Welcoming Back the World Cup of Hockey

If negotiations between the NHLPA and the league's owners progress as predicted in the coming weeks and months, it looks as if the World Cup of Hockey, a tournament consigned to oblivion for the past few years, will be back on the NHL schedule beginning in 2011. If you're an NHL fan, you've got reason to be excited.

If I'm a fan of the tournament, it's because I've been sold based on personal experience. Back in 1996 I dragged two friends to Philadelphia to watch the opening game of the tournament between Team Canada and Team USA. What we got was an electric atmosphere and a game to match, as the Americans held off Canada by a score of 5-3. One of the highlights of the night: Claude Lemieux and Keith Tkachuk dropped the gloves just seconds after the opening faceoff.

The rest of the tournament provided plenty of exciting hockey as well. The best game nobody ever saw was probably the double overtime semifinal between Canada and Sweden that took place in Philadelphia -- a game Mats Sundin almost won by himself, but was ended by Theo Fleury at 19:47 of the second overtime period giving Canada a 3-2 victory. It was the longest game in international hockey history.

As it would turn out, the final would match the Americans and the Canadians again in a best of three playoff. After losing the opener in Philadelphia to Canada 4-3 in overtime, the Americans marched into the Bell Centre in Montreal and won the next two games by identical 5-2 scores to take the title -- mostly thanks to Team USA goalie Mike Richter's best performance in net since the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

If you want to know why NHL players participate in the Winter Olympics, look no further than the inaugural World Cup of Hockey. Like it or not, Canada was shamed by the loss in the final, and that shame provided all the impetus the nation's hockey establishment needed to set out to re-establish Canada's place at the top of the hockey world.

I got to see just how determined Canada was when I went to Montreal in 2004 for the second edition of the World Cup. On that trip, Team Canada defeated the Americans 4-1 in front of a highly partisan crowd, but one that was more than happy to allow me and a friend display our American flag with pride after Team USA's only goal that night.

It's hard to describe just how well Team Canada played in a game that Team USA was never really in to begin with. And ultimately, that's one of the reasons why you want to see the World Cup in person -- it's to have the chance to watch the very best players in the world show what they can do when they have some time to get to know one another and work together as a real team.

So, to the NHLPA and the league's owners, let me issue a conditional thanks for reviving something special. I've got just one request: can we change the name back to the Canada Cup?

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.