hermanshire
Academy Player
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- Oct 16, 2010
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World Championship in ice hockey. Norway beat Germany 12-4
Germany has a problem in that half the teams in the DEL are filled with Canadian boys, I know I am always *****ing about import restrictions in rugby but they really need to do something about it.
Apart from the established European markets, Sweden, Finland, Czech Rep., Russia etc who have the talented player pool to choose from that's the same everywhere. There's also the question of the sports popularity in the country. Germany, I imagine, rate football, motorsport and putting towels on sunbeds as more popular sports than hockey. Worse in the UK, I could name at least 10 sports more popular than hockey here. With that you have to attract foreigners to play to at least try to develop the game
This argument fits every sport pretty much. The amount of good foreign imports increases popularity and short term talent in detriment to youth development who can't get in the team. You restrict the amount of imports and the leagues suffer in drop of intrest.
In the EIHL here there are typically a lot of Americans and Canadians but most have been here for a while, Brad Voth for example has played for Cardiff Devils for 6 or 7 seasons so is almost a Brit in that respect.
*crickets*
So ya the Stanley Cup playoffs really are that boring.
Love how NHL has come full circle to where they were 10 years ago. Everyone enjoys watching Sutter hockey.
This a thousand times this.....Unless your into shot blocking, and grinding games than this isn't for you...Unfortunately many Canadians can't be bothered to want anything more than what the NHL offers and tune in or attend the games out of habit. I'd love to see some proper full squads at the World Championships as well but unfortuntely the NHL season never seems to ever end.