Jamie Nye: World Cup of Hockey can stay

Here’s one thing I didn’t account for when analyzing the merits of the World Cup of Hockey, the jump the elite talent of the NHL gets on everyone else.

Playing some big time games before the season starts and while this may be highly presumptuous, scoring is up by almost a goal through the first 80 games.

While others may site young studs like Patrick Laine and Auston Matthews – well, there you can credit the world cup again. These young players were able to get a sense of the speed of the game before the real games began.

And they took off running – see Matthews four-goal night in his first game of the season.

Now, will this run of goals continue? Likely not – because coaches will always find away to plug things up to keep the puck out of the net.

But if this scoring increase has something to do with the World Cup of Hockey? Maybe they should have one every year.