2017 IIHF World Cup will be an incredible grand event for all fans of one of the most exciting and aggressive games in the entire sports field.
The initiator of the resumption of existence since 2016 of this a most interesting tournament is the leadership team of the NHL. It is expected that in 2017 the strongest hockey teams, including Russia, will come to this championship.
Competition history
The World Cup, which replaced the popular Canada Cup, was first held in 1996. The tournament was organized in developed North American and European cities, and the ice arenas attracted a lot of fans at each game. Eight national teams participated in the World Cup, including the USA, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Canada, Sweden,.
Despite the defeat from Canadian hockey players in the final series, the US team played well in two more meetings, eventually receiving the most prestigious title for the first time since 1980. American goalkeeper Mike Richter received the title of “best hockey player of the tournament.”
After that, the World Cup was held only in 2004. The rules of the competition did not receive any innovations, and the same teams as in the first World Cup also participated in it. All matches in the knockout stage took place in North America, and this time Canada won the coveted cup. This team defeated all its opponents, and Vincent Lecavalier was recognized as the best in this 2004 championship.
In 2011, I planned to organize another tournament for the world cup. The place of its organization and the members of this tournament were mentioned back in 2008, but at the very last moment disagreements arose between the Players Association and the NHL management team. As a result, the tournament was disrupted, and a large audience was left without an interesting spectacle.
The NHL will host the World Cup again this year. All matches will take place in Toronto, namely at the Air Canada Center arena.
Venue and regulations
The NHL management team plans to hold an auction for the right to host the 2017 World Cup. As mentioned above, the 2016 World Cup will be held in Toronto, and if the tournament is successful, the NHL will invite Berlin, Chicago, Moscow and Montreal to compete for the right to host the future competition on their soil .
Multiple sources claim that the same squads that have expressed a desire to play in the 2016 World Cup, which starts on September 17, will take part in the 2017 World Cup, namely:
- Czech Republic;
- Russia;
- Canada;
- Finland;
- Sweden;
- Team North America;
- Team Europe.
Two latest commands from this list will mainly include young hockey players who are no more than 23 years old. According to the organizers, the format of this hockey event will contribute to the development of inexperienced players, tempering them in battles with the best teams around the world. These hockey players, of course, are beyond the capabilities of their more experienced opponents to win such a grand championship, but future professionals will be able to demonstrate a decent performance to the rest of the teams.
All teams will be disbanded into two groups. In the knockout round, all hockey teams will fight according to the positions occupied by the subgroup. Each team can enter a maximum of 23 players to participate in the 2017 World Cup, in addition, three of them must be goalkeepers. The names of the first 16 hockey players, including two goalkeepers, should be announced approximately six months before the start of the tournament.
Does this tournament have a future?
The 2017 Hockey World Cup is a commercial event, the prospects for organizing which in the future can only be discussed by a person far from sports. Today the NHL plans to hold it every year, but already at preparatory stages Before the competition in 2016, many disputes arose with the hockey federations of the countries that would take part.
Most teams do not see the point in this championship, explaining their opinion by the fact that there is a World Championship, held every year, where great teams demonstrate their strengths to each other. Most professionals are simply not ready to participate twice a year in major world competitions, not including local meetings, which will significantly affect the attendance of the Cup.
At the same time, many factors will depend on the success of today's tournament, because if this event pays off financially, then the excellent prize money will force most of the star players to reconsider their point of view regarding the advisability of taking part in the championship.
On at the moment The tournament organizers are working in the right direction - a large-scale marketing campaign has been launched in the media, calling on hockey fans to visit Toronto and support their team, thereby giving a new birth to the World Cup. If everything goes well, then in 2017 these competitions will be a grand event, with a huge audience.
But, despite the great efforts of the NHL to revive the World Cup, everything will depend on the spectators, hockey players and financial support. Therefore, although the NHL has already planned everything for 2017, many problems and disagreements may prevent it from being held annually or even after 2016 it will no longer be held. Time will tell everything, let’s hope that today’s tournament will be attractive in all respects and the 2017 World Cup will have a different attitude, as something large-scale, grandiose and great.
