World Cup should not replace Olympics for the NHL

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This article was published 27/09/2016 (3328 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Team Canada coach Mike Babcock likely made people around the NHL wince on Tuesday when he said what many are thinking.

“The World Cup is great but it’s not the Olympics,” Babcock said. “Let’s not get that confused.”

Hopefully the NHL was listening to him.

The NHL resurrected the World Cup of Hockey for the first time since 2004 while —what a coincidence —the NHL is locked in a stalemate with the International Olympic Committee, the players association and the International Hockey Federation over the costs associated with NHL players participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly sounded pessimistic Tuesday that a deal would get done and said time is running out for the sides to come to an agreement.

“It doesn’t seem there’s been much progress made,” Daly said.

Some have accused the NHL of attempting a money grab with this tournament, but it’s also showcasing an international tournament in the event that the NHL is not present at the next Olympics. That, however, wouldn’t be right. As Babcock said, this isn’t the Olympics.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the World Cup has been a failure.

It didn’t help television ratings for ESPN that the U.S. team was a complete mess and flamed out before the semifinals while sports fans have been wrapped up in the first few weeks of football season and an MLB pennant race.

But a pool play game between the U.S. and Canada attracted 766,000 viewers, according to Sports Illustrated media columnist Richard Deitsch. That would rank as a top 10 regular season game on NBCSN, per the report.

And the success of Team Europe —which has players from eight countries on its team —has been a boon for the game in Europe and has generated excitement for international hockey among people in smaller European countries, which normally are just fighting to qualify for the Olympics.

Overall, the event has been good for the game and good for the NHL —but this isn’t the Olympics.

Daly and the league have begun laying the groundwork to soften the blow if the NHL stays out of the Olympics, saying it doesn’t really do anything for business.

“In terms of metrics, Olympic participation really hasn’t done a whole lot for the NHL and for the clubs,” Daly said. “It’s a big global stage, probably the top global stage but that hasn’t translated to our business.”

But that’s different from growing the game in popularity as a whole.

Nothing compares to the spotlight of the Olympics to drive interest in the game. During the Olympics you’re not counting television viewers in the U.S. in the thousands, you count by millions. Sometimes you count several millions, like in 2010 when the gold-medal game between the U.S. and Canada averaged 27.6 million viewers in the U.S.

“Olympics are always special. It’s different,” Hawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, who has represented Sweden in the Olympics, said. “Personally, I think it would be a fun experience to go to South Korea and play hockey. Looking back when you’re 60, 70 years old, I think everybody would look at that as a great life experience to represent your country in the Olympics. I hope they reach an agreement.”

The World Cup doesn’t have to go anywhere. The oddities of Team North America —the 23-and-under team from Canada and the U.S. —and Team Europe provided some exciting moments you won’t get in a preseason training camp. There’s nothing wrong with staging it every four years if the NHL wants to make a little more cash.

But it should not be the only international showcase for the game. It’s not the Olympics and nobody should accept it as a replacement.

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