Puck On The 'Net: World Hockey Summit Edition

It's been a while since I've shared some current event thoughts. Let's hit the ice and put the Puck On The 'Net:

• The Molson Canadian World Hockey Summit is on in Toronto. The purpose? To make money, and lots of it. They sold naming rights to this phony summit, and then had the gall to charge fans $450 each for the events and Hot Stove session at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Shameless. You are much better off just following the session on Twitter courtesy @JeffMarek
• This World Hockey Summit promises to establish a long term "Global Event Agenda." That means planning for future Olympics, World Cups, and World Championships. Unless the International Olympic Committee (not the IIHF) starts compensating the NHL and the players for Olympic participation, expect the NHL to continue balking at future Olympic participation.
• Almost every player and every fan wants to see the NHL return to the Olympics, which is fine. But to not acknowledge the NHL's unreasonable sacrifice is down right ignorant. 
• Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the NBA or FIFA get any compensation from the almighty IOC either. Don't expect the NHL to win this battle. They really need to be teaming up the NBA and FIFA to take on the IOC.
• World Cup vs Olympics - I loved the old Canada Cups and wrote the book on the World Cup quite literally. In theory the World Cup can provide a superior tournament. But the Olympics have two trump cards: the grandest world stage and it is played in hockey season. It will be a tough sell to go back to September hockey with no Olympics.
• In other news, the NHL recently held a research and development camp where they experimented with rules changes. A lot of it was unnecessary, such as the various face-off tinkering. But it appears to be another step towards accepting either no-touch or hybrid icing, and possibly overtime reform seeing 3-on-3 on hockey after 5 minutes of scoreless 4-on-4 hockey.
• The NHL is very guilty of too many rule changes for one simple reason - trying to win over new fans while not giving a damn about the fans they do have. The NHL is lucky hockey demands loyalty, as diehard fans put up with far more than we should have to.
• There's only one rule change I really want to see - Stanley Cup finals done no later than May 31st. Start the season earlier and ban June games.

Join me in conversation on Twitter @HockeyLegends for more hockey talk.