World Youth Hockey Cup club teams – an annual tournament that brings together famous youth hockey clubs who are winners and prize-winners of championships and tournaments in their countries.
The World Cup among youth club teams has a fairly rich history and the official status of the International Hockey Federation - “a tournament sanctioned by the IIHF”.
For 8 years, teams from the following countries took part in the Cup: Austria, Belarus, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, USA, Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Sweden.
The ninth World Cup will again be held in Sochi, all matches of the tournament will be hosted by Ice arena"Washer".
Format
The teams participating in the tournament are divided into two subgroups and play matches among themselves within the groups in a round-robin system. The first two teams from each group determine the winner and prize-winners of the tournament. Teams that lost in the semi-finals play for third place. The winners of the semi-finals determine the winner of the tournament in the final match.
Trophy
After each World Cup final match, the winner takes the trophy home. The design of the cup was changed after the first tournament, which took place in 2011 and was crowned with the victory of the Red Army. The second cup, which was presented in 2012, remains unchanged to this day.
The silver cup of the first ever World Cup was made in Italy. On July 28, 2011, the cup was presented to the fans for the first time, after which it went to Omsk. On September 3, after the final siren, the captain of the Red Army, Roman Lyubimov, raised the new trophy above his head. The cup became the permanent possession of the club and is now in the CSKA museum.
On August 11, 2012, a presentation of the new trophy took place, the design of which remains unchanged to this day. The material from which the trophy was made and its shape have changed. The second cup is bronze, with a multi-layer galvanic nickel coating. The base is decorated with a pedestal made of valuable wood. The cup's two shaped handles are made in the shape of clubs and follow the shape of the bowl that sits on top of the trophy.
Logo
Since 2016, the World Cup logo remains recognizable in the usual arrangement of elements, but is somewhat modified depending on the location of the tournament. In 2016, the World Cup was hosted by two cities of the Republic of Tatarstan - Naberezhnye Chelny and Nizhnekamsk. The colors of the flag and coat of arms of the Republic of Tatarstan were used in the emblem. The background for the image of the hockey player was a folk Tatar ornament, which is adjacent to the image of the globe.
The 2017 logo uses the colors of the flag and coat of arms of the Sverdlovsk region: green, white and blue. The green part of the logo is stylized to resemble malachite, a mineral for which deposits of the Urals were known in the past. A decorative image of malachite became the background for the logo, along with the blue half, identical in color to the stripe from the regional flag.
The 2018 World Cup logo has new colors Educational center"Sirius", whose name is now mentioned in the official name of the tournament.
Figures and facts
Over the eight years of the World Cup, Russian teams have won it six times:
2011 – “Red Army” (Moscow)
2013 – “Omsk Hawks” (Omsk)
2014 – MHC “Spartak” (Moscow)
2016 – Loko (Yaroslavl)
2017 – “Red Army” (Moscow)
2018 – Loko (Yaroslavl)
Representatives of Canada and Sweden won once each:
2012 – Sudbury Wolves (Canada)
2015 – Djurgården (Sweden)
- Russian Maxim Kazakov is the best sniper of the World Cup. He scored 12 points in 9 matches. Dominik Kaun has the same figure, but he reached this mark in 14 meetings.
- The best scorer and assistant of the tournament is Mikhail Meshcheryakov (Red Army). He has 15 (5+10) points in 6 matches.
- Forward Kirill Baldin (Snow Leopards) scored the most penalties in the history of the World Cup. In 16 matches, he spent 57 minutes on the penalty bench.
- Kirill Galoha from HC Riga played the most matches in the history of the World Cup. As part of the Latvian team, he went to four tournaments, played 17 matches and scored 11 points.
- Among the goalkeepers, goalkeeper Mikhail Karnaukhov (Belarus) played the most matches at the tournament - in three games he played 11 matches for Dynamo-Shinnik (Bobruisk).
The oldest hockey player at the World Cup will be Slovakian Zdeno Chara, representing the European team. He is 40 years old. In the top five oldest hockey players there are two more representatives of this team - 38-year-old Swiss Martin Streit and 37-year-old Slovakian Marjan Gossa.
