World Cup not worth the hype
MICHAEL TRAIKOS
POSTMEDIA NETWORK Finally, it’s almost over. We should re-phrase 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 with 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, hereiswhatweliked,whatwenoticed and what think could be improved for the best-on-best event:
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. We might not be saying this if it was Russia or Sweden or anyone else in the final. But as Team Europe’s Thomas Vanek conceded, “To beat (Canada) twice is going to be — it’s impossible.” 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.
It’s often said that the country is so deep with players that you could have formed Canadian teams who would meet in the final. A look at the players who didn’t make Team Canada (P.K. Subban, Taylor Hall, Marc Giordano, amongst 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, a 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.
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. In other words, 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 why linemate Brad Marchand has scored four goals in five games. Heck, he’s probably partly responsible for Marchand signing an eight-year, $49-milion US contract this week.
Yearsfromnowwhensomeoneasks us about the World Cup, we’ll probably mention it was the first — and only — time that Connor McDavid skated on a line with Auston Matthews in a meaningful game. But we probably won’t mention or might have forgotten that it was also when Canada played against a team consisting of eight different countries in the championship final. Team America, which became the darlings of the tournament, added spice to the round robin portion of the World Cup. They were fast, talented and fun and would have made an interesting opponent had they received some luck and advanced to the final. Team Europe, on the other hand, might have been more successful. But they were also kind of boring and forgettable.
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 why 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.” It was another way of saying that there is no substitute for winning a gold medal.