World Cup hype is legitimate

National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman is usually all hype when it comes to talking about his league, but this time he’s not exaggerating.
“We believe the World Cup of Hockey will be the best international hockey tournament ever staged,” said Bettman.
Just because the hockey season in Canada doesn’t last long enough, the NHL and the NHL Players Association have teamed up for the World Cup of Hockey, set to run the last two weeks of September in Toronto.
The World Cup should be everything Bettman says it will be. The best teams in the world. The best players.
Not only will the world’s six major hockey countries — Canada, Russia, U.S., Sweden, Finland and Czech Republic — be represented by its most skilled players, the field will have two other teams — North America, a kids team made up of Canadians and Americans 23-and-under; and Team Europe, consisting of players from various countries not among the world powers.
Canada, with Sidney Crosby, Carey Price and Jonathan Toews the headliners, will likely be favoured, but the U.S. with Patrick Kane, the Russians with Alex Ovechkin, the Swedes with Erik Karlsson; the Czechs with Tomas Plekanec and the Finns with Pekka Rinne will offer stiff competition.
But it will be super easy for hockey fans in North America to root for the kids — the 23-and-under squad featuring the likes of Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel and Sean Monahan, to name but four.
In fact, that North American team vs. either Canada or the U.S. for the gold medal is not a far-fetched scenario.
Many of the Canadian players are vets — with at least three of them (Crosby, Joe Thornton and Brent Burns) coming off a Stanley Cup final that will have a mid-June finish, giving that exhausted trio just enough time off to wash their underwear and play two rounds of golf before gathering in Toronto for the World Cup. Their enthusiasm level might be a tad lower than the kids, who will have a lot to prove, not to mention a lot of energy.
The 82-game NHL season can get boring, and the playoffs are often defensive snorefests, so perhaps a hockey tournament with national pride at stake will bring out the best.
Hockey fans around the world will be paying close attention to this tournament, an event even better than Olympic hockey, because this field won’t be saddled with bottom feeders such as Switzerland, Latvia, Austria and Slovenia.
Toronto, during the last two weeks of September, could be the place to be and if the Blue Jays are in a heated pennant race at the same time, it will be a sports fan’s bonanza.
* Headline at SportsPickle.com: Phil Mickelson forcing his caddy to pay 10 per cent of SEC fine for insider trading.
* TC in BC: Phil Mickelson is planning to change that KPMG hat that he wears to KMPG — Keep My Personal Gains.
* Steve Burgess of Vancouver, writing in 24Hours.ca in the aftermath of the Rougned Odor-Jose Bautista baseball fight: Odor got an eight-game suspension, which should give him plenty of time to pose for the statue they’ll erect in front of Rangers Park in Arlington.
* Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg, after Exaggerator won the Preakness Stakes by 3Ω lengths: Of course, he said he won by seven lengths.
* Janice Hough of LeftCoastSportsBabe.com on the Preakness: Otherwise known to millions as the race that answers the question: Do we care about the Belmont this year?
* Winging it in Motown, on Twitter, after Bryan Rust’s two goals gave Pittsburgh a seventh-game 2-1 win over Tampa in the Stanley Cup playoffs: And we were worried about Stamkos being rusty. Guess we should have worried about Rust being Stamkosy.
* Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: Astros outfielder George Springer yanked a foul drive onto a concourse at Minute Maid Park that bounded into a funnel-cake fryer at a concession stand. In other words, it was a deep-fry ball to left.
* Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald: The Pittsburgh Pirates concession stands unveiled a hot dog covered in Cracker Jack, macaroni and cheese and caramel sauce. How did they forget the cigarettes?
* Dickson again: A ball boy at the Italian Open passed out during a Venus Williams match. I believe he initially felt faint when she took the court wearing something normal looking.
* RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: Saturday, May 21, was World Whisky Day. “There’s only one day for that?” asked Johnny Manziel.
* Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon on NBC: A new poll found 90 per cent of Native Americans aren’t bothered by the controversial name of the Washington Redskins. It turns out the name Native Americans dislike the most is still the Cowboys.
* Alex Kaseberg again: UCLA has signed a $280 million shoe and apparel deal with Under Armour. In a related story, a UCLA track team member donated her blood to pay for a Taco Bell burrito.
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