In addition, two Russians are represented in the top five oldest. The central striker is now 38 years old, defender Andrei Markov is 37 years old.
The statistics of the tournament's youngest hockey players are notable for the fact that in the top five, only three people represent the team that, by its name, is supposed to dominate this list - the team of young stars of North America.
We are, of course, talking about the top three young players in the last two drafts of the National hockey league Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel.
However, the youngest hockey player of the World Cup will be Finnish national team player Patrik Laine, who shone so brightly last season in the national championship and in the Finnish national teams at the junior, youth and even adult levels that from the middle of the second round in the ranking of “prospects” he rose almost to the top top and was drafted second.
His teammate and linemate Sebastian Aho, also selected early in the first round of the summer NHL draft, rounds out the top three young hockey players World Cup, but he is already 19 years old.
If we talk about average age, then, of course, the 21.74 years of the North American team stand out considerably compared to other teams.
It is not surprising, given the data above, that Finland is the youngest among the rest (25.91 years), and Europe is the oldest (29.78).
The Russian national team is the third Cup team in terms of average age, which is 26.91 years for Znark's players.
The main favorites of the tournament - the teams of Canada and the USA - are the third and second most experienced teams in the competition. Middle age“Maple Leaves” is 28.70 years old, and “Stars and Stripes” has crossed the 29-year mark - 29.04 years.
Dimensions
The tallest hockey player in the competition will, naturally, be the giant Zdeno Chara, whose height is 205 cm. Among the field players, only Czech Republic defender Andrei Shustr can boast of a two-meter height.
But there are also two giant goalkeepers. Ben Bishop from the US national team is 201 cm, and Finn Mikko Koskinen from SKA is 1 cm lower.
The times when he shone in the NHL Mighty Mouse Theo Fleury appears to be gone. Now the smallest hockey player in the World Cup is 5 cm taller - Norwegian Mats Zuccarello, who plays for the European national team, is 171 cm.
174 cm is the height of Canadian Johnny Gaudreau from the North American national team, and his older compatriot Brad Marchand, representing Canada, is 175 cm. Then there are hockey players under 180 cm.
But the statistics on the average height of teams are extremely interesting. No team stands out here at all! The “longest” team in the tournament is Canada, whose average height is exactly 187 cm. Well, the shortest team, despite the presence of Hara, is the European team - on average 185.4 cm.
It is the second from the bottom in this indicator - the average height of our hockey players is 185.61 cm. The indicators of all other teams exceed the domestic team by at least 0.7 cm on average.
The spread between teams in weight is slightly higher. The “heaviest” team of the tournament, Canada (93.96 kg), is separated from the “lightest” Sweden (89.96 kg) by 4 kg. Here the Russian team with its 91 kg on average is exactly in the middle of the list.
Despite his grenadier height, Jara is only the second heaviest player in the tournament (113 kg), behind the 118 kg Dustin Boughlin of the US team. In third place is a Russian whose weight is 108 kg.
The situation is even more interesting among the lightest hockey players, where Zuccarello is not even in the top five. The Norwegian weighs as much as 81 kg, while Gaudreau weighs 10 kg less.
The second lightest person in the tournament is Russian Artemy Panarin, whose scales show 77 kg.
Representation
The USA will have the largest representation at the World Cup, from which 35 hockey players will perform at the tournament: 23 will represent the national team, 12 will take to the ice as part of the team of young stars. Canada will have one less of these.
Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic will field 23 hockey players each, since they won’t play for anyone other than their own national teams, players from these countries will not play in Toronto.
As for the European team, it consists of six Slovaks and Germans, four Swiss, three Danes, one Slovenian, a Frenchman, a Norwegian and an Austrian each.
Experience
Of course, the greenest team of the tournament turned out to be young North American stars, but in total 23 hockey players have already played 3,449 matches in the NHL.
And this despite the fact that Matthews was only drafted last summer and has not yet made his debut for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The most experienced team of the tournament is the Canadian one, its members have already played 14,321 games. strongest league planets.
