor McDavid, Aaron Ekblad and Nathan MacKinnon graduating to the team in coming years, Canada is only going to get more dominant.
SINGLE ELIMINATION IS BETTER THAN BEST OF 3
Maybe it’s because of the opponent, but this best-of-three championship series was a terrible idea. All it does is drag on a tournament that was already losing steam. And it kills what makes international events so compelling: the idea that anything can happen in one game. Next time, put in a quarter-final round. That way, you get another single elimination game and this year would have had one more chance to see Team North America play.
A RYDER CUP FORMAT WOULD BE A GREAT IDEA
It’s often said that the country is so deep with players that you could form Canadian teams who would meet in the final. A look at the players who didn’t make Team Canada (P.K. Subban, Taylor Hall, Mark Giordano, among others) seems to reinforce this idea. So let’s test out the theory. Have Sidney Crosby captain one team and Jonathan Toews captain the other and have them draft players. You could televise it and it would probably get better ratings than Czech Republic versus Europe. Another idea is pit Canada against the World, à la the Ryder Cup. It might take some convincing for Russia’s Alex Ovechkin, Sweden’s Erik Karlsson and Patrick Kane of the United States to play together on one team. But if everyone thinks Canada is unbeatable, we might as well put it to the test.
CROSBY SHOWS HE’S STILL DOMINANT
Sidney Crosby entered the World Cup on the heels of winning his second Stanley Cup, where he was the playoff MVP. He had already captained Canada to a gold medal at the 2014 Olympics and scored the gold medal-winning gold at the 2010 Olympics. The 29-year-old had reached his peak, or so we thought. Heading into Game 2 of the final, Crosby led all players with nine points in five games. He’s the reason linemate Brad Marchand has scored four goals in five games. Heck, he’s probably partly responsible for Marchand signing an eight-year, US$49-million contract this week.
TORONTO IS TURNING INTO A BASEBALL TOWN
Most years, competing against the Blue Jays would have been an afterthought for the organizers of the World Cup of Hockey. But this year’s edition of the tournament coincided with a nail-biting series against the New York Yankees and another series with wild card consequences against the Baltimore Orioles. The result? There were many empty seats for Game 1 of the championship final and more security guards than actual fans in attendance for the outdoor viewing parties around the arena. You can’t change that. But you can entice fans into the arena by making ticket prices a little less expensive.
THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE OLYMPICS
When asked about the supposed success of the World Cup and whether it could replace the Olympics, Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock was direct and to the point: “the World Cup is great — it’s not the Olympics. Let’s not get confused.” Babcock went on to say that the reason the Olympics are so captivating is because of nationalistic pride: “I like the opportunity to represent your country where the heat is on you and you have to deliver.”