What’s Wrong With The NHL? It’s Time To Involve European Leagues And Teams
In previous articles we have discussed a variety of potential changes to the NHL with the hope of making the game more exciting and interesting to fans. With that in mind, please read this week’s recommendations for improvement:
World League Champions Tournament
Hockey is a great game, loved throughout the world. The true global acceptance of a sport can be gauged by the number of countries that participate. So clearly, soccer (or football to the rest of the world) is such a sport. The whole world anxiously awaits the World Cup of Football every four years. No such equivalent exists for American style football.
Hockey is played around the world. Wouldn’t it be exciting for North American hockey fans to see the NHL Stanley Cup champions play in a tournament with the champions from the Kontinental Hockey League of Russia (KHL), Swedish Hockey League of Sweden, the Deutsche Eishockey Liga of Germany, the Swiss League and so on?
Such a tournament obviously would need to be held after the Stanley Cup final in North America, and before the start of training camp for the next season. The tournament could be organized in a similar fashion to the World Junior Championship held every year at Christmas time. The tournament would be approximately ten days in length. I realize that the NHL would need to find a way to squeeze this tournament into a packed schedule. I think it could be done, but that is another discussion for another time.
Final Thoughts
By the way, it may sound like I am knocking the NHL constantly. I think the NHL is a great league! These are just some thoughts to consider for making a great game even greater!
That’s what I think, but more importantly, what do you think?
By Garth Vanstone