I’ve Hockey World Championships (Finland)

[SCCats]

Anyone planning on watching?

*looks at the activity in NHL forum*

I guess not! But it’s a beautiful day in Tampere!!!

Go USA!!!

[EastCoastCat]

I'm a hockey fan so will check it out. Btw, I think you meant "IIHF"

USA's group A is tough with hosts/defending champs Finland plus Sweden. Their squad also doesn't have too many NHLer's so not sure how well they will do.
Canada will breeze through Group B and will be a tough out.

Here's a good preview for those interested:
https://olympics.com/en/news/iihf-ice-h ... -how-watch

[CardiacCats97]

If America wants to ever be sustainably great at the national hockey level, we need to approach it like we do youth football. The leagues and teams should provide the equipment and there needs to be low cost and easy to access alternatives (floor hockey = flag football).

Right now the cost of entry even at the youngest levels is way too high to generate the interest needed to get even a small fraction of our best athletes to play hockey at the international level.

[EastCoastCat]

If America wants to ever be sustainably great at the national hockey level, we need to approach it like we do youth football. The leagues and teams should provide the equipment and there needs to be low cost and easy to access alternatives (floor hockey = flag football).

Right now the cost of entry even at the youngest levels is way too high to generate the interest needed to get even a small fraction of our best athletes to play hockey at the international level.

I agree the cost of the sport is naturally higher because it's much more costly to maintain an ice rink compared to a grass field. Skates, sticks, shoulder pads, knee and hip guards aren't cheap either. I think the NHL is trying to do something about that to give kids in poorer towns across the country the opportunity to learn the sport. That needs to improve.

And, unfortunately the culture of hockey outside of Minnesota, ND and parts of the NE just doesn't have kids growing up playing pond hockey like they do in Canada. Just like soccer, the US will always be behind.

But the positive counter is that the sport on a youth level has exploded in warm weather climates such as Florida, Carolinas, California even Arizona and Nevada. I follow college hockey - which btw is one of the most exciting and affordable sports to watch live - since the team I live a couple of miles away from Quinnipiac won the National Championship last year. When I look at their roster along with others in the ECAC there are a bunch of players from warm weather towns like Las Vegas, Irvine, Raleigh, Tampa, etc...

When I first noticed this a while back I asked one of my son's coaches why that has occurred. He told me these areas are now recruiting coaches from hockey towns. He said "if you were a top grade coach from Moosejaw, Saskatchewan and you were offered to run a program in let's say LA, and you could spend a few hours at the rink then go to the beach what would you decide? They don't like freezing their ass either."

[CardiacCats97]

The NHL should definitely kick any kind of help for disadvantaged kids, especially in those warmer areas, into high gear. The race is on for the best athletes and Football and Basketball keep winning.

At least hockey has an excuse as you pointed out, with the equipment and facilities costs being so high. Soccer has no excuse outside of greed. When all you need is a ball, a field, and a few cones but only the rich kids will play high level because the feeder travel teams cost $10K per year, it’s an elitism issue.

[EastCoastCat]

Don't even get me started with the problems with youth travel teams and the crazy parents that go along with them.

My son's first hockey coach gathered the parents together and the first words out of his mouth were a bunch of miniscule numbers "0.00012, 0.0023, etc..". When he was done he asked if anyone knew what those numbers were associated with. When everyone shook their heads he said those are the odds of your kid making a team in the NHL, or minor league hockey, or college hockey, etc... His point was you better have signed up your son for other reasons and make sure you have a reality check.

[SCCats]

Well that was fun.

Kinda hurt the party here in Finland though. Lots of sad fins.