The Americans are in second place with 12,707 matches, and third in experience is the European team, whose hockey players have played 12,008 matches in the NHL.
Moreover, it is the European team that is the most experienced in terms of participation in world championships - 758 games for 23 people. The second place here is expectedly Russia, whose hockey players played 592 matches at the World Cup.
At the same time, in terms of NHL experience, the Russian team, in addition to young stars, is superior only to Finland, whose Laine and Aho have not yet been to the NHL. The Finns have a total of not even 6,000 games in the NHL, while the Russians have 7,108 games.
You can get acquainted with other news, materials and statistics on the Russian national hockey team, as well as in the groups of the sports department on social networks
"SE" offers a look into the future and predicts what the optimal composition of the Russian national team will look like in four years.
There was only one player at the Olympics who was born in the 90s - . To Toronto by known reasons he didn’t make it, but five representatives of this generation immediately appeared on the team. Orlov And Zaitsev, despite skepticism (won’t they fry often?) we held a good tournament, Kulikov And Marchenko formed an excellent destructive pair (oh, if not for the gifted goal in the semi-finals), well, who made his debut in the national team, was remembered in exhibition games bold and unexpected decisions.
Let's not forget about Voinova- He spent the World Championship poorly, but having prepared well for the new season, he began to tear and throw in the lineup. The unpleasant story that cost him his NHL career made many forget how great Vyacheslav spent his championship seasons in . The main thing is that the NHL changes its anger to mercy - and then at the next World Cup Voinova we'll definitely see.
(Washington, 34) - (Tampa Bay, 27)/ (Colorado, 26) - Alexander RADULOV (Montreal, 34)
The eighties of the last century were the golden time of hockey, and perhaps of all sports. The era of romanticism. And today, during the revival of the World Cup, rays of light from that great hockey past illuminate our path and point us in the true direction. In 1987, like a sign, the spotlight turned on - not perestroika, but the vector of development of the great ice game. To this day, the 1987 Canada Cup matches are called the brightest of all that has happened in the history of world hockey. About this unforgettable tournament, as well as about the last three Canada/World Cups, in the second part of our historical excursion.
According to the Brazilian system
4th draw
1987
Canada (Calgary, Hamilton, Regina, Halifax, Sydney, Montreal), USA (Hartford)
USSR national team matches: with Canada - 3:3, with Sweden - 3:5, with Czechoslovakia - 4:0, with the USA - 5:1, with Finland - 7:4.
Semi-finals: USSR - Sweden - 4:2, Canada - Czechoslovakia - 5:3
Final: Canada - USSR - 5:6, 6:5, 6:5
Top scorers: Gretzky (Canada) - 21 points (3+18), M. Lemieux (Canada) - 18 (11+7), Makarov (USSR) - 15 (7+8)
Symbolic team: Fuhr (Canada), Bourque (Canada) - Fetisov (USSR), M. Lemieux (Canada) - Gretzky (Canada) - Krutov (USSR)
USSR national team: Goalkeepers Belosheykin, Mylnikov, Samoilov; defenders Kasatonov, Fetisov, Stelnov, Gusarov, Kravchuk, Pervukhin, Fedotov; forwards Makarov, Larionov, Krutov, Khomutov, Bykov, Kamensky, Svetlov, Semenov, Lomakin, Semak, Pryakhin, Nemchinov, Khmylev.
Senior coach - Viktor Tikhonov, coach - Igor Dmitriev.
Initially, the fourth edition of the Canada Cup was scheduled for 1988. But closer to the point, it turned out that the Olympics will be held in Seoul at the same time, shifted just to September. In short, the stars aligned so that the famous hockey action took place in six Canadian cities and Hartford, America, a year earlier.
Team Canada, led by Mike Keenan, organized a serious training camp before the competition. Iron Mike involved almost four dozen of the country's strongest hockey players in the preparation, gradually eliminating the roster to the required size of the application of 23 people. However, the Canadians, for all the greatness of their attack, faced certain problems in defense. In this line, their main stars - Bourke, Murphy and Coffey - were aimed at creation, but Keenan clearly lacked “homebodies” who would reliably guard the approaches to goalkeeper Fuhr’s possessions.
