Saturday, September 17, 2016
Three professional hockey players with ties to the Mahoning Valley will be participating in the World Cup of Hockey that begins today in Toronto.
Brandon Saad (Mahoning Valley Phantoms, 2008-09), Andrej Sustr (Youngstown Phantoms, 2009-10) and J.T. Miller (East Palestine) will be skating for their country or continent in the eight-team tournament that, if successful, may mean the end of National Hockey League players participating in future Winter Olympics.
The World Cup of Hockey is the brainchild of the NHL and the National League Players Association. Six countries (Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic) are sending teams. Two hybrid squads round out the roster.
One hybrid squad is made up of players from small European countries including Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Germany and Switzerland.
The other hybrid squad is made up of North Americans ages 23 or younger. Saad (Columbus Blue Jackets) and Miller (New York Rangers) are playing for Team North America while Sustr (Tampa Bay Lightning) will be playing defense for the Czech Republic.
The idea of a World Cup of Hockey is fine, the timing is lousy.
It’s no secret the NHL executives and owners are not thrilled with shutting down their league every four years so the best players can participate in the Olympics. They get no revenue from the International Olympic Committee.
The NHL really is not happy with shutting down when the Winter Olympics are staged in the Far East where the time change messes with live coverage in key viewing hours. In 2018, the Winter Olympics will be staged in Pyeongchang, South Korea. In 2022, the games will be in Beijing,
But at least in February, the whole world is watching.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has not yet announced whether the league will shut down for two-and-a-half weeks in February 2018. He’s probably waiting for the numbers generated over the next two weeks to decide.
Money talks — the league and players association will get the proceeds from the World Cup. The key will be how strongly Canadians support the tournament, especially since all 17 games will be played in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.
As for the United States, the good news is that the ESPN family of networks will televise all 17 games. The not-so-good news is that most of the games won’t be seen on the mothership Worldwide Leader. (Tonight’s Canada-Russia opener will be on ESPN News. Can anyone say without looking their channel guide what number represents ESPN News?)
It’s September, the month dominated by America’s most popular sports (the NFL, college football and Major League Baseball’s pennant races). Against that competition, how many American sports fans are interested in a manufactured hockey tournament featuring players coming off short summers? South of the Canadian-U.S. border, not many.
The eight teams are divided into two pools. Group A has USA, Canada, Czech Republic and Europe. Group B has North America, Russia, Finland and Sweden.
Each team plays three times between today and Thursday. Tuesday’s Canada-USA and Thursday’s Russia-USA games will spike the most interest.
The top two teams in each pool will advance to next weekend’s semifinal round. The two winners will advance to a best-of-three final.
Canada should cruise to another victory. The real race is to see which team will be the Canadians’ victim in the final.
Tom Williams is a sportswriter at The Vindicator. Write him at williams@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @Williams_Vindy.