Read More About International Hockey
Though Canada was the birthplace of hockey, the sport has since crossed over into the United States and Europe. There are many differences in the three regions attitudes, however; the international men’s ice hockey world championships are looked forward to in Europe and less so in America because it coincides with the Stanley cup playoffs. The draw of the Stanley cup trophy takes away many of the best players; countries with a large NHL concentration see their best players go off to play for the Stanley cup trophy.
World championships are not a show case for top players today, despite the fact that for many ears, professionals were barred from playing at the international level; this is no longer the case and many Europeans play internationally as well. Hockey has been a major Olympic sport since 1924 and its country of origin, Canada, took home gold medal 6 out of 7 times that year. The latter years of the twentieth-century saw professionals from American, Sweden, Finland, and Canada banned from participating in the Olympics; in 1960 the United States won the gold medal, but Russia won all but two gold medals from the years 1956 to 1988. U.S.Non-pro College students went on to beat the Russians and win the gold medal in 1980 in Lake Placid, New York.
These were the years that the sport began experiencing a revival of popularity; though most Americans weren’t paying much attention to the sport at the time. Canada and Russia were hockey enemies; this was solidified in the 1972 and 1974 Summit series. The best players benefited from this, as it gave rise to the Canadian Cup, which only deals with the world’s best players. Eventually the name was changed from the Canadian Cup to the World Cup of Hockey and the United States won in 1996 and Canada in 2004. In 1998, the Olympics decided to allow NHL professionals to compete in their games; as a result, many of the top players were permitted to play in an area with other top players. Also in 1998, the women’s game premiered in the Olympics; there have been nine women’s competitions since.
Women usually compete just as hard as males in this sport and are really coming into their own. Although they still have a way to go in terms of really being there with males at the domestic and international levels. Historically, men have been the players in the game, and women will have a tough fight ahead of them if they want to be considered serious contenders. Attendance records are regularly smashed by the millions of loyal fans in the U.S.A and Canada alone who love this sport. The love of this sport reaches the “pastime” level of game attendance, prompting the kind of devotion that many Americans put towards football, basketball, and baseball.
Hockey to some people is like poetry on ice it’s got its own set of rules and it’s a separate world altogether from any other sport whether it’s professional or not. Soap opera fans have nothing on fans of this sport; people worship it like the air they breathe. For some, spending 2 to 3 hours late at night on the ice is perfectly normal.