In general, Canada decided, in a certain sense, to play according to the system of Brazilian football players - the one where “you will score as much as you can, and we will score as much as we want.” Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier and the rest of the “maple” constellation dictated tactics, and not the dictatorial coach Keenan. The ball was ruled by Wayne's world, in which hockey is a celebration of open, attacking play. But the coach - we must give him his due - balanced the lineup with power forwards to the best of his ability, since the ability to play hard with the body is in every Canadian’s blood.
What could Gretzky’s “Red Machine” contrast to this fantasy world? Yes, ours were inferior in toughness, as well as in technology. Makarov and Larionov, with all due respect to them, are still not Gretzky and Lemieux. Tikhonov laid out the usual Soviet trump cards on the table - collective thinking based on the teamwork of units. As a result, Larionov's five prevailed due to the smooth functioning of the mechanism, multiplied by their skill.
In addition to the legendary KLM vital role in Tikhonov’s system the second Tseskov brigade played: Kamensky - Bykov - Khomutov. And the threes from Dynamo Moscow (Svetlov/Semak - Semenov - Lomakin) and Krylyshek (Khmylev - Nemchinov - Pryakhin) worked like clockwork. The steel of the defensive teams (army players Fetisov - Kasatonov and Gusarov - Stelnov, Dynamo players Pervukhin - Fedotov) was also honed in the clubs to a mirror shine. As for the goalkeepers, the first number was Mylnikov from Traktor, and the second was Leningrader Belosheykin (CSKA).
It was the goalkeeper line that experts called the Achilles heel of the USSR national team. The seventeen goals our team conceded in three matches of the final series against the Canadians confirm this opinion, but only partially. After all, Gretzky and Lemieux and the whole honest company in the NHL put packs of pucks best goalkeepers leagues. And they did this while playing separately. If the skill of all these legends is multiplied, no Tretyak can stand.
Elusive beauty
Meanwhile, its participants began their journey to the greatest final series waddling. Thus, the hosts of the Cup, the Canadians, were unable to defeat Czechoslovakia in the opening match (4:4), and the USSR national team was defeated by the Swedes (3:5). However, the favorites did not make any more mistakes. Soviet hockey players confidently defeated the Czechs (4:0), Finns (7:4) and Americans (5:1). The Maple Leaves followed a parallel course: Finland (4:1), USA (3:2) and Sweden (5:3). In the last meeting in the group, the hosts played a beautiful game of catch-up with the Soviet “machine” (3:3).
The Stars and Stripes spoiled a lot of blood for the “headliners”. In the match with the USSR national team, the Americans tried to intimidate and crush the opponent, playing hard and dirty. In particular, after Suter hit him in the face, Lomakin had to receive ten stitches. But all this is nothing compared to the real carnage that unfolded in the North American derby, which resulted in a total of thirty stitches for the players of both teams.
The semi-finals passed relatively calmly, except for Svetlov’s arm being broken when he unsuccessfully crashed into the boards. At this stage, the future finalists corrected themselves for the failure at the start: the USSR national team prevailed over the Swedes (4:2), and Canada over the Czechs (5:3).
The final series gave the fans three fantastic hits. Elements, schools, strategies collided... If Tikhonov, as we have already said, relied on the coherence of combinations, then Keenan constantly experimented, shuffling the deck in search of the desired layout. In addition to the usual NHL special teams, Iron Mike found a variant of the restraining link to neutralize Larionov's five (Crossman - Rochefort, Anderson - Messier - Gartner). Finally, Keenan’s fateful decision was the combination of two absolute figures in equal compositions - Gretzky (top scorer and MVP of the tournament) and Lemieux (best sniper). The defensively risky step taken in the second game of the series, with the score 3:3, paid off one hundred percent. In that second “scene” of the final, Lemieux scored a hat-trick, including the winning goal in the second overtime (6:5), and in the decisive third game a super tie gave Canada winning goal one and a half minutes before the final siren (6:5).
