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”What If…?” #17: Hockey Had A Champions League Tournament?
As much as I love baseball I have always had one big beef with MLB, and that is the naming of the World Series. I've always found it to be quite presumptuous to be calling a team the "World Champs" when only teams from North America are competing for the title. Yes, I realize there's history behind the label, and that it was being used at a time when the game had yet to hit foreign shores in a major way, but that was then. Now you've got countries that could send teams to compete for that title and have better odds at winning than a team from our continent, yet they are not allowed, and a MLB club gets to label itself as a world champ uncontested by teams who would argue otherwise. I realize in the end I'm just arguing semantics, yet at the same time it remains an irritant for me!
Now in the NHL this issue doesn't exist to the extent that it does for me with stickball, primarily because there is no mention of the word "World" with the championship. You win, you're the "Stanley Cup Champion". The best of 30 clubs. In fact, the only times we really have mention made to the "world" in reference to a hockey championship is in conjunction with IIHF sanctioned championship tournaments (I.e., World Championships, IIHF Under 18 World Championships, etc...) or the NHL organized World Cup of Hockey, tournaments that actually involve hockey playing countries around the globe.
Now here's the part where people pipe up and say "Well baseball has the World Baseball Classic!" While I do like that this type of tourny finally came about in '05, the fact remains that this is a country-based tournament that for me does nothing to change the fact that MLB calling a city-based club a world champion when this is a definite minomer. Question becomes how to solve this. One option would be to change the name of the "World Series", but we know this will not happen in the change-resistant MLB culture. They won't even expand their playoffs for the sake of their smaller clubs so to expect re-naming the league title is a bit much. Wouldn't it be great to make them EARN it though? Play a round robin tournament against league champs from Cuba, Japan, Mexico, the Dominican, and let them show they are truely the best in the world.
Yes, this is a hockey site and, and this solution for World Series issues I have has nothing to do with hockey, but I'll be damned if it doesn't lead me to something hockey would be much better set up for: a champions tournament. Look at soccer and the Champions League. In an overly simplistic explanation of how this league works, clubs who have won or been runners up in their leagues move into the "Champions League" and play in a tournament to determine an overall champion in European soccer. Picture something like this in hockey. League champions and runners-up from the NHL, KHL, Swedish Elite, Finnish Elite, DEL (Germany), Slovak Extraliga (Slovakia), Czech Extraliga (Czech Republic) and whoever else would be deemed appropriate and have it out in a single elimination tournament to crown a champion of the champions!
Don’t think I haven’t considered the fact that the chances of such a tournament occurring are next to nil due to competitive imbalances and logistic nightmares! Yes, the length of the NHL season and playoffs almost makes extra games for the finalist clubs outside of the league prohibitive, especially considering the fact that the games would almost certainly be held in Europe due to the concentration of participating clubs there. Nevermind the fact that NHL clubs would be stacked in talent when compared to the other leagues, although the state they would be in physically following the playoffs might even things up a bit for the other franchises. And let’s not even get into things like rink size and playing rules (IIHF vs NHL). As a hockey fan, however, I do opt for suspending belief once in a while and wondering how something like this would go over, pitting champion clubs against one another versus countries.
It is because of the aforementioned daydreaming that I have to touch on a few things that would make staging a tournament like this rather intriguing. First off, there is precedent within North America for having the NHL champ having to play further games to crown a Stanley Cup champion. Between 1914 and 1927, the Cup was awarded to the winner of a series between the champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association/Western Canada Hockey League and the National Hockey Association/National Hockey League, underlying a belief that being the big fish in your own pond doesn’t mean you can get away with calling yourself the king of the lake. Is there a contextual difference between then and now? Of course, in that the early tournament involved two leagues jockeying for position as THE hockey league, whereby the format I am proposing would be among already established, or working towards becoming so, leagues. So while the current tournament would be more about bragging rights than survival, I believe it would offer invaluable exposure for all leagues involved in that they all have a unique style of play to offer and different stars to highlight to fans of the other leagues.
