Buds Board Keepers League

I have 9.

5 Euros in my lineup and all were named to their teams.

Draisaitl (EUR)
Seguin (CAN)
Oshie (USA)
Soderberg (SWE)
Kulikov (RUS)

Getzlaf (CAN)
Perry (CAN)
Zeitsev (RUS)
Pietrangelo (CAN)
Michalek (Czech)
Ehrhoff (EU)
Henrik Zetterberg (SWE)

1 - Alexei Emelin (russia)

Matt Murray (NA)
Matt Niskanen (USA)
Esa Lindell (FIN)
Michal Jordan (CZE)
Milan Michalek (CZE)
Vladislav Namestnikov (RUS)

Ville Pokka
Sergei Bobrovski
Morgan Rielly
Seth Jones
Alex Barkov
Joonas Donoski
Filip Forsberg
Ondrej Palat

Ive pretty much turned into Mik. Team euro

Sbisa (EUR)
Telegin (RUS)
Trocheck (NA)
Vanek (EUR)

I was getting ready to drop Telegin this offseason until I saw him in the World Championships this spring. Have my doubts he's ever coming back over here but he's worth hanging onto just in case.

Kopitar
Chara

That was easy

Tony wroteCOLONI tried to care. I just... can't.

Team North America and Europe or whatever-the-hell just ruins it for me. Stick to countries.

same... i'd rather stick to only countries

I think the main problem with going with 2 selections instead of 2 more countries is that they called it World Cup.

It's not a World Cup, it's only played in Canada and has 2 all star teams.. calling it World Cup makes it sound as a farce. If they called it Canada Cup those two selections wouldn't sound as ridiculous as they do when pretending it is a World Cup.

I don't like this format with the 8 teams but I like the concept of a tournament. I think since it's a made-for-TV event...they didn't want to roll out any less than teams in the tournament. Soccer or basketball rolls out some tomato can teams in their world events and they don't apologize for it.

If they had the follow-through...I'd like a 16 team tournament. 4 groups of 4 nations. Pair it down to 8 teams for the knockout stage. There's not 16 powerhouse hockey nations but the only way to grow the sport in the lesser nations is to just give their guys a chance.

The Europe team as a concept is more offensive than the U-23 North America team. I'd rather see Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belarus as individual teams. I'd scrap the young stars teams idea also but I get why they did it in this particular event.

If we're going by the assumption that Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic are the 6 best nations...that's fine. But what is wrong with growing the other nations? Give them a chance is all I'm saying.

Shoalzie wroteCOLONI don't like this format with the 8 teams but I like the concept of a tournament. I think since it's a made-for-TV event...they didn't want to roll out any less than teams in the tournament. Soccer or basketball rolls out some tomato can teams in their world events and they don't apologize for it.

If they had the follow-through...I'd like a 16 team tournament. 4 groups of 4 nations. Pair it down to 8 teams for the knockout stage. There's not 16 powerhouse hockey nations but the only way to grow the sport in the lesser nations is to just give their guys a chance.

The Europe team as a concept is more offensive than the U-23 North America team. I'd rather see Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Belarus as individual teams. I'd scrap the young stars teams idea also but I get why they did it in this particular event.

If we're going by the assumption that Canada, USA, Russia, Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic are the 6 best nations...that's fine. But what is wrong with growing the other nations? Give them a chance is all I'm saying.

I think the idea is seeing the best their country has to offer with other players from another country is preferable to seeing their countries best team demolished. I'd think its easier to generate interest this way than watching team Germany get crushed over and over every year- just to play devil's advocate.

dat tean N.A. speeeeeeeed....

this is looking like a good All Star Game should

Ya those Europe/NA games are all-star Soft. However those fin/swede, and can/USA looked like playoff hockey. Looking forward for real games!!

Just got me a official team hat for north america
Dont care for the tourny but sick ass logo

I can post a pic of me wearing it while givinf a middle finger if youd ljke

Id imagine this is the only prodict kyuss would wear

kyuss wroteCOLONI think the main problem with going with 2 selections instead of 2 more countries is that they called it World Cup.

It's not a World Cup, it's only played in Canada and has 2 all star teams.. calling it World Cup makes it sound as a farce. If they called it Canada Cup those two selections wouldn't sound as ridiculous as they do when pretending it is a World Cup.

This... Aren't all "world cups" hosted and played in one, sometimes 2 countries? I agree that it's not a world cup if we are including 2 selected teams, but the idea of a world cup is still there. I would rather see the top 12 teams in the world play in 3 groups of 4, take the top 2 from each division and then the highest 3rd place teams and sort them 1-8 and play traditional tournament tree from there. Which is how the olympics go if I remember correctly. However the olympics have qualifying tournaments for the bottom 3 teams, I would expand that to the bottom 4 or even more.

For reference the top 12 teams in the world are:
1. Canada
2. Russia
3. Finland
4. USA
5. Sweden
6. Czech Republic
7. Switzerland
8. Slovakia
9. Belarus
10. Germany
11. Norway
12. Latvia

Only a matter of time before korea japn china enter scene