Canada beats Europe 3-1
Leads series 1-0
"What I think is clear to everybody is despite a lot of skepticism a year ago the concept worked pretty well, and secondly there's no doubt that part of the competitiveness, maybe the most competitive international hockey tournament ever, was a function of the fact that Team Europe and Team North America were certainly more competitive than the seventh and eighth country teams would have been," Commissioner Bettman said.
https://www.wch2016.com/news/nhl-looking-at-sites-for-future-world-cup-tournaments/c-282182918
The World Cup of Hockey will never have the prestige that the Olympics have no matter what Bettman says or thinks. The World Cup of Hockey is Bettmans' way to compete against the Olympics and force the NHL players out of the Olympics, it's going to fail like last time. Three teams didn't really care to be in the World Cup of Hockey, the USA and Finland really didn't care to be there evident by how they played. I think this was the year for Team North America because the next time I don't expect them to be as good or flashy as they were this year.
I have a feeling there will be another lockout in the NHL, because the players want to play in the Olympics and they want to play for their country not teams like Europe and North America.