But our happiness was so close! The first match of the series, following which the same “enchanted” 6:5 was on the scoreboard, was won in extra time Soviet masters(Semak scored the winning goal). And in the second battle, the founders of hockey walked on the edge of an abyss during two overtimes. One can, of course, recall several, to put it mildly, controversial decisions of the Canadian judge Koharski, who at the end of the meeting, in a difficult situation, sided with his compatriots. But all this is talk in favor of the poor. The 1987 Canada Cup final, on the contrary, made all of us, hockey fans, incomparably richer. And this is the case when the process is more important than the result.
Last autumn
5th draw
1991
Canada (Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto, Quebec, Saskatoon), USA (Detroit, Chicago)
USSR national team matches: with Canada - 3:3, with the USA - 1:2, with Finland - 6:1, with Sweden - 2:3, with Czechoslovakia - 2:5.
Semi-finals: USA - Finland - 7:3, Canada - Sweden - 4:0
Final: Canada - USA - 4:1, 4:2
Top scorers: Gretzky (Canada) - 12 points (4+8), Lairmer (Canada) - 11 (6+5), Modano (USA) - 9 (2+7)
Symbolic team: Ranford (Canada), Mackinis (Canada) - Chelios (USA), Roenick (USA) - Gretzky (Canada) - Sundin (Sweden)
USSR national team: goalkeepers Shtalenkov, Trefilov, Maryin; defenders D. Mironov, Gusarov, Malakhov, Kasatonov, Tatarinov, Kravchuk, Zhitnik, Filimonov; forwards Fedorov, Semak, Zhamnov, Vyach. Kozlov, Lomakin, Vyach. Butsaev, Kovalenko, Prokhorov, Khaidarov, Gordiyuk, Galchenyuk, Korolev.
Head coach- Viktor Tikhonov, coach - Igor Dmitriev.
The last, fifth, Canada Cup coincided with the last breath of the USSR national team. In the fall of 1991, politics overshadowed everything else in our country. The people had no time for hockey. And the hockey team weakened with the fall of communism. It's not so much about ideology as it is about players leaving abroad. The USSR team was deprived of its “nuclear weapon” - the played units. But it's not just that. “Compared to previous tournaments, the 1991 Canada Cup has ceased to be a competition in which the best of the best play,” wrote the North American press. “The fall of communism in Eastern Europe greatly weakened the national teams of the USSR and Czechoslovakia, and the teams of the USA and Finland, on the contrary, turned from eternal basement dwellers into one of the favorites.”
The composition of the Soviet squad was also far from ideal. For example, from the great five of KLM, only Kasatonov came to the Cup, and our future star Fedorov was still just rising at that time. In short, from the confrontation between Canada and the USSR, the competition smoothly turned into a rivalry between Canadians and Americans. Keenan's team featured the greats - Gretzky, Messier, Larmer, Coffey, McInnis and Ranford, and the brightest stars in America were Hull, Modano, Richter, Chelios and Roenick. In other teams, we especially note the Czech goalkeeper Dominik Hasek and the Swedish center forward Mats Sundin.
The Soviet team played an inglorious group tournament, failing to make it to the semifinals. Tikhonov's team won only one victory - over the Finns (6:1) with three defeats (from the Czechs 2:5, from the Swedes 2:3 and from the Americans 1:2). The only one highlight There was a draw in the final meeting with Canada (3:3) in Quebec. But our team only needed a victory to get out of the group.
The Canadians and Americans, moving towards each other, calmly dealt with the Swedes (4:0) and the Finns (7:3) in the semifinals, respectively. The final episode turned out to be interesting, although, of course, in terms of tension it is far from the events of 1987. The Maple Leaves, sending four goals to their opponents, won twice (4:1, 4:2), retaining the Canada Cup forever.
