On November 12th Hockey Canada gave the province of Quebec the go-ahead to field a national hockey team to compete in a four team tournament in August, 2011. The competing teams will consist of players from Switzerland, France and Italy as well as Quebec.It’s not known at this juncture whether or not NHL (National Hockey League) players will be involved in this tournament but Hockey Quebec has stated that if NHL players are not available they will recruit players playing over seas in Europe, so long as they’re born in Quebec.
If NHL players are indeed allowed to play in this proposed “Quebec Cup” countries like France and Italy will be no competition for the likes of a Quebec team or even the Swiss team, providing the Swiss bring over their full national team.
The IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) currently has Switzerland ranked seventh in the world just behind the United States and ahead of Slovakia and Germany, two nations whose hockey programs are not to be taken lightly. Canada sits ten points behind Russia in second place.
France and Italy sit 15th and 16th, respectively. There is a real possibility for embarrassment for these two teams if Quebec is able to recruit players the likes of Vincent Lecavalier, Simon Gagne, Danny Briere, Kris Letang, Maxim Lapierre, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, David Perron, Jason Pominville, Stephane Robidas, Martin St. Louis, Alexandre Burrows, and goaltenders Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Bernier.
The list is seemingly endless. Quebec could field a team that could rival the recent Canadian gold medal winning Olympic team, especially since all three of Canada’s starting goaltenders were indeed from Quebec.
But what does this have to say about the Quebec Cup? How are the other three teams going to look if Quebec is loaded with NHL All-Stars. That’s not fair. Nor is it a fair representation of what Quebec could bring to the national level if it were invited to the World Hockey Championships, for example.
One Time Opportunity
Hockey Canada has only granted Hockey Quebec permission to do this one tournament, as of now there are no deals made to give Quebec its own national team at the World Championship or at the Olympic level. But if this Quebec Cup is to be a measuring stick for future Quebec involvement in these international tournaments than I say that it falls short.
No offense to the Italian and French hockey programs but they do not have one player from their nations playing in the NHL, other than Italian born and current Anaheim Duck Luca Sbisa who recently played for Switzerland in the Vancouver Olympics. If Quebec wants real competition and aims to prove to Canada and to the world that it deserves its own national hockey team why not bring over a Czech team or have Finland come on down. Now we’re talking about some actual competition.
It all come down to whether or not NHL players will be invited. The NHL season is long and the possibility that players invited could opt out and choose to rest, or train over the summer to avoid injury, is very real. Players opt out of the World Hockey Championships for the very same reason.
But come on, honestly, France and Italy? This isn’t soccer- if it were they would kick our ass! Either Quebec should not be allowed to recruit NHL players making the tournament unnoticeable to the average hockey fan and thus making it un-marketable or Quebec can invite other nations listed higher on the IIHF rankings and turn the Quebec Cup into a legitimate tournament.
Then we can open the doors to Canada vs. Quebec, I would actually sit down and watch that.