It would also foreshadow and perhaps prepare for something the NHL currently has on its radar: European expansion. In a nutshell, would a tournament such as this not give you the chance to experiment with different playoff structures and formats for what they are envisioning as a truly world-based league? Specifically, when you’re dealing with the logistics of travel between North America and Europe, you’ve got to figure out a way to award a championship that will not be unduly taxing on one team more than another. So what do you do? Maybe the North American teams play for the Cup, with the winner, runner-up and conference runners-up going to Europe to play the equivalent teams from “NHL Europe” for a “World Championship”? Maybe there’s a crossover playoff format where half the NHL “NA” teams are seeded to play NHL “Europe” teams in Europe up to the finals , and vice versa, with the Cup finals being played on neutral ice (a la the Super Bowl) which alternates between continents every other year? Crazy ideas off the top of my head, but something that will need to be addressed in further detail if the league is serious about this kind of expansion! This type of tournament would allow for some planning in this respect.
Finally, while I inferred that it might be a cakewalk for the NHL clubs in the tournament, hasn’t some of the more compelling hockey of the past 40 years been played under these types of circumstances? The 1972 Summit Series that was supposed to be a cakewalk for the Canadians coming down to the last few minutes of the last game? Lake Placid in 1980 and the Miracle on Ice? The 1998 Olympics and the No-Gold Team Canada? Imagine currently having a real close series between an NHL and KHL team? What impact would that have for both leagues? Would there be a shift in players heading to the NHL if they knew they could stay home and be part of a championship team who could challenge the Cup winning NHL club for the “World Title”, and how would this impact hockey in general over the course of 10-20 years?
Anyways, enough of my babbling! You know what intrigues me here and now I want to hear from you. Suspend belief in all the things could legitimately keep this from happening and tell me what the impact of this actually happening could be! Specifically:
What if hockey had a Champions League Tournament?
Run wild and lets here some opinions on this. Looking forward to hearing them as usual!
Shawn Gates
[email protected]
Twitter: ShawnHockeybuzz
Facebook: Shawn Gates
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Previous “WHAT IF…?” Articles
#1 What If The NHL Contracted To 24 Teams?
#2 What If Quebec Traded Lindros To The Rangers Instead Of The Flyers?
#3 What If Calgary Drafted Martin Brodeur Instead Of Trevor Kidd?
#3a What If Calgary Drafted Martin Brodeur Instead Of Trevor Kidd?: A RESPONSE
#4 What If The WHA Never Existed?
#5 What If The Position Of Rover Had Not Been Eliminated?
#6 What If Pittsburgh Had Not Been Awarded A Team In 1967?
#7 What If Steve Smith Had Not Scored In His Own Net In Game 7?
#8 What If The NHL Had a Cross-Conference Playoff Structure?
#9 What If The NHL Asked For Fan Ideas For Improving The Game??
#10 What If Henderson Had Missed The Net In Game 8?
#11 What If You Could Sneak Into A Stanley Cup Celebration?
#12 What If The NHL Returned To Quebec City?
#13 What if Toronto and Edmonton Had Traded Teams in 1981?
#14 What if You Could Create Your Own Hockey Dream Team?
#15 What if An Active Player in the NHL “Came Out” as Gay?
#16 You Could Assemble Your Own Fantasy Pick-up Hockey Team?
Previous “Town Without A Team” Articles
Booger Hollow, Arkansas
Hell, Michigan
Previous “Who Knew?” Articles
#1: Gordie Howe
#2: The Zamboni
#3: Maurice “The Rocket” Richard
#4: Ron Hextall
#5: Stanley Cup Abuse, Neglect and Versatility
#6: The Puck
#7: Don Cherry
#8: Cam Neely
#9: The Early Years of Les Canadiens
Previous “Psychology of Sport” Articles
Arousal and Performance
Depression
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