World Cup of Hockey to make its return?

A lot of hockey fans have voiced their displeasure over the debate of the NHL to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but the NHL and its owners are ready to bring back the World Cup of Hockey without the self-proclaimed 'King' of hockey, Rene Fasel and the IIHF  (Calgary Sun).  

Bringing back the World Cup of Hockey will still include all of the world's best players (because all of the best players play in the NHL...of course).  

As Eric Francis states in the article for the Calgary Sun, the NHL would be able to market the sport with a marquee event to begin the season (if they choose the fall, which they probably would). 

Obviously hockey is always THE sport in Canada but with the addition of marquee events like the Winter Classic and the possibility of bringing back the World Cup of Hockey, the NHL is taking the right steps to being at the forefront of the American sports culture.

I still think the NHL could do a lot more in the states to market its future stars by televising more junior hockey games and to be specific the IIHF World Junior Championships. The average American hockey fan has a hard time following junior hockey as a majority of the future stars are playing in the Canadian major junior leagues. TV ratings for the NHL Draft would absolutely increase if fans were able to follow these kids other than what the die-hard hockey fan is able to find on the NHL-Network, B2 Networks, etc.

There is a lot of room for the NHL to grow within North America and internationally and big events like the outdoor games, World Cup of Hockey and the opportunity to participate in future Winter Olympics will help to grow the game around the world.

...Did you know...?

The USA-Canada gold medal hockey game was seen by more people worldwide than the last two Super Bowls with 114 million viewers around the world according to Yahoo! Sports' Nicholas Cotsonika's article on why NHL players belong in the Olympics. (Check it out!)

PS - #isitoctoberyet?!

Importance of puck possession

Some of you may have heard the story about the study that Walter Gretzky had his son Wayne partake in with a clipboard and a marker while watching Hockey Night in Canada to see where the puck was played the most. USA Hockey took it one step further at the 2002 Olympics and the statistics are pretty surprising...


A little bit of info first - The coaches analyzing this study picked three players (per team) that they considered to be impact players in each contest. The coaches calculated the length of each players shift, how long they had the puck on their stick, how many passes they received and made and how many shots on goal they attempted. They also counted the number of un-timed touches, those when the puck hit their stick if only for a brief moment.


In the gold medal game, Joe Sakic, who had two goals and two assists in the 5-2 win over USA, touched the puck for 1:19 in the entire game which equates to 2.2% of the game. Four points on just over a minute of puck possession for Mr. Sakic. Pretty impressive.


In the women's hockey game, Cammi Granato for USA touched the puck for 1:02 and Canadian Hayley Wickenheiser had one second less than her American counterpart.


The best players in the game typically have the puck on their stick longer than anyone else in a game and with four points in 1:19, Joe Sakic showed how to make the most of his opportunities and showed the USA Hockey staff how important it is to teach puck possession skills in practice as little is learned in a game situation.


If you would like to read the full article, check it out here. 


I thought it was pretty interesting that even the best players get very few touches in a game and it makes what the star players do in a given game that much more amazing.  It would be interesting to see what the statistics would be in a regular season NHL game when there are not as many "star" players on the ice at a time.

New blog

Okay so this is just a start of the new blog by me, HockeyTrend :D