Is the World Cup of Hockey a Gimmick

The hockey world awaits the drop of the puck on Thursday afternoon and the beginning of the World Cup of Hockey (WCH), an international tournament dormant for over a decade since a failed 2004 edition. Team USA is set to face off against Team Europe to kick off a tournament that is design to one day be a replacement for NHL players’ participation in the Winter Olympics. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hopes this event will allow him to both avoid the millions of dollars lost by sending players to the Olympics in the middle of the NHL season and to lower the chances of players getting injured in non-NHL events. But aside from the event being an NHL money-grab, the tournament is set up in a very gimmicky fashion. Rather than have the top eight national teams face off in a typical international hockey tournament, the NHL has opted to go with the top six teams along with a so-called ‘Team Europe’ and equally vague ‘Team North America.’