Unbelievable - I\'m completely shocked that the majority of people, fantasy hockey junkies at that, are in favor of shutting down the league (and thus our pools) for three weeks for a tournament that could be held in September under the name \"World Cup\".

Let the amateurs have their tourney back (and give us extra games to watch over and above the NHL) and bring back the World Cup in September (cause you know that is what they\'ll do if they don\'t do the Olympics).


While I certainly enjoy watching the Olympic hockey games with NHLers in it...every morning I hated going online to check the NHL stats and my pools and finding, well, no change. For three weeks. I go crazy! Meanwhile, the same tournament, in the absence of the Olympics, would still happen - the World Cup.
B)

Just wanted to state my surprise. I thought everyone felt as I do on this.

__________________
DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin

Seeing no change in your pools for 3 weeks pissed you off???
WOW, you must really hate the experts pool then, because everytime I check it, you are going down the standings!

I want it to go back to amateurs just because I think it\'s a great chance for younger guys to represent their country and launch their careers on a global stage. I also think using NHLer\'s disrupts the season in negative ways. Teams riding a hit streak need to take a 3 week hiatus, while teams who ride a goaltender all season could have to suffer that goalie playing even more games (see Lundqvist in last olympics), or the opposite, a goalie playing a lot who gets a 3 week break. I think it causes too much disruption, plus I would enjoy watching young guys get the chance to represent their countries.

__________________
http://jr-spacetime.blogspot.com/
http://www.worldcupoffantasysports.c...ists/john-ryan
http://twitter.com/jr_ryan

notch4077 wrote:
ahahaha BURN!


The amateurs already have their tournament, Dobber, it\'s called the world juniors. There are also tournaments for Bantams, etc.

With the way player development works these days, where are you going to find NHL - calibre amateur athletes who are not playing pro hockey somewhere? University? If NHLers are not represented at the Olypmics, the quality of the hockey will drop. Do we really need the Olympics to be a copy of the world junior\'s?

repenttokyo wrote:

If that is how you feel and what you say is actually true (I disagree, because the WJC is 19 and under, so you\'d see the likes of TJ Hensick, TJ Oshie, and dozens of other youngsters...hell, you probably would only find two or three junior age players on all of Team Canada!) BUT...if what you say is true (I\'ll humor you), then my position would be - take hockey out of the Olympics altogether. I don\'t want an NHL stoppage. I\'m shocked that I\'m in the minority here. Some poolies you guys are! Posers! Wannabes!
:woohoo:

__________________
DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin

notch4077 wrote:

I have no comeback here. I fell to ninth this morning. But hell, I was LAST four weeks ago so I\'m climbing back. The only reason I stopped climbing was because Pittsburgh had six days off, while Mason last played six days ago too.

What makes this burn even worse - Notch offered me Luongo, EJ and Hudler for E.Staal, Turco and Ryan Whitney six weeks ago and I turned it down. Had I taken it, I\'d be up there with the Comish! Luongo - three shutouts in a row!

I almost took the $%&^% thing too. DAMN!
B)

__________________
DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin

Dobber wrote:
So if the WJC is for 19 and under - and I feel it\'s safe to say that everyone over the age of 22 who has enough skill to play in the olympics is playing professionally somewhere - then what would that make the olympics, if we removed the NHL? It would be WJC kids + 20-21 year olds in University?

Olympic sports are supposed to represent the world\'s best. You can\'t tell me that a track and field star who takes sponsorship money from Nike isn\'t a pro....if we take NHLers out of the Olympics, then it\'s going to be Tier 2 hockey, and that\'s just boring for everyone.

I understand you are playing devil\'s advocate when you say take hockey out of the Olympics, period, but I believe that even your heart can handle a 3 week stoppage every 4 years.

I can\'t handle the three-week stoppage. I can see this tournament in September as the World Cup. In your heart of hearts, does it matter to you if you watch the tourney in September or February?

__________________
DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin

It doesn\'t matter to me when I watch it, but the World Cup doesn\'t mean nearly as much to an athlete as the Olympics. I don\'t see them being comparable.

I think the fact that the players are willing to put the season on pause to play for their country is a good indication of how important it is to them.


On a side note, I am sure of one thing - I would rather watch Olympic hockey instead of the NHL, no question. Maybe if they contracted the NHL to 25 teams to increase the overall talent level, I would change my mind, but that much talent on the larger ice surface with no 4th lines plodding down the ice....the only thing missing is fighting.

repenttokyo wrote:
Only if they had Olympics fantasy leagues and it lasted 80 games!:laugh:

The Stanley Cup is more important to me (and I figure most hockey players) than an Olympic gold medal that only proves that you can beat every country once.

It would mean something if each country played each other in a seven game series and the tourney lasted four months, but I digress...

__________________
DobberHockey Rules
14 Team Keeper, points only, best 12 skaters 2 dman 2 G count. Playoffs count.
F - Crosby, C.Smith, Wheeler, Parenteau, Hudler, Clowe, Grabovski, Atkinson, Frolik, S. Kostitsyn, Marchand, Peverley, Tavares, Read, Brouwer, Bickell, Gionta, Setoguchi
G - Anderson, Hiller, Markstrom, Brodeur
D - Letang, Del Zotto, I. White, Kronwall, Brodin, Nikitin