Hockey used to matter more to its fans. The audience is not as passionate as it was in the past, especially on the World Cup, which should represent hockey at its highest.
It is not as it was back in time, when Soviets competed with North American teams and the Cold war was fought on ice. This year’s World Cup won’t be so political and engaging. You won’t see any insane dust-ups between players or crazy competition between countries. North Americans would grind for goals and gave their very best to prove the world that they were better than the Soviets.
There was a profound meaning behind the game itself, it was a challenge to prove the supremacy of one on the other. It was in the 70s when two ideologies like the West and the East were one against the other on ice. There were two different ideologies, ways of seeing the game itself and of playing hockey.
For a long time the game played on new year’s eve in 1975 between the Soviets and the Canadians was considered one of the greatest hockey game ever played. All that remains today is the hockey itself, the game between teams, the sport on ice, the speed and violence. There’s no more politics or supremacy on the table.