The World Cup of Hockey is back for 2004. It will be great to see the NHL players representing their countries again. Hopefully this won뭪 be a precursor to the NHL not allowing the players to go to the Olympics in 2006 in Turin, just because it뭩 in Europe and the time difference. We all know the World Cup of Hockey is basically set up to promote the game in North America, because as a sporting competition its not a particularly fair one. Certainly not if it뭩 like the World Cup in 1996, the USA and Canada playing all their group games at home in the North American group, now my geography isn뭪 great but surly Russia and Slovakia are in Europe, I know Alaska used to be part of Russia but that seems a rather tenuous link, surely Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia (although I don뭪 know what happened to the o뭩). It will be interesting to see what happens because its been said the teams are going to be in the same groups: Canada, USA, Russia and Slovakia and Sweden, Finland Germany and the Czech Republic, as after 1996 the Russians said they wouldn뭪 compete if they didn뭪 have any games in Russia (but looking at the schedule it뭩 does seem that it will be the same again). Also having the European teams playing away in Europe (because nobody in North America is interested in theses games? Note the poor attendance at games between the Europeans in the Canada Cup뭩) some playing more games than others at home, and then the semi finals and final being played in North America, (I think the final is going to be a one off game rather than a 3 game series) I뭗 rather see the final being just one game to make the competition a bit farer, although their changing the format to mirror the Olympics, which is good because I didn뭪 like the format of the 1996 World Cup. Really to make the World Cup of Hockey fair it should be held alternating between North America and Europe, but because of the time difference this probably won뭪 happen for the same reason as why the NHL players may not be going back to the Olympics in Italy in 2006. I think if this happened it would create more interest as it would be more of a proper international competition and if the competition wasn뭪 going to return for 8 years people would make sure they didn뭪 want to miss it? I really hope the NHL player뭩 return to the Olympics in 2006, as hockey needs a bona fide competition, held in a neutral venue, as far as possible anyway. Ok, so the Olympics is played on a larger rink to IIHF rules, but I don뭪 think this is as big an advantage as it used to be. Basically all the big 7 teams players now play in the NHL and most have done for a number of years on the smaller rinks to NHL rules, take Jagr for example, so they don뭪 have much more recent experience than North American players. Hockey needs a proper international competition. As hockey fans we have waited so long until 1998 for a bona fide international hockey competition - it can뭪 just stop at 2002. There can뭪 be any other sport뭩 that have such a mess between international and club competition. The USA and Canada never having their top players available for past Olympics (pre 98) was certainly never fair. The Canada Cups never really showed who was best, except that Canada and the Soviets were far superior to the other teams, it was always debateable as Canada had home field advantage for all the Canada Cups (to me its not a surprise that the only Canada Cup Canada lost was in 1981 when the final was just one game, asking a team e.g. the Soviets to win 2 games, the equivalent of 2 game Seven games, in an opponents building, especially against Canada뭩 best was almost an impossible task.), European teams being moved around to different venues at the last minute because of poor attendance, and of course you could add they were played on small rinks as well if you wanted to and from a Canadian point of view you could say that the Russians had the advantage of playing regularly together ?although they were classed as amateurs allowing them to play in the Olympics, they were professionals. To me this is why hockey needs a bona fide competition, because there isn뭪 much to debate that the Czech뭩 and Canada didn뭪 deserve to win in 1998 and 2002. I also think it makes it that extra bit special knowing that you뭨e team have done it on an even playing level, unlike the Canada Cups and World Cup of Hockey where you could probably debate it to the end of time. All they proved as I said before was that ?the Soviets and Canada were far superior to the other teams during the 80뭩 and that the USA was better than Canada in 96. The main reason that I뭢 looking forward to the World Cup of Hockey is having the chance to see Slovakia play in the Tournament after they were disgracefully prevented from competing fairly in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. The fact that the Slovaks had so many players playing on the top lines of NHL teams, and for the fact that the Slovaks would have been in the same group as the Czechs, I think would have been great to see. As expected the preliminary tournament proved to be a complete farce and totally unfair, I watched all of it and it left a really bad taste in the mouth. The Slovaks were by far the strongest team in the tournament, but finished bottom of Group A, surprising ?well not really. The Slovaks were put at such a disadvantage by having so many players in the NHL unable to play. Such as: Bondra: 0 games, Gaborik: 0 games, Satan: 1 game, Palffy: 1 game (5 mins ???), Stumpel: 1 game, Hossa: 1 game, Handzus: 1game, Nagy: 0 games, Demitra: 1 game, Zednik: 0 games, Cigar: 0 games, Svehla: 0 games, Chara: 0 games, Visnovsky: 2 games, Sekeras: 0 games, Suchy: 0 games; this is basically a whole team. Some idiotic people said that the other teams also had the same problem - but no other team in the competition had more than 3 players from the NHL, which put the Slovaks at a huge disadvantage. They were penalised for having the strongest team and not surprisingly didn뭪 qualify for the medal round. Palffy playing only about 5 minutes against Germany was a total joke as was a squad of 14 players turning out against Austria. Also, the NHL contradicted itself by allowing David Aebischer and Lubos Bartecko to play three games in the qualifying tournament, but stopping Arturs Irbe playing for Latvia against Slovakia so he could sit on the bench for Carolina, because his absence would lower the quality of the NHL?? even though Carolina had agreed to let him go?? To me the NHL didn뭪 come out of this well: allowing some players to go and stopping others, having Peter Stastny (one of the greatest ever European hockey players) going around various NHL teams begging to have his players released and not closing down the season to allow the players go to qualifying tournament. I think the NHL had the best intentions in leaving it up to the teams GM뭩 whether or not to allow the players to go, but it just put the GM뭩 in an impossible situation and the whole thing was handled badly and left a really bad impression. I think it just showed the NHL as been very short sighted in that it also has an obligation to the fans of the NHL who live in Europe. But I think most of the blame has to go down to the IIHF, who had 4 years to prepare for this, the biggest event they are in charge of ?much bigger than the World Championships. This qualification farce might have been acceptable if it was the first time it happened but the same thing happened in Nagano 98 when the NHL closed down for longer, and the Slovak players still missed the games. Everybody in the know knew this situation was going to occur, everybody it seems except the IIHF. At the very least, the IIHF should of at least allowed the Slovaks to select a full squad of 20 players for each game thereby although without some of there top players for certain games this would of at least allowed them to compete on a even level, but this would probably of showed to much common sense. Having only 17 players for the first game 18 for the second and 14 available for the last game was a complete joke. Some people said why didn뭪 they take a team without their NHL players, but firstly why should they have to and who in their position wouldn뭪 of done the same thing, their best chance of qualifying was with their NHL players. Was it fair that Canada had to compete without their best players in the Olympic before 98 ?no, but at least Canada had enough quality in depth to be able to compete and be competitive ?Slovakia didn뭪 have that luxury. It could be argued that the Slovakia shouldn뭪 have to qualify anyway, whose to say that this team with good goaltending would not be stronger than Finland or any other team in the medal round. With winning the World championships just after, the Slovaks showed what the tournament had missed. Also, as a hockey fan I still feel cheated, even though I have no links to Slovakia ?I wanted to see the best players play in the competition. You can see how much it means to a small/new country like Slovakia and how much it means to the Slovakian players to represent their country by how many available big name players turn up for the World Championship ?all of them ?something you don뭪 see with any other country. So the fact they should be prevented ?especially at the Olympics, was even more of a disgrace, but I guess because it was only Slovakia nobody cared ?certainly not the NHL or IIHF. If Bettman, is going to allow the NHL player go to Italy in 2006 (which I really hope they do) I think the NHL should insist that the qualifying tournament takes place before the start of the NHL season of 2005-06, which is what should of happened in 2002, thereby allowing all the NHL players to compete, and would of avoided all the bad publicity the NHL got. There뭩 always talk in the media about which is better the Stanley Cup or the Olympics, but they are two are totally different things ?you can뭪 compare them. Each individual is different so saying that European뭩 don뭪 have as strong an urge to win the Stanley Cup as North Americans doesn뭪 really add up ?I always remember how emotional Sergei Nemchinov was after winning the Cup with the Devils (and he뭗 won it before with the Rangers), and trying to say that the American or Canadian players don뭪 have the same want or pride to represent their country at the Olympics as European players is total b*llshit. As far as I뭢 concerned as a hockey fan - would I rather watch the Stanley Cup or Olympics ?I want to watch both, and I don뭪 see why I can뭪. It would be naive of Bettmen not to send the NHL players to the Olympics just because of the time difference. The quality of having 7 international teams (although 6 according to the NHL and IIHF) in the tournament shows one thing that basketball, baseball and football doesn뭪 have ?it would be stupid for the NHL to throw this card away. Not sending the NHL players to the 2006 Olympics in Turin and would just show that Bettmen has no interest in what hockey fans want.