The 2016 World Cup of Hockey reached its expected conclusion with Canada skating off the ice with the trophy for which the tournament is named Thursday night. Aside from the unsurprising, and in some ways, anti-climactic ending to the tournament, there was more than enough compelling competition for hockey fans to consume.
It was not a rousing success by any means, but the league did not embarrass itself, either. What it did provide was a very competitive tournament with hockey of the highest quality. That's the least we should have expected from it, but most would agree that the quality of the tournament ended up even exceeded expectations.