This is the story of the memorable first World Cup of Hockey, as told by people influential in the hockey world. Those tournaments had produced some of the greatest hockey ever, but through its five incarnations no American team had ever managed to break through against Canada and come home a winner. But until that point, the Canada Cups represented the grandest stage for the sport. In 1998, less than two years after the first World Cup, the NHL would send players to the Olympics for the first time, and the face of best-on-best hockey would change forever. Subsequent tournaments took place in 1981, 1984, 19. The first Canada Cup, held in 1976, was notable for Bobby Orr's gritty performance for Team Canada as his NHL career neared its premature conclusion. The World Cup was a direct descendant of the wildly successful Canada Cup - an international hockey tournament in which the best players from all nations, pro and amateur alike, could compete against one another - which had been the brainchild of former players' union head Alan Eagleson. 1 in Toronto, we revisited one of the seminal moments in American hockey history. So with a new, revamped World Cup of Hockey set to unfold Sept. Hockey Hall of Fame in November as part of its 2016 class. Twenty years later, Team USA - victors in that unforgettable 1996 tournament - will be enshrined in the U.S.

The inaugural World Cup of Hockey began with the expectation of yet another Canadian triumph by a collection of some of the greatest players ever to take the ice and ended with an unexpected celebration by a band of upstart young Americans that included a dislocated jaw for future Hall of Famer Mike Modano and a raucous celebration at a Greek restaurant in Montreal while the host nation mourned. 'They had a swagger to them:' An oral history of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey

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