World Cup of Hockey
The World Cup of Hockey is a hitherto been transmitted twice Hockey Tournament and successor of the traditional Canada Cup. The North American professional league National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association NHLPA organize the tournament together with the international Ice Hockey Federation IIHF.
History
As early as 1976 had upon the idea of Alan Eagleson, who had already organized the Summit Series, possibly in cooperation between the National Hockey League, the International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF and the Canadian Hockey Association Hockey Canada for the first time an international tournament in even professional players North America had allowed to compete for their country of birth. So was discharged at irregular intervals to 1991 Canada Cup an institution in international ice hockey with the reputation to be better staffed than the Hockey World Cup, or even the Olympic Hockey Tournament. As the successor to the Canada Cup the World Cup of Hockey was pronounced.
For the first time the World Cup of Hockey was held in the months of August and September of 1996. It took the six best teams in the world, complemented by two wildcard participants. The winner was the national team of the United States, which prevailed in three finals against Canada. Even Germany began in 1996 at the World Cup of Hockey in part, defeating their surprise the had traveled with many NHL players Czech national team 7-1, then failed, however in the second round on host Canada.
At the World Cup of Hockey in 2004 from August 30 to September 14, also came the six best teams after the former IIHF World Ranking and two wildcard participants against each other. The trainers were able to use all the NHL stars here because of the appointment before the season starts again.
At present it is still unclear how the NHL and the NHLPA need to cut out big names of their league for the Olympic Games in the future, which would mean an interruption of league operation. Since this was the case with the recent Games, the World Cup of Hockey became increasingly out of the spotlight. Should the situation again closer to that of the last century is to think of a re- edition of the World Cup of Hockey in 2012 or 2014. For August 2016, a new edition is planned.