TORONTO — Never mind 1996 or 1987, or any of the Canada Cups or even the first incarnations of the World of Cup of Hockey. The past, as glorious as it might have been, is the past. Finis. Over and done with.
But the future?
That’s really the story of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the sport’s first best-on-best tournament since the easily forgotten 2004 World Cup, which came on the eve of a lockout.
Historically, this dog-eared tournament has been pulled from the hockey closet only when the league and the players needed to beef up their personal coffers. Now the tournament must prove it deserves a place at hockey’s international table.
If it’s done right, many believe there is a place for such a tournament.
Longtime NHL and international coach Andy Murray, an assistant for Team Canada back in 1996, said he believes the early fall is the perfect time for this kind of tournament. Players are fresh, they love playing for their countries, and there is more preparation time than for the Olympics, driving up the potential for quality hockey.
As a stand-alone event, the World Cup of Hockey doesn’t lack for competitive juices and interest. In part, that’s because of the allure of the Team North America squad made up of players under the age of 24 from Canada and the United States.
Not sure anyone could have anticipated the buzz surrounding this fleet-of-foot, wildly skilled team led by the NHL’s next great savior, Connor McDavid, and assisted by 2016 first overall draft pick Auston Matthews, who played in front of his new hometown fans in Toronto before he dons a Maple Leafs jersey in the regular season.
What began as a gimmick has morphed into a happening, and it will be interesting to see how fans react if they are forced to choose between Team North America and Canada or the United States after the preliminary round.
Despite a rash of injury withdrawals, the tournament boasts a who’s who of hockey’s elite, from Sidney Crosby to Alex Ovechkin to Henrik Lundqvist.
Team USA is a decided underdog, especially given the selection of a team that left a number of high-skill players such as Phil Kessel and Tyler Johnson at home. But the Americans bear watching as they promise to play a highly physical style that they hope will see them erase the disappointment of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
So the product should not be an issue.
But will that ensure a future of World Cups?
More to the point, can this tournament provide the kinds of moments that will become a touchstone for a generation of hockey fans in the way the 1987 World Cup of Hockey earned mythic status in Canada or the 1996 version became a shining moment in U.S. hockey history?
One element that will have a large impact on the World Cup’s role in the future of international hockey is whether this becomes the only best-on-best tournament available to the world’s top players.
With the International Olympic Committee threatening to change the way it funds hockey’s participation in the Olympics starting in 2018, there’s a good chance the NHL’s time at the Winter Games is over. The NHL and the players will not pay out of their own pockets to take part in a tournament that most, if not all, league owners hate for the disruption it brings to the regular-season schedule.
It will be a sad day if the Olympic experiment, which began with the first NHL participation in 1998, is over. Nothing replaces the Olympics. Not even the World Cup of Hockey.
But if the NHL is no longer going to the Olympics, the hunger for this type of international tournament must be satisfied somehow. And we know from the history of the Canada Cup/World Cup of Hockey that this tournament can create indelible memories that span the ages.
However, if the NHL stays in the Olympics, then it adds another element of uncertainty to the World Cup of Hockey. Does it get tossed back into the hockey closet with the glowing pucks and mullets?
And if not, how much is too much?
“The commissioner and his office have done such a sensational job of promoting our sport now with the players’ association, and being partners, and trying to put our game on a different level and expanding it more and more worldwide, so obviously from that point of view, it’s sensational,” Wayne Gretzky said recently.
But the Great One did express one concern.
“I just worry about fatigue,” Gretzky said. “They play so much hockey. And the level of competition now is so high, and the players are so big and strong and fast, I just sometimes go, ‘Wow, are we playing a little bit too much hockey?’ But that’s not for me to say; I’m just talking as a fan.”
Through the tournament’s final, fans will share in the creation of a new chapter of international play. How the chapter ends — well, that’s going to be a fascinating part of this journey.
