If a Tournament Happens, and no one cares....

Does the tournament really happen??

That's the question I have been posing to some people about the upcoming World Championship in Austria. It seems that the talk of Canada is mainly who isn't going to partcipate in the Worlds as opposed to who is actually going to Austria to play for Canada. Of course, some of the reasons for not going can be excused like in the case of Jarome Iginla and Steve Yzerman, but I'm still skeptical about some of the guys not going like Jose Theodore.

However, that's neither here nor there. The question at hand is does anyone really care that this is going on.

I mean, let's face it. Below the 49th parallel people don't seem to care about it. Amazingly enough, the tournament is not going to be televised in the States and it doesn't seem that there's a wide spread outcry to get it on any network what-so-ever, so using the transistive property, no one in the US cares about the Worlds.

Of course, I know this is not true, but I think the shock that this event isn't going to be the afterthought of the Stanley Cup playoffs like it has been in years-past hasn't set in yet. Usually this event is a sidebar to the nights happenings in the Playoffs and at the end people are like, "Oh, wow-- how amazing is that."

All of this could still be an after effect to what the NHL and NHLPA did to hockey fans by cancelling the season. People probably have moved onto other sources of entertainment and could care less if Canada or Kazakhstan won the Worlds. The grand population wouldn't bat an eye to whoever one. That's a little bothersome, but it's completely understandable. For the most part, the backlash to this could be something that the NHL and NHLPA will look at and realize far too late that they together have destroyed the game many people cherish.

In the end, what happens at the Worlds will not effect people and it will not get the attention that a tournament of this magnitude would usually garner if it were to happen in the Playoffs. Sadly, it's a great tournament and it should prove to be a good event with the North American teams and Team Sweden being in the dumps with the players not playing and the rust that will be on some of the players taking to the ice, someone like Russia or Slovakia could be a surprise of this and make some noise on the international level of things.

This has been ScottyWazz. Take care of yourself and someone else. PEACE!!