Does Hockey Need a Global Vision?

Hockey News columnist Jason Kay argues that hockey needs a global action plan, not only to grow the game, but to achieve some cohesion.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the fact hockey is played and embraced in numerous parts of the world. It’s the lack of a unified vision for the global game, one that promotes a regular, sustained and easy-to-follow timetable and schedule, that alienates me at times.

If I were king of the hockey world, I’d steal soccer’s model and put all my pucks in one net: A world tournament every four years that would kick, ahem, ass. It’d be the be-all, end-all and the place to focus our attention.

Turn the Olympics into a World Junior affair or under-22 event; scrap the annual world championship – maybe turn that into a Euro championship every four years. Keep the champions league if necessary, but make every other tournament secondary. And forget NHL expansion into Europe; that feels like a huge complication waiting to happen. Give us four years of build-up and intrigue for a truly special world event and include more than eight nations.

While he may have a good point, I don’t expect the powers that be to band together anytime soon to get this all sorted out.