Only few weeks are left before the start of the next so called “Best on Best” International Tournament, hosted in Toronto.
From September 14th until October 1st, the NHL is looking for the best Hockey Nation in the world. Unlike the IIHF World Championships, which annually take place during the NHL playoffs, the World Cup of Hockey will feature every nation’s best players available and in perfect shape after a few weeks of rest and training camp during the summer.
Unfortunately for us Germans, there will be no team representing our country, like when we played in the previous tournaments of 1996 and 2004. And I have to admit, it makes sense.
The NHL, like the rest of the world, wants to see the best players, take on the best players, so there is no room for a barely talented Team Germany roster. We’re not able to send a team bolstered with skill and strength, but we have decent depth guys, as seen in the World Championships in Russia last spring.
And when you go on, you can name at least five other nations, who are facing the same situation, as there is Switzerland, Denmark, Norway or Slovakia. They have one, two, maybe four really good players, owning important roles in their NHL teams, but no full squad, worth playing in the World Cup.
Thanks to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, we have the opportunity to watch an All-Star Team of small European Hockey Nations, including the highly touted Leon Draisaitl, as well as Tobi Rieder, Christian Ehrhoff, Dennis Seidenberg and the great Thomas Greiss.
But it’s weird, you know. Usually we cheer our heart out for our heroes in these tournaments and believe me, that won’t happen this time. By all means, they play together with our biggest rivals and I can’t imagine seeing myself cheering if Vanek scores a goal. You can bet, there will be numerous people here, watching the World Cup, even if it isn’t for Team Europe, but for all the great players lacing up.
And this is okay, because our focus concentrates on a tournament two weeks earlier, when the Olympic Qualifiers are scheduled and Germany has to play in Riga against Latvia, Japan and of course… Austria. I don’t overstate, when I mention here, that if we don’t win and qualify for South Korea, this will take a toll on the future and the development of Hockey in Germany and surely not for the better. So you see, these are the games we are really looking forward to.
And wouldn’t it be nice, if Draisaitl would cheer up Vanek, by dishing him one goal in the World Cup, if we make the Olympics and he doesn’t?
That would be fine by me…
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