World Cup of Hockey

The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

tournament. Inaugurated in 1996

1996 World Cup of Hockey

The first World Cup of Hockey , or 1996 World Cup of Hockey, replaced the Canada Cup as one of the premier championships for professional ice hockey ....

, it is the successor to the previous Canada Cup

Canada Cup (ice hockey)

The Canada Cup was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The tournament was created to meet demand for a true world championship that allowed the best players from participating nations to compete regardless of their status as professional...

, which ran from 1976

1976 Canada Cup

The 1976 Canada Cup was an international ice hockey tournament held September 2–15, 1976, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Quebec, Canada as well as in Philadelphia, United States. It was the first of five Canada Cup tournaments held between 1976 and 1991...

to 1991

1991 Canada Cup

The 1991 Canada Cup was a professional international ice hockey tournament played in September 1991. The finals took place in Montreal on September 14 and Hamilton, Ontario on September 16, and were won by Canada. The Canadians defeated the USA in a two game sweep, to win the fifth and final Canada...

. The tournament has occurred twice, with the United States winning in 1996 and Canada winning in 2004

2004 World Cup of Hockey

The 2004 World Cup of Hockey was an international ice hockey tournament. It was the second installment of the National Hockey League -sanctioned competition eight years after the inaugural 1996 World Cup of Hockey. It was held from August 30 to September 14, 2004, and took place in various venues...

.

Unlike its International Ice Hockey Federation

International Ice Hockey Federation

The International Ice Hockey Federation is the worldwide governing body for ice hockey and in-line hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 70 members...

(IIHF)-sanctioned counterpart, the annual World Ice Hockey Championships, the World Cup of Hockey is organized by the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

(NHL). As such, the games are played under NHL rules and not those of the IIHF. The World Cup of Hockey also occurs outside of the hockey season, allowing for all the best players in the world to be available, unlike the World Championships, which overlaps with the Stanley Cup playoffs

Stanley Cup playoffs

The Stanley Cup playoffs is an elimination tournament in the National Hockey League consisting of four rounds of best-of-seven series. Eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records...

Canada Cup

The World Cup of Hockey was preceded by the Canada Cup, which began in 1976

1976 Canada Cup

in a combined effort from Douglas Fisher

Douglas Fisher

Douglas Fisher or Doug Fisher may refer to:* Douglas Fisher , British sailor & Fourth Sea Lord* Doug Fisher , British actor* Doug Fisher , Canadian politician and columnist...

of Hockey Canada

Hockey Canada

Hockey Canada, formally known as the Canadian Hockey Association, is the national governing body of ice hockey in Canada and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Hockey Canada controls a vast majority of ice hockey in Canada, with a few exceptions...

and Alan Eagleson

Alan Eagleson

Robert Alan Eagleson is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, convicted felon in two countries, former politician, hockey agent and promoter...

of the NHL Players' Association. Taking inspiration from soccer's FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

, 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

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

in September 1974, Eagleson began arranging the Canada Cup tournament, which debuted in 1976. 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

Stanley Cup playoffs

.

The tournaments, held every three to five years, took place in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n venues prior to the start of the National Hockey League

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

1981 Canada Cup

The 1981 Canada Cup was the second best-on-best ice hockey world championship and involved the world's top six hockey nations. Tournament games were held in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa. The Soviet Union defeated Canada in a single game final to win its first title, while Soviet...

In 1996, the Canada Cup officially changed its name to the World Cup of Hockey. The United States defeated Canada to win that year's inaugural tournament

1996 World Cup of Hockey

The first World Cup of Hockey , or 1996 World Cup of Hockey, replaced the Canada Cup as one of the premier championships for professional ice hockey ....

. Other competitors were the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany

Germany men's national ice hockey team

The German men's national ice hockey team first participated in serious international competition at the 1911 European Hockey Championship. When Germany was split after World War II, a separate East German national ice hockey team existed until 1990...

, Russia, Slovakia and Sweden.

Eight years later, the second installment of the World Cup of Hockey took place in 2004

2004 World Cup of Hockey

, 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.

Trophy

In 2004, award-winning Canadian architect Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

designed a new trophy for the tournament. It is made from a composite alloy of copper and nickel as well as solid cast urethane plastic. The trophy has been criticized by the sports community noting the Toronto Sun's headline "What is that?"

Results

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Semi-finalists
1996 1996 World Cup of Hockey The first World Cup of Hockey , or 1996 World Cup of Hockey, replaced the Canada Cup as one of the premier championships for professional ice hockey ....			and
2004 2004 World Cup of Hockey The 2004 World Cup of Hockey was an international ice hockey tournament. It was the second installment of the National Hockey League -sanctioned competition eight years after the inaugural 1996 World Cup of Hockey. It was held from August 30 to September 14, 2004, and took place in various venues...			and

Canada Cup