American Five
World Cups 1st draw
1996
Canada (Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa), USA (Philadelphia, New York), Sweden (Stockholm), Finland (Helsinki), Germany (Garmisch-Partenkirchen)
North American group
Quarterfinals: Canada - Germany - 4:1, Russia - Finland - 5:0
Semi-finals: Canada - Sweden - 3:2, USA - Russia - 5:2
Final: USA - Canada - 3:4, 5:2, 5:2
Best Player - Richter (USA)
Top scorers: B. Hull (USA) - 11 points (7+4), Leclerc (USA) - 10 (6+4), Sundin (Sweden) - 7 (4+3)
Symbolic team: Richter (USA), Chelios (USA) - K. Johansson (Sweden), B. Hull (USA) - Sundin (Sweden) - Leclerc (USA)
Russian national team: goalkeepers Trefilov, Khabibulin; defenders Gonchar, Zubov, Yushkevich, Fetisov, Kasparaitis, Tverdovsky, Malakhov, Zhitnik, Karpovtsev, Ulanov; forwards Fedorov, Mogilny, Nikolishin, Larionov, Kovalev, Nemchinov, Vyach. Kozlov, Kovalenko, Zhamnov, Yashin, Berezin, Semak, Val. Bure, Zelepukin.
Head coach - Boris Mikhaiov, coaches - Sergey Makarov, Evgeny Zimin.
Five years later, the Canada Cup changed its name and format. At the first ever World Cup in September 1996, not six, but eight teams played, and they fought not only in North America, and also in Europe. In addition to the usual “Big Six”, the participants included Germans and Slovaks. In turn, the national teams of Russia and the Czech Republic acted as successors to the collapsed socialist powers.
The first World Cup - and the debut of the Russian team at a tournament of this rank. Boris Mikhailov's team was decent. It’s a pity that Pavel Bure couldn’t come to the World Cup - almost all previous season he missed due to a serious knee injury. Therefore, in the dream trio of Mogilny - Fedorov - Bure, which Tikhonov once created to replace KLM, Nemchinov replaced the Russian Rocket. The second attack trio consisted of Zelepukin - Yashin - Kovalev, and in the third attack combination, Larionov and Vyacheslav Kozlov (from the famous “Russian Five” of Detroit) alternately complemented Zhamnov and Kovalenko. The defense pairs also looked serious: just Fetisov and Zubov are worth it!
At the last turn, Mikhailov bet on Trefilov and Khabibullin, trusting more in the first. Both keepers were later blamed for the Russian failure, but, I think, Petrovich’s entire team then performed at their level.
Those whom we had to beat - the Slovaks in the group (7:4) and the Finns in the quarterfinals (5:0) - we calmly beat. When Russia met with the giants, it became clear: the New World teams had a higher class. The US team defeated the Russians twice with the same score 5:2: first on group stage, and then in the semi-finals. In the opening match against the Canadians, ours turned out a little more stubbornly - 3:5.
As for the finale, it was a great success. The Stars and Stripes took revenge for their defeat in 1991. The series started brightly: the Americans, led by Ron Wilson, were 2:3 down in the end, took off the goalkeeper and, through the efforts of Leclerc, equalized the score in the last seconds. And although Yzerman still brought victory to Glen Sather’s team in extra time, the guys from the USA felt that luck was somewhere nearby. Moreover, they beat Maple in the group (5:3).
In the second and third games of the final, America scored their favorite number of goals - five each. At the 1987 Canada Cup, such a number would not have been enough to win any of the final matches, but here it’s a different matter. Two successes of 5:2 - and the US team becomes the owner of the first World Cup in history. The key figures in that lineup were goalkeeper Richter (MVP), defenders Leach and Chelios, forwards Leclerc, Waite and Hull (top scorer).
