NHL Ryder Cup tournament to be held midseason in 2017-18?
As you know, the World Cup of Hockey is just the first skate to drop in the NHL’s plans for world domination, a.k.a. “[Expletive] Tha Olympics.”
There’s also a Ryder Cup tournament on its way, in which North America’s best players will team up to take on the best players from Europe. It’s an amazing idea and one we fully support, in that it guarantees the U.S. can only lose to the rest of the world and not Canada. Like, again.
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Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com hears that the NHL Ryder Cup could arrive in the 2017-18 season. What’s really interesting about the report is that the tournament, which will be held overseas, could be scheduled for midseason.
Guess what else would be scheduled for that midseason?
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, scheduled from Feb. 9 -25!
Hence, the Ryder Cup wouldn’t necessarily be replacing the NHL All-Star Game, but could be held against the Olympics. And wouldn’t that just be so very NHL: Hold its players back from the 2018 Winter Games, and hold a massive all-star tournament with international bragging rights at stake against a tournament of Canadian and American junior players and journeymen?
Aside from the Olympics, holding the Ryder Cup in-season is interesting from a players’ perspective. We spoke with a couple dozen NHL players at the Media Tour last week that expressed enthusiasm about the World Cup but some reservations about the timing: Their training regimens are going to have to shift next season in preparation for the tournament.
A midseason tournament, held over a prolonged “all-star break,” would alleviate that (and give about 85 percent of the league a midseason breather).
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