The World Cup of Hockey rosters will be announced today and I for one could not possibly care any less.
For me, international competition is over.
It's lame. Outdated. Unnecessary.
Who cares whose country is the best? Not me.
I suspect that for a lot of people my age, if you they took the time to think about it, they'd agree.
We grew up in the age of globalization. In the age of instant communication and close to instant travel. All the best players in the world already play in North America, so it's not like international tournaments even give you a chance to see something new or unusual.
As such, there is no point to them.
We also grew up far more sophisticated about other countries and the idea of borders than any other generation before us. We didn't live the Cold War. We don't care about Russia, other than Putin being a huge douche, what's to care about? The people are as nice as they are anywhere else.
And that's basically what I mean when I say we grew up more sophisticated about this stuff: we don't have anyone to other. In school when I grew up, we learned about othering and why it is wrong/stupid. We didn't practice it like the generations before us.
(Or, well, those of us sickened by the popularity of a certain orange-haired future war criminal don't, anyways.)
Furthermore, I live in Canada, near Toronto. My experience is that I have far more in common with people who live in New York and Michigan than I do with people from Quebec, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and North Texas (A.K.A Alberta).
Why should it matter to me that Sidney Crosby was born in Nova Scotia? Jake Gardiner was born in Minnesota and I could drive there about two hours quicker. Neither one of them lives in a place I have been, know about or understand. So cheering for Crosby because we happen to write the same third part of our address seems arbitrary to me. (Not to mention that he doesn't even live in Canada).
If someone is like "So and So is CANADIAN" I am basically like "Who gives a ____ !" Like, what, I am supposed to have some sort of civic pride because Keanu Reaves is from my country? Am I supposed to be this huge Rick Moranis fan or something? I dunno......
So, when it comes to hockey, I just don't get excited about international competition. It seems outdated and, frankly, ridiculous in 2016. I find team building - drafting, scouting, analyzing, trading, signing guys etc - to be a massive component in my hockey enjoyment. There is none of that in international competitions.
Woo hoo! A dream team!
Just a bunch of guys with no real common thread facing off against their hated rivals from.........Finland? Russia? Belerus? Who cares? And to top it off, team Canada is so ridiculously better than all the other teams they had to make a new gimmick just to try to make them worse and to make it more competitive.
At this point, cheering for Team Canada isn't even fun anymore. It's kind of like when Homer is the chosen StoneCutter and no one will even try to beat him - at a certain point, it's not even fun to win anymore.
The only way Canada can lose is if they get unlucky - their team is the best and if they show up, they probably will win. The only thing stopping them is the variance of a small tournament. Yes, they could lose because in a small tournament anything can happen. But, does anyone think any team could beat them in a longer format? Of course not, that would be stupid.
So, not only is the idea of cheering against another country as outdated as a Sony Walkman or a defensive defenseman, but all the excitement basically boils down to whether or not another country can get lucky enough to beat Canada - you know the country who could put together three rosters and be the favorite to win all three medals.
It's dumb, It's boring and it's unnecessary.
And that is without even going into how it's basically just a greedy cash grab by people who can't get enough of your money anyways. Shallow entertainment for the masses with no reason to even have it. Players risk their health and their team's future chance of success for the meaningless reward of being the best arbitrarily defined land mass in the game.
They aren't doing it for the international pride. They are doing it for the money. Millionaire players getting even richer. Corporate Sponsors taking more of your money. The NHL? Getting richer. Just taking some more of your dollars in exchange for something you only think you want because you think rivalries between countries matter.
Basically, everyone who is involved in the World Cup is already rich and going to get more money. If they want me to get on board, how about they offer up their profits to fight the 1 in 5 poverty levels our supposedly successful countries allow?
Like, I'm supposed to watch a three hour TSN special on Canada's roster? I wouldn't watch that for 30 seconds.
The World Cup (and Olympics) are about selling you something you don't need. They are about a sickening level of greed and outdated ideas.
In the end, I'd rather listen to Bob Seger while some geezer in crocs tells me why immigration is bad and the earth is flat, than spend any time or money or effort caring about the World Cup of Hockey. Which, by the way, is a horrible name and would be like if Major League Soccer awarded their league champion the Stanley Cup of Soccer.
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