Datsyuk with Kovalchuk, Sokolov with Canada
2nd draw
2004
Canada (Montreal, Toronto), USA (Saint Paul), Finland (Helsinki), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne)
North American group
European group
Quarterfinals: Canada - Slovakia - 5:0, Czech Republic - Sweden - 6:1, Finland - Germany - 2:1, USA - Russia - 5:3
Semi-finals: Canada - Czech Republic - 4:3, Finland - USA - 2:1
Final: Canada - Finland - 3:2
Best Player: Lecavalier (Canada)
Top scorers: Modin (Sweden) - 8 points (4+4), Lecavalier (Canada) - 7 (2+5), Tkachuk (USA) - 6 (5+1)
Symbolic team: Brodeur (Canada), Timonen (Finland) - Foote (Canada), Modin (Sweden) - S. Kjovu (Finland) - Lecavalier (Canada)
Russian team: goalkeepers Bryzgalov, Sokolov; defenders Gonchar, Markov, Khavanov, Kasparaitis, Volchenkov, Vishnevsky, Kalinin, Tverdovsky; forwards Zubrus, Kovalev, Samsonov, Yashin, Afanasenkov, Frolov, Ovechkin, Vic. Kozlov, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, Kvasha, Chubarov, Afinogenov, Kovalenko
Head coach: Zinetula Bilyaletdinov
Formally, at the 2004 World Cup, our team showed the worst result in the entire history of the competition, finishing sixth. In fact, if you look at it, ours played no worse than in 1996, when we ended up fourth, and in 1991 (5th place). At the first four Canada Cups, let us recall, the USSR national team invariably placed in the top three (1981 - 1st place, 1976 and 1984 - 3rd, 1987 - 2nd).
In 2004, we were not very lucky with the group - Russia was again assigned to the North American quartet. All eight participants again advanced to the quarterfinals, but this time they decided to make the playoffs - in the manner of the Stanley Cup - within the groups. The semi-finals, however, took place crosswise. This whole ingenious system was created for one purpose: so that Canada and the USA would cross paths no earlier than the finals.
The team of Zinetula Bilyaletdinov looked decent at the group stage and created a mini-sensation at the start - they defeated the Americans (5:3). As the tournament progressed, Afinogenov was moved to the Kovalchuk-Datsyuk strike combination instead of Kovalenko. The trio Samsonov - Viktor Kozlov - Kovalev and Kvasha/Frolov - Yashin - Zubrus received a lot of playing time, while the young Dynamo player Alexander Ovechkin was just making his presence known. In defense, the first pair was Kasparaitis and Gonchar, and the main goalkeeper was Bryzgalov. Let us also mention the fact that Sokolov played one game in the tournament. And what kind - against the Canadians! (1:3). Having stopped 25 shots, Maxim looked great, until last minutes keeping the team in the game.
In the third match of the group, Russia won against the Slovaks (5:2), after which it advanced to the quarterfinals against America. It was not possible to repeat the group success: Tkachuk buried ours with poker (5:3). However, the organizers' dream of a remake of the Novy Svet finale was not destined to come true. While Canada, with great difficulty, knocked out the Czechs in overtime in the semifinals (4:3), the USA were unable to break the resistance of the Finns (1:2).
In the final, which consisted of one match, the “hot guys” led by Koivu also fought until the last round, but Canada did not lose theirs (3:2). Doan scored the golden goal, and Lecavalier won the MVP title.
It remains to add that from that convocation twelve years ago, only Thornton will compete for the Canadian team at the upcoming World Cup 2016. Russia has three who sniffed the “world” gunpowder - Datsyuk, Ovechkin and Markov.
|By the way
Kopitar became captain of Europe
Slovenian Los Angeles forward Anze Kopitar has been appointed captain of the European team at the World Cup. This was reported on the team's official Twitter account. Cup peace will pass in Toronto from September 17 to October 1.
|On topic
Lundqvist could use some ribs
Sweden goalkeeper Henrik Lundqvist said that rib damage will not prevent him from competing at the 2016 World Cup. The tournament will take place in Toronto from September 17 to October 1.
Damage to ribs? There's nothing serious there. I'll probably feel pain for a while, but it won't stop me from moving. Yes, I have painful sensations, but that doesn’t stop me from getting the washers. This always happens. Be it the World Cup or the start of the NHL season. We have a tough sport. Many people think that it’s enough to stretch your fingers and that’s it, you’re ready to play. No, it won't work that way. You have to take on a lot of stress - physical and psychological, and injuries are part of it all,” Lundqvist said.
