E@zyVG’s Vichar::World Connected

I’d love to see Canada and Russia in the Gold Medal game in Quebec City in the upcoming final game on May 18.

This is both a no-brainer and a very bold prediction. It’s a no-brainer because these two dominant forces of world hockey have assembled great teams for the 2008 World Championship. But it’s also a daring prophesy because Canada and Russia almost never meet in the finals.

There is no Olympic team sport that for so long has been dominated so emphatically as hockey by Canada and the Soviet Union/Russia. Just look at these facts:

• Canada and Soviet Union/Russia have combined for 47 out of 71 possible IIHF World Championship gold medals since 1920. Canada leads with 24, while their greatest rival has 23. This is a combined share of 66 percent.
• The dominance is even greater in Olympic hockey where the two hockey giants together have grabbed 15 out of 21 gold medals (71 percent).
• Combining those two biggest IIHF-organized events, Canada and Soviet Union/Russia have a whopping 62 gold medals between them from 92 opportunities. This amounts to 67 percent of all available gold medals in the history of international hockey thus far.

But despite Canada’s and Soviet Union/Russia’s supremacy in the most exciting game in the world, the countries don’t play each other in the finals very often. Since the IIHF introduced the playoff system with a one-on-one final gold medal game in 1992, the two giants have made it to the tournament-ending game together only once – and that was at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. Russia (then under the impossible name of Commonwealth of Independent States) defeated an Eric Lindros-led Canada 3-1.

Since then, there have been 15 IIHF World Championship gold medal games and another four Olympic finals, but so far there hasn’t been a second occasion for a Canada vs. Russia clash at the summit. One of the reasons is, of course, the relative decline in the eastern power’s hockey program since they stopped appearing in the great CCCP-marked jerseys after 1991.

While the Soviet Union’s Big Red Machine won 22 World Championship titles and seven Olympic gold medals in the 47 years of Soviet hockey’s existence (beginning in 1954), Russia’s record is one World Championship title (1993) and one Olympic gold (the 1992 win in Albertville).

BTW, celebrating the 100 Year Anniversary (wow) of IIHF, the medals will have a retro look, as well as for the first time in the history the teams will also appear in retro jerseys. The following is what Russian Jursey will look like on this championship:

The Soviet Union 1956 Olympic jersey as their retro outfit, winning their first gold medal.

So, if these two great teams will make it to final, who will win the first Canada vs. Russia gold medal matchup in 16 years?

Here is the 2008 IIHF World Championship Schedule:

Notes:

Quarter-finals | May 14, 2008
Quebec City 1E-4E & 2E-3E | Halifax 1F-4F & 2F-3F
If Canada qualifies for quarter-finals, Canada's game will be at 3:30pm et

Semi-finals | May 16, 2008
W/G (1E-4E) - W/G (2F-3F) & W/G (1F-4F) - W/G (2E-3E)
If Canada qualifies for semi-finals, Canada's game will be at 5pm et

Let the games begin ……….

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Ice Hockey, Russia, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.