from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,
Also notable is that Babcock clearly feels that the next World Cup should be made up of teams representing their countries and not include the 23-and-under North American team or the team he's facing in the finals, Team Europe. I happen to agree with him. I think a traditional field is the way to go, with a European qualifying event the year before the next World Cup to determine the final few teams in the field. If the NHL doesn't go to South Korea, I think there will be even more onus on having an Olympic-like, traditional field for the next World Cup.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said on Tuesday that no decisions had been made, either way, yet in terms of which teams would take part in the next World Cup.
"We haven't evaluated [that] yet. When we debrief with the Players' Association we'll focus on the format of future World Cups,'' Bettman told ESPN.com. "(But) I don't think anybody can suggest that this tournament wasn't more exciting because of the Team Europe and Team North America concepts. There's no doubt that those two teams were more competitive than the seventh and eighth countries would have been.''
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