NHL and the Stanley Cup Championship?

Question

I just saw a question in the baseball group that made me think. Call this a rhetorical question but it's one that bugs me to this day. HOCKEY fans are more guilty of this than any other sport. First part of the question is simple.. WHY is the NHL the only sport who doesn't call their champions "WORLD" champions. ONLY American sports leagues have that arrogance. NFL, MLB and NBA all make that stupid claim. The NHL is happy enough to simply call their champions Stanley Cup Champions. WHat's even MORE funny is the NHL is the sport that actually has the right to make that claim. part 2, WHY do american fans boo Canadian players or Canadian teams WHEN more than half of their rosters are Canadian? WHy don't American cities play the Canadian national anthem to honor the Canadian born players on their rosters? okay I'm off my soapbox.

OH and by the way I am AMERICAN.. I've lived in five cities WHERE all I hear is how bad Canadian players and teams are.. so I don't think it's petty. The Canadian national anthem is ONLY played when a CAnadian team is visiting. When I lived in Milwaukee the IHL USED to play both before each game. I thought that was a class thing to do

Answer 1

First of all the NFL,NBA,MLB, are elite,best of the best leagues.So many countries, are represented in these leagues, with the exception of NFL. These leagues gross Billions of $$, and it is soley because of their product. If the NHL wanted to call
the Stanley Cup winner World champions, they can rightly so.
It just happens that trationalist prefer not. As far as arrogance I disagree. American fans boo Canadiens, just because their drunk, and having a good time enjoying their outting.I don't think it is that serious. As far as playing the Canadein National anthem,it is the opposite. Canadeins,and all other nations should honor the American Anthem, since they are playing on American soil. We could argue for Belarus,Lithuania,Czech Rep,Sweden,Germany,Russia,and so on.

Answer 2

If two Canadian teams are playing in Canada, guess what? They don't play the US Anthem either. Its not proper protocol to. If so, why not play Russian, Finland, Czech and Sweden who all have more NHL players then the US?

Booing a team or anthems based on nationality is pretty rare in my opinion. If anything its happened in the NHL playoffs but almost as a trash-talk of the fans during a series.

And why is the NHL entitled to use world championship as you stated? There are other leagues in other countries - the Swedish Super League,Russian League etc. The NFL is not the world championship - its the Superbowl. The NBA is the NBA championship. Baseball is the only world champion, which yes seems a bit silly but when it originated baseball was only played in the US and maybe Canada so it wasn't such an crazy idea!

Answer 3

I think you are worrying about this too much and just have a strong dislike for the United States. That's fine but just say that instead of using this argument to prove that ALL Americans "boo Canadians".

I can't remember the election where the American public voted on calling the MLB, NFL and NBA championships the WORLD championships.... I could be wrong but I think the leagues themselves (not the American people) did this for marketing purposes... but then again, maybe I was travelling abroad when the vote came up.

About Americans "booing" Canadian players... this has only happened a few times in the last ten years. This was never done by a entire arena of Americans but a handful of fans. A few fans in Canada (I believe it was in Vancouver a few years ago) have also booed the American anthem. Instead of attacking the Canadian people I just saw it as a few jerks and didn't give it much thought.

You can hate America, that's your right. But I can't stand for an argument like this... it sounds petty and is beneath a citizen of Canada, a country that I like a lot.

By the way, American cities do play the Canadian anthem when they are playing a Canadian team.

Answer 4

How do you figure the NHL is the only one to have the right to call their championship World-because there are teams in Canada and US--that's only two countries. That doesn't make it world. Because they have players from a lot of countries? So does baseball and basketball. As far as the national anthems of US and Canada. If you play both of those at every game what about the other players on the team that are Europeans? Are you going to play every anthem of every nationality on the team? It would take an hour just to play the anthems. I think you have serious issues and it has nothing to do with sports and anthems. Or you just have too much time on your hands.

Answer 5

I think that the NFL and NBA are legit and making the claim that their champions are the best in the world, the MLB could have a serious problem with the Japanese and Cuban leagues (just take the World Baseball Classic last year as Exhibit A, where the U.S. was knocked out in the second round and Japan and Cuba played in the final). The NHL has the right to make the claim, but they really don't need to because everybody in the hockey world knows the name of the trophy they are playing for, so why not just call them the Stanley Cup champions? They are the best in the world because they have won the hardest trophy in all of sports to win, with the toughest grind in the playoffs of any sports league in the world. That says to me that they are the best in the world. Besides, the best players in the world play in this league, so it is implied that the team that wins the title is the best in the world, so they don't need to be arrogant and say it outright. MLB doesn't neccessarily have all of the best players in the world because of the Japanese and Cuban leagues and the immigration rules out there. The NHL does. The Stanley Cup champions are the best club team in the sport of hockey in the world. It is implied by the fact that the best players in the world play in the league, so it doesn't need to be said outright.

Answer 6

I think NHL hockey is truly one of the greatest international leagues as the best players from all over the world converge to play in it... basically 95%+ of the best hockey players in the world play in the NHL. I doubt there's any other major sport that can make that claim. Yes maybe the NFL... but American football is a localized sport... most places in the world don't even play "gridiron" football and many consider it quite a sissy sport with all the stoppages in play... extreme padding, separate offensive/defensive teams etc.

Soccer is global but all the best players are spread everywhere in different leagues.

The Stanley Cup is the NHL championship... not a world championship... that's best left for the Olympics or the actual World Championships.

As far as the anthems go... I'd agree they are played to honor the countries the teams are based in... not every player on each team. As others have said... some teams have 10 different nationalities playing on them and many players have multiple nationalities in their background as well so to take things to the extreme you may as well play a medley of every anthem in the world to satisfy everyone everywhere.

Answer 7

Hey you know that's a good idea! Let's make this idea better! We could go to every player in the NHL, get their nationality and play every single national anthem before a hockey game! BRILLIANT!

They play the national anthems to respect the teams playing, not each indvidual player.

Plus we don't call our teams 'world champions' because not all the best players in the world play here. Sure, in other sports that may also be the case, but let them have their fun, who cares? The world champions are the people who took home the gold medal, not the Stanley Cup.

Answer 8

sounds as if you need to do more research,i have always heard them play both anthems,after all it started in canada.i don't think the americans hate the canadian teams or the other way around.i don't think that you could take 1 or 2 incidents from a couple of people and turn it in to an all out battle. i have seen where the fans boo a certain player when they leave the team and come back to play against that team does that mean they hate him? that is just part of being a fan.so just relax and enjoy hockey and if you have to hate somebody the refs are the best place to start!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 9

you make good points but fyi i know that in buffalo they play the canadian and american national anthems before every game

Answer 10

1) America is arrogant

2) Im from detroit, nothing like a good showdown with a Canadian team. Love it