Canada men's national ice hockey team

The Canadian National Men's Ice Hockey Team (also known as Team Canada) is the ice hockey team for Canada. The team is run by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. From 1920 until 1963 Canada did not have a single national hockey team. Instead, senior amateur club teams played for Canada . Canada's national men's team was created in 1963 by Father David Bauer as a part of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. This team played out of the University of British Columbia. During the 1972 Summit Series, the name "Team Canada" was first used. The Canadian national team is now often called "Team Canada".

Team Canada has been one of the leading national ice hockey teams playing around the world. They won the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union, four of five Canada Cups since 1976, nine Olympic gold medals (the most of any hockey nation); Salt Lake City 2002, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014. They are 25-time IIHF World Champions and winner of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.

History
From 1920 to 1963 the senior amateur club teams that played for Canada were usually the most recent Allan Cup champions. The last amateur club team from Canada to win a gold medal at the World Championship was the Trail Smoke Eaters in 1961. After the 1963 World Championships, Father David Bauer founded the national team to play hockey for Canada in games around the world. This new team had it's first games at the 1964 Winter Olympics.

Before the Soviet Union began playing international hockey in 1954, Canada won many of the international hockey games. Team Canada won six out of seven golds at the Olympics and 10 World Championship gold medals. After Canada won the Winter Olympic Gold medal in 1952, they did not win another gold medal for 50 years. From 1962 to 1993 the team was not able to win any World Championships. It was difficult for Team Canada to win because the country's best professional players were not able to play for Team Canada. Instead, they were playing for their National Hockey League teams.

Canada stopped playing in IIHF events in 1970 and Team Canada stopped playing in any games after the team was told they could not use semi-professional players at the World Championship. Canada once again began playing in the IIHF in 1977 after the IIHF President Dr. Sabetzki and top officials of professional ice hockey in Canada and the United States were able to come to an agreement. They agreed that professionals would be allowed to play hockey at the World Championship and the tournament would be scheduled later in the year. This allowed players from the NHL to play, after their teams were no longer playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. They also agreed to create the "Canada Cup". This championship would be played every four years in North American. Canada, the United States, and the four best European national teams would play in this championship.

In 1983, Hockey Canada began the "Program of Excellence". This program was made to help prepare a team for the Winter Olympics every four years. This new National Team played a full season together all over the world against both national and club teams. Often, young players hoping to play in the NHL would play on this new team. In 1986, the International Olympic Committee voted to allow professional athletes to compete in Olympic Games, starting in 1988. This allowed many experienced NHL players to join the team. In 1998 the NHL decided to stop letting players compete in the Olympics, so the Program of Excellence was shut down.

After not winning a gold medal for 33 years, Canada won the 1994 World Championship in Italy. Since 1994, Team Canada has won in 1997, 2003, 2004, and 2007. Canada won its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years at Salt Lake City 2002. At Vancouver 2010, Canada won the gold medal with a 3–2 win against the United States in the final. Sidney Crosby's overtime goal won Canada the final gold medal awarded at the Games. At the 2012 World Championship in Finland and Sweden, Ryan Murray became the first draft eligible prospect to represent Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championship.

After winning the Gold medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics, Team Canada was able to win gold again at the Sochi 2014 Olympic games. This was the first time a team had won Gold medals twice in a row since the Soviet Union in 1988. Team Canada was also the first to finish the tournament without loosing any games since 1984. The team played so well that it was said they may be the best team that Canada had ever had. Drew Doughty and Shea Weber scored the most goals for the team, while Jonathan Toews scored the gold medal-winning goal in the first period of a 3–0 win over Sweden in the final. After the 2014 Olympics Steve Yzerman, stepped down as general manager of the team. In 2015, Team Canada was able to win their first hockey World Championship since 2007.

List of teams representing Canada from 1920 to 1963

Players

2014 Winter Olympics roster
Roster for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, from February 8–23, 2014.

 Head coach: Mike Babcock
 Assistant coach: Lindy Ruff
 Assistant coach: Claude Julien
 Assistant coach: Ken Hitchcock

2014 IIHF World Championship roster
Roster for the 2014 IIHF World Championship in Minsk, Belarus, from May 9–25, 2014.

 Head coach: Dave Tippett
 Assistant coach: Peter DeBoer
 Assistant coach: Paul Maurice

2014 Spengler Cup roster
Roster for the 2014 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland, from December 26–31, 2014.

 Head coach: Guy Boucher

Competition achievements

Olympic Games
All Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1920 and 1968 also counted as World Championships. Team Canada has won a total of 15 Olympic medals.

World championships
All Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1920 and 1968 also counted as World Championships. The 1920 Olympics were the first world championship. IIHF World Championships were not held during the Winter Olympic years of 1980, 1984 or 1988.

Summit Series
 1972 – Won
 1974 – Lost

Canada Cup
 1976 – Champions
 1981 – Runners-up
 1984 – Champions
 1987 – Champions
 1991 – Champions

World Cup of Hockey
 1996 – Runners-up
 2004 – Champions

Spengler Cup
In the Spengler Cup, Team Canada competes against European club teams such as HC Davos who host the tournament every year in Vaillant Arena. Canada was initially represented by the standing national team at this event, but subsequently is usually made up of Canadians playing in European leagues or the AHL.

Coaches
List of coaches of the Canada men's national ice hockey team.

Olympics

Summit Series, Canada Cup, World Cup

World Championships

References

 
 
 Meltzer, Bill NHL.com article on 2007 IIHF World Championship gold medal. Retrieved 2008-03-25.

Other websites
 Official website
 IIHF profile

National ice hockey teams
Men's national teams
1963 establishments in North America
1960s establishments in Canada