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Hockey legends describe the fierce USA-Canada rivalry 20 years after the '96 World Cup
The World Cup of Hockey will officially kick off this weekend in Toronto after a 12-year absence and 20 years since it's inaugural event. The original 1996 tournament, which saw the United States knock off a heavily-favored Team Canada in an intense final, will be revisited in a documentary from NHL Network titled Orchestrating An Upset: The 1996 World Cup of Hockey on Wednesday night.
The documentary features commentary from some of the game's biggest North America stars from that era -- including American standouts Tony Amonte, Bill Guerin, Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Mike Richter, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. On the Canadian side, Theo Fleury and Hall of Famers Eric Lindros, Mark Messier, Scott Stevens and Steve Yzerman are featured. Contributions from Lou Lamoriello, Ron Wilson, Doc Emrick, Don Cherry are also included.
The hour-long documentary explores the approach that Lamoriello took when building the 1996 USA squad with the hopes that they could take down Team Canada, which was widely considered one of the best hockey teams ever assembled. It featured the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Lindros, Messier, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Stevens, Yzerman and plenty other talented forwards just up front. So, yeah, it was an incredible roster.
But the most interesting aspect of the special is just how nasty things got on the ice between the two teams. Even though the United States hadn't won anything noteworthy at the international level since the 1980 Olympics, the rivalry between the Americans and Canadians at 1996 World Cup brought all the bitter intensity and fierce competition that you could ever hope for on the ice.
These guys played together -- some of them even teammates -- in the NHL, yet they were at each other's throats from the preliminary round to the three-game final, which the United States ultimately won two-games-to-one in dramatic fashion.
If you're a hockey fan, the documentary -- airing at 10 PM (EST) on NHL Network -- is well worth your time. Check it out if only to see how old all these dudes look nowadays and feel bad about how much time has passed since you last saw them on ice. (Spoiler alert: Most of them look really old.) Ideally, though, the fantastic doc should help you get excited for the revitalized World Cup of Hockey.
The United States and Canada traded wins in their home-and-home exhibition series this week but, maybe more interestingly, they also traded very physical, intense play in a couple of meaningless games. Will they share as much bad blood as the 1996 teams did? Probably not, but the fact that it's even a possibility makes this year's event worth checking out.
