NHL: How It Can Revive the World Cup of Hockey and Why It Would Be Worth It

Precisely eight years ago, on Aug. 31, 2004, a constellation of Canadian NHL players edged out a group of American counterparts, 2-1, at Montreal’s Bell Centre to commence the World Cup of Hockey.

For the ensuing two weeks, a bittersweet blend permeated the atmosphere as the tournament variously took hockey fans’ minds off of the impending NHL lockout and reminded them of it.

Ultimately, the mere fact that there was essentially some NHL action in NHL venues on North American television in the dusk of that summer offered a slim, but no less existent silver lining.

Canada clinched the title on Sept. 14, 2004, the night before the collective bargaining agreement expired, not to be replenished for nearly a year, but at least there was something immediately beforehand.

Hard to envision many NHL buffs saying they could not use something of that sort right about now as the current CBA is set to evaporate on Sept. 15 of this year. Any day afterward that goes by without a new agreement will push off the start of the next season and threaten public opinion of the sport.

As it happens, in May of 2010, there was talk about holding the first World Cup since 2004 this year as CBC reported NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s proposal to annually rotate it with the Olympics and IIHF World Championship.

Looks like that didn’t come to fruition. Too bad for Bettman, but even worse for those who will be his most adversely affected victims if yet another work stoppage halts regular NHL action.

When and if that happens, the league and the sport will need an updated dose on its public-relations boosters. One way to find the right formula for that is to look at the last two Olympics held in North America, but especially the 2010 gold-medal tilt in Vancouver.

It would be virtually impossible, and maybe just as well, to duplicate the magnitude of that U.S.-Canada clash. Yet there could be a way to deliver an appropriate dose of that to in-person and television audiences across the continent on a yearly basis.

This does not mean physically taxing the NHL players the same way they were for two-plus weeks in both 2004 and 1996. That is a bit much for these athletes who are already annually striving to ensure a nine-month odyssey from mid-September to mid-June for their professional employers.

However, if the tournament could be shortened to the point where it barely takes more than a week of everyone’s time and is confined to a single select geographic area, a compromise can be reached and rewards can be reaped.

The World Cup should be reformatted to have all eight countries―U.S., Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden―seeded in advance based on their results in the last major IIHF event.

Each team should assemble its 20-plus NHL ambassadors on a Saturday or Sunday with a little more than a week before training camp and take three or four days of practice.

Once they are tuned up, the four pre-seeded quarterfinal games can be conducted on a Wednesday, followed by two semifinal and two relegation matches on either Thursday or Friday.

The event should then conclude with teams battling for seventh (relegation losers), fifth (relegation winners), third (semifinal losers) and first place (semifinal winners) on Saturday.

And just as it is with the entry draft and the All-Star game, NHL markets could rotate as the single World Cup host for a given year.

One year, for instance, Los Angeles and Anaheim could co-host and split the 12 games between the Staples Center and Honda Center. Another year, New York and New Jersey could co-host with Madison Square Garden, the Prudential Center and wherever the Islanders might be.

Single-team markets with multiple venues suited for such an event include:

Boston (TD Garden and Conte Forum or Worcester’s DCU Center)

Chicago (United Center and Allstate Arena)

Colorado (Pepsi Center and Denver Coliseum)

Columbus (Nationwide Arena and Value City Arena)

Detroit (Joe Louis Arena and the Palace of Auburn Hills)

Minnesota (Xcel Energy Center and Target Center or Mariucci Arena)

Ottawa (Scotiabank Place and the Civic Centre)

San Jose (HP Pavilion and Oakland’s Oracle Arena or San Francisco’s Cow Palace)

Toronto (Air Canada Centre and Ricoh Coliseum or Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum)

Vancouver (Rogers Arena and Pacific Coliseum)

Washington (Verizon Center and Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena)

Each of the aforementioned venues that are not an NHL abode have or are currently housing an AHL, IHL, Canadian major-junior or high-profile American college team.

Now imagine if any of these buildings held the event proposed above and the appetite for more hockey it could spawn in the locals as the NHL and all lower-level leagues went right back to regular business when it was over.

What full-time tenant of these arenas would not want a chance to cater to that? Or, if one of the proposed secondary venues is currently without a team, why wouldn’t they pounce on a little more revenue, or even a chance to woo the AHL or ECHL?

Regardless of anybody’s PR goal, one surefire way to ensure it would be hosting Ryan Miller, Zach Parise and Patrick Kane against Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Drew Doughty with hardware on the line.

Hard to imagine any other way a tilt quite like that could be arranged on North American ice in those players’ careers again, so a willing host would be a hero. Anything short of that, as long as it’s still something, should be universally beneficial with no hyperbole.