With the Olympics here and national teams fighting it out on the rink for glory, it got me to thinking. Why not try something like that in NHL? Then I did some research and found out they have a yearly national tournament. Here is what I want to do. I want to replicate that. I will be giving weekly recaps on what's going on, standings and comments. My team is USA, and I look forward to yearly clashes with Canada in the finals. I have 2 groups of 8 teams each with each team playing every other team 7 times, for a 49 game season, then team 1 from A plays 8 from B, 2 from A will play 7 from B, and so on. I will be keeping track of USA and Canada as those are the two favorites and after each one is done, I will start a completely new tournament and pretend like it's the following year, with different teams in the groups. I'm excited about this and hope you guys are too.
Every team will make playoffs and the playoffs will be a best of three series. However, at the end of the 49 game season, the bottom team of both groups will be replaced with new teams for the next tournament
Do you think that all of the games should be pretended to be played in one place, like the olympics, or at the home country, to make it more hostile and more home ice advantage
The first 7 games are over, and things are looking exciting. Canada started off with an early loss which reverberated through the news, but quickly righted themselves to win the next 6 and quickly get back on top of Group A. The United States have gone undefeated, but have had some close games. They started off with a 12-1 thrashing of Italy, who have really struggled so far, but after that have had good close games, including a tie to Slovakia. The US have been almost unstoppable on the power play, and look to dominate with the man advantage. Group B has some good talent to it, as the US have to deal with Slovakia, Switzerland (who are surprising people with their 3rd place spot), Finland and the Czechs. Over in Group A, Canada has the top spot, and in that group is also Russia and Sweden. Germany is also making a good run for themselves up at 4th.
ON THE WATCH
Canada and the US are in 1st place of their respective groups which is to be expected. Down in the depths, Italy is in danger in Group B and France and Belarus are sharing the bottom spot of Group A. It is still young though, can those teams dig themselves out?
02-13-2014, 12:42 AM
