![]() Since the birth of the brand in 1980, Karlsson has been famous for the traditional railway station clock. The Karlsson collection is updated twice a year and can be split into the following subcategories. This is the result of a unique collaboration between national and international designers and our own creative team. The Karlsson brand is synonymous with high quality, stunning graphics, aesthetic shapes and innovative design. But we have no idea how long this is going to last, and does it make sense to hold the rest of the league hostage at this point? It’s not like that was a concern in 2018.Karlsson is a world-renowned Dutch clock brand. If the IOC/IIHF doesn’t let Russia participate, then OK. But we have no idea how long the war with Ukraine is going to last, and, even after, then what? I don’t think Russia being banned or not should hold up the Olympics in 2026. Replacing them would hurt the claim of “best on best,” and we’ve seen that at events already. There’s the obvious elephant in the room: Russia’s participation. Let’s show him off to the world and give everyone a good glimpse of the future of the sport. If he ends up living up to expectations, we have another superstar on our hands. No prospect since McDavid has held so much star power. Moments like those do a lot more to grow the game than a standard Tuesday night matchup in January that doesn’t even sell out.Ĭonnor Bedard is about to enter the NHL in a few months. Or Denmark staying alive at the 2015 World Junior Championship. Or Slovenia beating USA at the 2018 Olympics. Having a chance at an upset means a lot – ask Latvia about the 2014 Olympics or their win over Canada on home ice at the 2021 World Championship off the heels of an outstanding performance from Matiss Kivlenieks. Fans from Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Finland, etc., often cheer for their homegrown talent, not a specific NHL team. Showcasing the world’s best talent to the rest of the world matters. We need the sport of hockey to keep growing. International events are for the best of the game. Yeah, the WBC didn’t get all of the biggest stars, but it got THE biggest stars, and people watched just for that. ![]() But it doesn’t seem to be an issue for other sports. I understand owners not wanting their prized possessions to get injured playing in events they’re not being paid to participate in. We saw many prominent voices in baseball share their arguments for that when discussing the WBC. ![]() The concern over injuries in these exhibition contests will never go away. The time slots will be late morning to early afternoon starts in North America, so it would be possible to make it work like in 2006. They won’t have a good argument in Italy, especially with a large chunk of the league having Italian heritage, even if there has never been an Italian-born-and-trained player in the NHL. In China four years later, with the rise in COVID-19 at the time, among other things, it made sense that they backed out. Sending players over to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics and playing games at 3:00 AM ET, was never going to be something the owners were interested in, either. It’s still some of the most fun hockey around.īut I know it’s never going to attract the North American audience, and that’s what the NHL cares about. We need that tournament, and all the lower-level events, to keep things moving. I understand how important it is for European teams just qualifying for the main tournament, regardless of the eventual result. That is, unless you’re Finland, who beat an NHL-heavy Canadian team in 2019 without a single top-level player. I know the argument is that it never gets the best players, and the winner is often decided by which team had the best players available.
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