Eric Brewer - International Play

International Play

Throughout his career, Brewer has represented Canada at various international ice hockey tournaments. He first competed internationally as a member of Team Pacific Canada at the 1995 World U-17 Hockey Challenge in Moncton, New Brunswick. Three years later, he represented Canada as a whole as a member of the national junior team at the 1998 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, where he was named an alternate captain. This was the tournament in which Canada had its worst ever showing, an eighth place finish including a loss to Kazakhstan, giving Brewer an unkind welcome to IIHF international ice hockey. Although eligible for the 1999 edition of the same tournament, Brewer was unable to play due to NHL commitments with the New York Islanders.

Brewer made his debut with the Canadian national men's team on April 24, 2001, when he joined Canada for the 2001 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships in Nuremberg, Cologne, and Hanover, Germany. Later that year, on July 24, 2001, Brewer was invited to the orientation camp for the Canadian team for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Five months later, on December 12, 2001, Brewer was named to the final Canadian roster for the tournament. In the opening game of the tournament against Sweden, Brewer scored Canada's second goal of the game in a 5–2 loss, while in the semi-finals of the tournament, Brewer scored the game-winning goal against Belarus in a 7–1 victory, helping send Canada to the gold medal game against the host United States. Canada would go on to defeat the Americans by a score of 5–2, winning their first Olympic gold medal in fifty years.

Shortly after his Olympic experience, Brewer was named to the Canadian roster for the 2002 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships in Gothenburg, Karlstad and Jönköping, Sweden, his second consecutive Ice Hockey World Championships. He represented Canada once again the following year, when on April 22, 2003, Brewer was named to the Canadian roster for the 2003 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships. In the tournament quarterfinals versus Germany, Brewer scored the game-winning goal 37 seconds into overtime to give Canada a 3–2 victory. Canada would go on to win their first Ice Hockey World Championships gold medal since the 1997 tournament, defeating Sweden 3–2 in overtime in the final. Brewer once again participated for Canada at the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, his fourth consecutive Ice Hockey World Championships, where he helped Canada win its second consecutive championship after defeating Sweden 5–3 in the gold medal game.

On May 15, 2004, Brewer was named to the Canadian roster for the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. In the semifinal of the tournament, Brewer scored Canada's first goal of the game in 4–3 overtime victory against the Czech Republic. Team Canada would go on to win the tournament on home ice in Toronto, defeating Finland 3–2 in the final. Just under one year following his World Cup appearance, Brewer was named to the orientation camp for the Canadian team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy held from August 15–20, 2005, in Vancouver and Kelowna, British Columbia. Following the camp, on October 18, 2005, Brewer was named to the preliminary 81-man Canadian roster for the tournament. However, when the final roster was announced on December 21, 2005, Brewer was not among the 26 players listed. As a result, it would be nearly three years before Brewer would next suit up for his country, when on April 3, 2007, Brewer was among the first five players named to play for Canada at the 2007 IIHF World Championship in Moscow and Mytishchi, Russia. For the tournament, Brewer was named as the team's only permanent alternate captain and helped the team to its third gold medal at the tournament in the past five years.