Why are the NHL playoffs and the IIHF world hockey championships played at the same time?

Question

Why do these competitions have to overlap like they do? It is not really fair to make a player choose club or country.

Answer 1

all the people that play in the IIHF are players that teams didn't make the playoff...w/e it's not the Olympics

Answer 2

Like Sharpii.... said the players who play for their country are players whose teams either didn't make the NHL Playoffs or were eliminated in either the first and second round of the NHL Playoffs.

Answer 3

They are played at the same time because #1 the IIHF doesn't care when the NHL playoffs are. And #2 the IIHF tournament comes at the end of the IIHF season. The same as the NHL playoffs do at the end of the NHL season. In the extremely rare event that the IIHF is held in North America most North Americans don't even realize it exists.

I listened to part of the Phlyers - Penquins game on the NHL feed on radio the other night. The announcers said that there was no hockey on Friday. Yesterday I watched 2 IIHF games, the AHL playoff game between Toronto and Chicago and game 1 of the Mem Cup playoffs. You know people there is hockey outside the NHL.