TheCanada men's national ice hockey team (popularly known asTeam Canada;French:Équipe Canada) is theice hockey team representingCanada internationally. The team is overseen byHockey Canada, a member of theInternational Ice Hockey Federation. From 1920 until 1963, Canada's international representation was by senior amateur club teams. Canada's national men's team was founded in 1963 byFather David Bauer as a part of theCanadian Amateur Hockey Association, playing out of theUniversity of British Columbia.[4]The nickname "Team Canada" was first used for the 1972Summit Series and has been frequently used to refer to both the Canadian national men's and women's teams ever since.
Hockey is Canada's national winter sport,[6] and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. Canada was first represented internationally at the1910 European Championships by theOxford Canadians, a team of Canadians from the University of Oxford. They represented Canada again at the1912 World Championships.
From 1920 until 1963, the senior amateur club teams representing Canada, were usually the most recentAllan Cup champions. The last amateur club team from Canada to win a gold medal at the World Championship was theTrail Smoke Eaters in1961. The responsibility of choosing which team represented Canada belonged toCanadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) secretary-manager;George Dudley from 1947 to 1960, andGordon Juckes from 1960 to 1963.[7]
Following the 1963 World Championships,Father David Bauer founded the national team as a permanent institution. The new permanent national team first competed inice hockey at the 1964 Winter Olympics. His philosophy was to simply win the games against the weaker countries instead of running up the score.[8] Canada, Czechoslovakia and Sweden finished with identical records of five wins and two losses. Canada thought they had won the bronze medal based on the goal differential in the three games among the tied countries. When they attended the presentation of the Olympic medals, they were disappointed to learn they had finished in fourth place based on goal differential of all seven games played. The players and CAHA presidentArt Potter accused thatInternational Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) presidentBunny Ahearne, made a last-minute decision to change the rules and take away a medal from Canada.[9]Marshall Johnston summarized the team's feeling that, "The shepherd and his flock had been fleeced".[8][10]
Before the Soviet Union began international competition in 1954, Canada dominated international hockey, winning six out of seven golds at the Olympics and 10 World Championship gold medals. Canada then went 50 years without winning theWinter OlympicGold medal, and from 1962 to 1993, did not win anyWorld Championships. This was in part because Canada's best professional players were unable to attend these events as they had commitments with theirNational Hockey League teams.
Canada was awarded hosting duties of the1970 Ice Hockey World Championships with the limited use of former professionals. The IIHF later reversed the permission afterInternational Olympic Committee presidentAvery Brundage objected to professionals at an amateur event. CAHA presidentEarl Dawson withdrew the national team from international competitions against European hockey teams until Canada was allowed to use its best players.[11]
While boycotting the IIHF, other international competitions were held such as the 1972 Canada–USSRSummit Series and in 1976 the inauguralCanada Cup invitational. Canada returned to the IIHF in 1977 after a series of negotiations between IIHF PresidentGünther Sabetzki and top Canadian and American professional ice hockey officials. As a result, professionals are allowed to compete at the World Championship which was scheduled later in the year to ensure more players are available from among theNHL teams eliminated from theStanley Cup playoffs. In return, a competition for the Canada Cup was to be played every four years on North American territory with the participation of Canada, the United States, and the four strongest European national teams, including professionals.
In 1983, Hockey Canada began the "Program of Excellence", whose purpose was to prepare a team for theWinter Olympics every four years. This new National Team played a full season together all over the world against both national and club teams, and often attracted top NHL prospects. In 1986, theInternational Olympic Committee voted to allow professional athletes to compete in Olympic Games, starting in 1988.[12] Veteran pros with NHL experience and, in a few cases, current NHLers who were holding out in contract disputes joined the team. This program was discontinued in 1998, when the NHL began shutting down to allow its players to compete.
After not winning a gold medal for 33 years, Canada won the1994 World Championship in Italy. Since that time, they have won in 1997, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2023. Canada captured its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years atSalt Lake City 2002. AtVancouver 2010, Canada won the gold medal with a 3–2 win against theUnited States in the final.Sidney Crosby's overtime goal secured Canada the final gold medal awarded at the Games.[13] At the2012 World Championship in Finland and Sweden,Ryan Murray became the first draft eligible prospect to represent Canada at theIce Hockey World Championship.
Canada successfully defended gold atSochi 2014, becoming the first men's team to do so since the Soviet Union in1988, the first to finish the tournament undefeated since1984 and the first to do both with a full NHL participation. Their relentless offensive pressure and stifling defence has earned the2014 squad praise as perhaps the best, most complete Team Canada ever assembled.[14]Drew Doughty andShea Weber led the team in scoring, whileJonathan Toews scored the gold medal-winning goal in the first period of a 3–0 win over Sweden in the final. The architect behind the 2010 and 2014 teams,Steve Yzerman, immediately stepped down as general manager following the win.[15]
Led by general managerJim Nill, head coachTodd McLellan, and the late addition of captainSidney Crosby, Canada won the2015 IIHF World Championship in dominating fashion overRussia, their first win at the Worlds since2007. By winning all 10 of their games in regulation,Hockey Canada was awarded a 1 million Swiss franc bonus prize in the first year of its existence.[16] Canada scored 66 goals in their 10 games and had the top three scorers of the tournament:Jason Spezza,Jordan Eberle andTaylor Hall.Tyler Seguin also led the championship with nine goals. The win secured Canada's return to number one on the IIHF world rankings for the first time since 2010.[17]
At the2021 IIHF World Championship, following a cancelled2020 tournament due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, Canada returned to the competition with a roster weaker than most years, featuring rare inclusions of draft prospects and other non-NHL prospects. The team lost three games in regulation to start the tournament, the first Canadian team in Worlds history to do so,[18] and needed 10 points over the final four round robin games to make the playoff round. Winning the tiebreaker over Kazakhstan, Canada qualified for the playoff round as the lowest seed and managed wins over Russia and the United States before playing Finland for a rematch of the2019 final in thegold medal game.Nick Paul's goal won the game for Canada in overtime, despite the Finns having either led or been tied the entire game, capping off a most unlikely Canadian IIHF men's gold.
List of teams representing Canada from 1920 to 1963
All Olympic ice hockey tournaments between 1920 and 1968 also counted as World Championships.[19] World Championships were not held from 1940 to 1946 duringWorld War II and during the Winter Olympic years of 1980, 1984 or 1988.[19] The2020 tournament was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[39]
On the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series, theIIHF Milestone Award was given to the Canadian and Russian teams for the event which had a "decisive influence on the development of the game".[40]Reuters wrote that Canada was expected to win the series easily, but when they came from behind to win in the eighth and final game, it marked "the beginning of the modern hockey era".[40]
In theSpengler Cup, Team Canada competes against European club teams, such asHC Davos who host the tournament every year inEisstadion Davos. Canada used to be represented by the standing national team at this event, but is now usually made up of Canadians playing in European leagues or theAmerican Hockey League. In2019, Team Canada won its 16th Spengler Cup, passing the host team HC Davos for the most titles. HC Davos is now tied for most wins after winning in2023.
^"Hockey Canada Logo Guidelines"(PDF).HockeyCanada.ca. Hockey Canada. March 27, 2013.Archived(PDF) from the original on April 27, 2018. RetrievedApril 26, 2018.