Another IIHF World Championship completed and another tournament that Canada fails to get a medal. In a nation that prides itself as being the center of the hockey world, this is not only upsetting for the fans, but the President of Hockey Canada, Bob Nicholson. With a fifth place finish this year, and a seventh place finish last year, things need to change.
Nicholson stated on TSN that he is considering changes into how they prepare for the IIHF World Championships and one thing he is considering is making it mandatory for players to attend if they want to be a part of the Olympic roster.
The main problem facing Hockey Canada is that the reluctance of NHL players to play in this tournament after their long NHL season. An 82 game season that covers the continent of North America doesn't compare to their international opponents schedules of 50-60 games in leagues that covers the size of British Columbia. So I think every NHL player should have the right to decline an invitation considering their NHL bosses put little emphasis on this tournament anyways.
Nicholson's new suggested plan of forcing Olympic hopefuls to participate in the World Championships when their NHL teams have just been knocked out of the playoffs or failed to qualify still has a major problem; players not wanting to play. Sure they will wear that Canada crest with pride, but their hearts will not be in it. Not too mention the team only has less than two weeks of preparation before they face opponents who have had double the time and less of an arduous season.
The NHL has no interest in changing its schedule to accommodate the World Championships, so any effort to work with them is futile. Because of this I propose Hockey Canada to take a page of it's own play book and, like the Spengler Cup, use Canadian players that are already playing in European leagues. These players know an Olympic roster spot is not within reach, but a World Championship would incite just as much passion for them. Not only will they be able to start preparing for the tournament at the same rate as their opponents, but the have the advantage over their NHL counterparts by completing a season on international size rinks.
One flaw with this is the potential for ratings to drop on TSN since there will be no NHL players on the roster. But I leave you with this: would you rather watch less enthusiastic NHL players getting beat by European players or watch a team with lesser known players playing like every game is a game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals?
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