They are a gimmick.
They should not be there.
These were the responses to a number of hockey fans about Team North America and Team Europe for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, myself included.
When the National Hockey League made the announcement that the World Cup of Hockey would be returning in 2016 I was looking forward to it, but when they announced that there would be a team made up of players from Canada and the United States who were 23 years old and younger, and a team made up of players from various European countries not named Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic and Russia I grew a little frustrated.
It felt like they were watering down the best-on-best competition with a pair of gimmick teams to include more players.
Not that it is not nice to see more NHL caliber players at the tournament but I just felt that it was unnecessary and I would have rather saw a German team and a Slovakian team like they had at the previous edition of the tournament in 2004.
It also did not feel like those teams really belonged either.
The North American team was comprised of a number of future superstars in the league including Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Aaron Ekblad, and Jack Eichel but it never really felt like they had enough defense and goaltending to actually compete with the big boys.
Then the tournament started and they were the most entertaining team in the tournament but failed to get out of the group stage thanks to a poor 5:24 stretch in the second period where they gave up four goals to the Russians.
The Europeans meanwhile were dismissed by most, including myself who had them penciled in to win maybe one game.
They kicked off the tournament with a shocking 3-0 upset of the United States and kept the train rolling. After a win over the Czech Republic they shockingly qualified for the semi-final.
Then, incredibly after losing to Canada in their final round robin game they upset the heavily favoured Swedes in overtime in their semi-final matchup and announced that they were for real.
Now the Europeans go in to the final of the World Cup of Hockey, a spot no one thought they would be.
Considering where we started with the opinion being that they were a gimmick to where we are now with them in the final it has to be considered not only a shock but also a large success for the team made up of players from eight different countries including Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Slovenia, Austria, and Norway.
This team is made up of superstars including Zdeno Chara, Anze Kopitar and Marian Hossa and have climbed over hurdle after hurdle on their way to the final.
Now they are just two wins away from claiming the World Cup of Hockey.
Who would have expected that?
It would make for one heck of a story for the NHL.
With the success of the European team so far, which has to be considered a success regardless of the result of the final, and the excitement generated by the North American team the NHL has a big decision to make on the future of the World Cup of Hockey.
They cannot possibly expect the next World Cup to have the same results for North America and Europe that they had for this one can they?
The question is tough to answer because no one expected they could have the results they’ve had this time.
For me, I hope it does not matter, first of all the NHL needs to work out a deal to send the players back to the Olympics and second the NHL needs to go back to having a nation against nation tournament.
Drop the gimmicks no matter how well it turned out this time.
