I'm sat here watching the World Cup of hockey, as opposed to the Ice Hockey World Championships (see my post from a couple of weeks ago for reference) thinking is "sat here" bad English English, from England, or bad North American English. Where have I borrowed it from? It sounds horrible anyway.
The other thought I have as I'm sitting here watching the NHL World Cup of Hockey, not the IIHF World Championships, is that this may compare to Fifa's World Cup when it comes to the astronomical value of talent on the ice but it really doesn't do too much for me.
I enjoy, and will watch, most sports if they're on TV and it's a world championship or major tournament. There's excitement in the winning and losing. I will watch Costa Rica play Greece at the football World Cup, not because I think it will be great football but because it is the World Cup and there are players doing their best to win. I have watched handball at the Olympics for the same reason I sat through Costa Rica and Greece. This is the first World Cup of hockey game I am watching and I will probably watch the semifinal and final if I am around.
There's two things for me, or that maybe I should say aren't for me. It's the World Cup of NHL players and it feels like it, a made for TV glamour event. I've watched IIHF World Championships and that seems to be more about the hockey. The other thing is the hockey itself. When I came to Canada I got into following hockey and it became my TV replacement for football. Of all the North American sports it was the most like football: none of the shot clocks of basketball, or the is-anything-happening-yet of baseball, or the NFL and it's never ending commercials interrupted by a few overly complicated, tactical plays. Hockey was simple: end to end, get the puck in the other net. I just had to ignore the blue line and the celebrated statistic of a player's number of career fights.
Then it changed. There has been, for a number of years now, more football on TV, so I realised I didn't need this frantic, wild, no-possession game anymore. It's just too quick and nerve racking for my gentle football brain.
I will give this World Cup credit though for not being like Olympic hockey where all the teams are split into groups, just like football, but, unlike football they all qualify for the next round. It's all just to figure out who plays who. What a waste of time and emotions. In this World Cup they do the sensible two groups of four with the top two in each playing in the semifinals.
So I will watch and I will enjoy. But it will never be a substitute for my football World Cup, just as long as Fifa never take too many ideas from the NHL.
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