1976 Canada Cup - Teams

Teams

Further information: 1976 Canada Cup rosters

Six teams competed in the 1976 Canada Cup. Canada was favoured to win as they had brought what was argued to be the strongest team in the nation's history to the tournament – 16 of the 21 players on the roster would later be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Seeking its best possible roster, the Canadian team put aside the bitter rivalry between the NHL and WHA, selecting players from both leagues, though overwhelmingly from the NHL. Bobby Orr, plagued by growing knee problems nearly turned down the invitation to play before reconsidering, while goaltender Rogatien Vachon, who was not initially invited to join the team, wound up playing every minute in the Canadian goal.

While the fans hoped for a Canada-Soviet Union final, analysts ranked the Soviets as only the fourth best team entering the tournament. They chose to leave most of its elite players home for reasons that remain unclear. Officially, Soviet officials said many of their players were suffering from fatigue, though goaltender Vladislav Tretiak later claimed the omissions were the result of a power struggle between Olympic coach Boris Kulagin and Canada Cup team coach Viktor Tikhonov and that the former sought to undermine the latter by forcing him to coach a weaker team. The Soviets downplayed the importance of the tournament, stating their true focus was the World Championships and the Winter Olympics. As a result, they sent a much younger, "experimental" team to Canada. Their best forward Valeri Kharlamov also did not play in the series.

The Czechoslovakian team was predicted to face Canada in the final by most experts as they brought the same team that won the 1976 World Championship a few months prior. Their goaltender, Jiří Holeček, was considered the best in the world outside the NHL. Czech coach Karel Gut anticipated his team would emerge to show the world that there was "more to international hockey than Canada and the Soviet Union". Sweden was ranked third entering the tournament and had a large mixture of amateurs and professionals who were playing in the NHL and WHA. The United States and Finland rounded out the tournament and were not expected to be competitive.

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