IIHF World ChampionshipDiscuss International Tournaments like the WJC, Olympics, and World Cup, as they take place, or discuss past tournaments. performances.
Euro Hockey Tour turns to European Championship with 16 Teams (from 2014 on)
This doesn't make sense to me. The EHT/WC system is fine as it is, the EHT is a way for the coaches to evaluate players for the WC, and it's a good chance to see how players of the top countries from the different European leagues fare against each other. If they do this, they might as well get rid of the WC or make it every four years so that we get two year breaks between the Olympics and WC.
This doesn't make sense to me. The EHT/WC system is fine as it is, the EHT is a way for the coaches to evaluate players for the WC, and it's a good chance to see how players of the top countries from the different European leagues fare against each other. If they do this, they might as well get rid of the WC or make it every four years so that we get two year breaks between the Olympics and WC.
fine for NTs not european leagues, especially KHL. To many long breaks, bad timing of World Championship.
This doesn't make sense to me. The EHT/WC system is fine as it is, the EHT is a way for the coaches to evaluate players for the WC, and it's a good chance to see how players of the top countries from the different European leagues fare against each other. If they do this, they might as well get rid of the WC or make it every four years so that we get two year breaks between the Olympics and WC.
EHT has nothing to do with IIHF, it's a tournament hosted by the four nations. And there are a bunch of other tournaments hosted by the other nations during the breaks too. This would basically get rid of the small tournaments, and gather them at one place.
A chance to see leagues fare against each other? The teams in EHT are predominantly built of KHL players, except for Team Sweden. We all know that KHL >>> SEL.
Maybe it's a blow for Russia in the evaluation process, but Sweden has like 4-5 WC calibre players at home and 100 players in North America that can't participate, making these breaks pointless from an evaluation standpoint.
EHT has nothing to do with IIHF, it's a tournament hosted by the four nations. And there are a bunch of other tournaments hosted by the other nations during the breaks too. This would basically get rid of the small tournaments, and gather them at one place.
A chance to see leagues fare against each other? The teams in EHT are predominantly built of KHL players, except for Team Sweden. We all know that KHL >>> SEL.
Maybe it's a blow for Russia in the evaluation process, but Sweden has like 4-5 WC calibre players at home and 100 players in North America that can't participate, making these breaks pointless from an evaluation standpoint.
It's not like all players come from the KHL, Finland had seven players from the KHL in the latest tournament. Don't know about the Czechs. So at least for Finland it's a great opportunity to see how the SM-liiga players do on the international level, and some always get picked to the WC.
Imo a bigger tournament is pointless, better to have countries on a similar level playing each other instead of the bigger countries having an easy time against the smaller ones. We already have the WC where countries that are somewhat closer to the big ones get a chance show what they have.
Last edited by Mara: 02-11-2013 at 12:00 PM.
Reason: Seven from KHL, goalie was changed
It would probably be perfectly fine/acceptable if the top 6 European countries have a home-and-away national team weekend games 5 times a year (approx. Nov 1, Dec 10, Jan 20, March 1, Apr 10)
- and all of those results throughout the year count in when a European Champion is "crowned" each year.
The highest ranked team would start a matchup at home on a Friday night and the return match is then played away on Sunday (as a matinee game, so both teams are back home before Monday).
(- e.g. 1st weekend in Nov.: RUS-NOR / NOR-RUS; FIN-SVK / SVK-FIN; CZE-SWE / SWE-CZE)
CZE-FIN-NOR-RUS-SVK-SWE* are the top 6 ranked EURO teams right now, so they will be starting the Euro Elite Division in the autumn of 2013.
BLR-DEN-FRA-GER-LAT-SUI* is the Tier 2, which will play their matchups accordingly.
The 6th placed team from the Elite Division will be relegated to Tier 2 for 2014/2015 and the Tier 2 winner will be promoted to the Elite for 2014/2015.
The team that finishes last in the Tier 2 would face a home-and-away qualification game in order to avoid relegation from Tier 2.
The huge advantage with this system would be that there's always a home team involved in every game and practically every match has importance.
You don't want to be involved in relegation, so you have to take the early winter national team weekends seriously - and the last weekend is pretty much the final test for the guys that want to be participating in the World Championships.
*in alphabetical order
Last edited by Systemfail: 02-11-2013 at 04:35 PM.
Fantastic news. About time they use the national team breaks for something meaningful instead of glorified friendlies. About time they bring back the European championships too.
More games for the lower level nations against higher level nations will be great for the sport's development in those nations as well. A couple games a year at the WC is obviously not enough, especially for the teams that bounce back and forth between the elite level and Division 1, who only get a couple games every 2 years.
I don't get the idea of a 16 Team European Tournament. There is already WC where usually 14 European teams compete, it sounds like some national teams want to get rid of the US and Canada which doesn't make sense since most teams beat them anyway
I don't get the idea of a 16 Team European Tournament. There is already WC where usually 14 European teams compete, it sounds like some national teams want to get rid of the US and Canada which doesn't make sense since most teams beat them anyway
It's not replacing the WC, it's in addition to. Asian teams also play in the WC, but they also have the Asian Winter Games (only every 4 years though) and the Challenge Cup of Asia every year, which I suspect the IIHF will slowly be turning into some kind of "Asian Championship" eventually.
Canada and the US could play a yearly "North American Championship" too before the NHL season. Make it a best of 3 or 5 series since there's only two teams. I think that'd be fun too.
It clearly has more money making potential than the pointless EHT which is why it's happening. It may seem redundant since the World Champion is usually European anyway, but it's more about developing the game. "Lesser" nations like France, Slovenia, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, etc will probably be more likely to host Euro Championship games than World Championship games which means more opportunities for fans in these countries to see their national teams, and more games against better competition which results in better development for their programs as well.
Italy v.s. Russia might not be the most interesting matchup, but think about how packed the arena in Milan would be. Or the new arena in Copenhagen for a match against Sweden, or the Bercy in Paris for a match against any top team. Hell, Hungary already packs the arena in Budapest for ANY international match. The WC is usually only hosted by one (or two) of the traditional powers. Having a year-long competition all over Europe will be great for the sport in less traditional areas. It's the same reason club hockey desperately needs a Champions League to take the sport to the next level.
We all know you won't.
