World Cup of Hockey

The World Cup of Hockey was an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996, it was the successor to the previous Canada Cup, which ran from 1976 to 1991. The tournament occurred twice, with the United States winning in 1996 and Canada winning in 2004.
The World Cup of Hockey was organized by the National Hockey League (NHL), unlike the annual Ice Hockey World Championships and quadrennial Olympic tournament, both sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). World Cup games were played under NHL rules and not those of the IIHF, and the tournament occurred outside of the NHL season, allowing for all of the best players in the world to be available, unlike the World Championships, which overlaps with the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.
==History==
===Canada Cup===
See Canada Cup for more information.
The World Cup of Hockey was preceded by the Canada Cup, which began in 1976 in a combined effort from Douglas Fisher of Hockey Canada and Alan Eagleson of the NHL Players' Association. Taking inspiration from soccer's FIFA World Cup, Eagleson proposed a new tournament that would bring together all the top hockey-playing nations. After successful negotiations with hockey officials from the Soviet Union in September 1974, Eagleson began arranging the Canada Cup tournament, which debuted in 1976.The Canada Cup of Hockey Fact and Stat Book, p. 2, H.J. Anderson, ISBN number: 1412055121, 9781412055123, Publisher: Trafford Publishing, 2005 It was the first international ice hockey tournament that allowed hockey nations to field their top players, as the Winter Olympics was a strictly amateur competition and the annual World Championships clashed with the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The tournaments, held every three to five years, took place in North American venues prior to the start of the National Hockey League (NHL) regular season. Of the five Canada Cup tournaments, four were won by Canada, while the Soviet Union won one in 1981.
===World Cup of Hockey===
In 1996, the Canada Cup officially changed its name to the World Cup of Hockey. The United States defeated Canada to win the inaugural event. Other competitors were the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia and Sweden.
Eight years later, the second installment of the World Cup of Hockey took place in 2004, just prior to the 2004–05 NHL lockout. Canada won its first tournament championship, defeating the Czech Republic in the semifinals and Finland in the final match.
On January 24, 2015, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which will be held in September 2016 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The 2016 edition will feature a slightly modified format: alongside the Big Six countries, there will be two all-star teams, consisting of Team Europe and an under-23 Team North America.
The 2020 edition was planned to include a European qualification tournament to determine some participating nations. In January 2019, plans for the tournament were abandoned due to the pending expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association.
==Trophy==
In 2004, award-winning Canadian architect Frank Gehry designed a new trophy for the tournament. The trophy was criticized by the sports community, noting the Toronto Sun's headline "What is that?"
==Results==
Year	Final host 	Champion	Runner-up	Final score(s) 	Semi-finalists
1996	Philadelphia (Game 1) Montreal (Games 2, 3)	 	 	3–4 (OT), 5–2, 5–2	and
2004	Toronto 	 	 	3–2 	and
2016	Toronto 	 	Europe 	3–1, 2–1 	and
==See also==
* National Hockey League
* International Ice Hockey Federation
* Ice Hockey World Championships
* 1972 Summit Series
* 1974 Summit Series
* Canada Cup
* Olympic Games
* Super Series '76-77
* Super Series
* Subway Super Series
* 2007 Super Series
* NHL Challenge
* Rendez-vous '87
* Victoria Cup
==References==
* Müller, Stephan : International Ice Hockey Encyclopedia 1904-2005 / BoD GmbH Norderstedt, 2005 ISBN 3-8334-4189-5
 
Category:Tournaments