The Future of the Worlds

QUEBEC CITY--Played out against the wonderful backdrop of gorgeous Quebec City celebrating its 400th anniversary, the final days of the 2008 IIHF World Hockey Championships have been an artistic success.

Finishing with a Canada-Russia final, really, just made it perfect. Whether it will have all made financial success, particularly the sharing of the tournament between Halifax and Quebec City, will take a few months to sort out. The bills are still coming in - don't forget, at one point there was fear Quebec wouldn't be able to pull its act together - but organizers don't believe it will be as profit-friendly as, for example, a world junior hockey championship.

But two things seem likely.

First, that the IIHF will come back to Canada to hold this competition again. It won't happen, likely, until at least 2015, as the IIHF has already awarded tournaments through 2013. In order, it will be Switzerland (2009), Germany (2010), Slovakia (2011), Finland (2012) and Sweden (2013). Latvia, meanwhile, is currently the only bidder for the '14 tournament.

Saskatoon and Winnipeg, who bid for the '08 event but lost out to Halifax-Quebec City, might bid again down the road. A tandem of Hamilton and London might also make sense.

Second, you have to believe the IIHF will take a stab at holding the worlds in the United States at some point. The 2005 world juniors in North Dakota were a success, and the 2011 world juniors, which don't yet have a U.S. location, will be another measuring stick. Buffalo and Minnesota are believed to be frontrunners to host the '11 junior event.

Canada, meanwhile, will host three of the next four world junior tourneys, starting with Ottawa next winter. Canada also has the rights to the 2010 and 2012 events, with bidding for those competitions still ongoing.

So while Canada appears to be all but taking over control of the world juniors, it's not yet clear what the future holds for holding the world championships here on even a semi-regular basis.

Comments

[Stevie Y # 19]

Who cares about this tournament? I love international hockey but could care less about the World Championships. What does victory in this tournament mean? That your team of some of the best players in your country and others that are nowhere near the elite level played better over 3 or 4 games (i.e. the playoff round) than another team that has only some of its elite players? This is why elite NHL players routinely skip this tournament. What does it matter if you beat a Canadian team without Luongo, Brodeur, Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, Pronger, Niedermayer, Phaneuf, etc., a Swedish team without Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Sundin, Holmstrom, etc and Russian, Czech, Finnish and Slovak teams, etc. without some of their very top talent? If it's not best on best (e.g. Olympics since 1998, Canada/World Cup or WJHC) then it doesn't really matter. For my money, the World Cup tournament is THE tournament in int'l hockey because not only is it best on best but all the teams have about a month for training camp to allow the teams to prepare and gel. The Olympics, on the other hand, force countries to throw teams together in a few days with very limited practice time and don't allow for teams to come together properly. Also, one game finals are pretty pointless as any team can beat any other team on a given day (based solely on luck and a hot goalie e.g. Belarus over Sweden in 2002) in a one game elimination and don't really prove much. The Canada/World Cup, at least, used to have a 3 game final series, which allowed for a better determination of superiority. Anyone who witnessed the Canada/USSR semifinal in the '84 Canada Cup, the 3 game final between these two teams in '87 and even the 3 game final between Canada and the US in the 1996 World Cup would be well able to testify to the tremendous superiority in the quality of hockey played in this tournament over all others (although the WHJC has some great hockey too, due to the month long preparation for this best on best tournament). Sure, the Europeans love the World Championships but that is largely due to the propaganda value that was established during the Cold War when Soviet and Czech teams (which had all their elite players) could regularly beat up on Canada (which was only sprinkled with a few elite players due to the playoffs - e.g. Gretzky only played once in this tournament - when European players weren't too abundant in the NHL) and then would claim that they were the undisputed best in the world because they could defeat Canada on a yearly basis. This is why these countries refused to change the timing of the tounament to one which didn't conflict with the NHL playoffs. This tournament would only have meaning if it were held in September, when each country could put together its absolute best team. However, this isn't realistic because elite players would have their seasons lengthened by a month and a half every year rather than once every four years (or so) for the World Cup. Otherwise, it's definitely nicer to win that to lose but winning doesn't really prove much anyway other than indicating that you have the best team of players from non-playoff teams, from teams that lost in the early rounds and players that actually give a crap about the tournament.

[John Richardson]

Damien,
The World Juniors in North Dakota was a success because of the huge number of Canadians who travelled down for the event.

Prior to that, Boston was the last American city to hold the event and it was an absolute disaster.

That said, Buffalo & Minnesota would work for the same reason North Dakota did: Canada.

[Iain Wood]

Two big stories in Toronto recently have been the World finals and the Leafs trying to land a 'successful' coach & GM.

Why hasn't any hockey writer connected the dots?

Every year we are mesmerized by European talent in the NHL. We fear Russia, Sweden, Finland et al at the IIHF Worlds and the Olympics. Yet there isn't a single European head coach in the NHL.

How is it that European coachs can create the world's best players and teams yet none are good enough to coach an NHL club?
Because they don't 'understand' our game? Gimme a break.

Maybe the Leafs need to search a little beyond the NHL cast-offs to truly find the best management and coaching talent available.