NHL – World Cup With Finland and Russia

VIDEO: Watch Finland and Russia’s Showdown in 2011. Awesome Video Below..

The Russian men’s national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team of Russia, overseen by the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia. As of May 2015, they are rated second in the IIHF World Rankings; with 3675 points.

Eight teams — Team Canada, Team Czech Republic, Team Finland, Team Russia, Team Sweden, Team USA, Team Europe and Team North America — will compete in the two-week tournament, featuring more than 150 of the best players in the NHL. All tournament games will be played at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, home of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs.

In the 2006 Winter Olympics, Finland won a Silver medal, coming close to winning in the final but losing 3–2 to the Swedish national team. Finland’s goaltender Antero Niittymäki was named the MVP of the tournament (only 8 goals against in the whole tournament) and Teemu Selänne was voted best forward. The format was changed from the 1998 and 2002 tournaments, to a format similar to the 1992 and 1994 tournaments. The number of teams was reduced from 14 to 12. The 12 teams were split into two groups in the preliminary stage, which followed a round robin format. Each team played the other teams in their group once. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

In recent years, Finland has been consistently ranked among the best teams in international hockey. Currently the team is ranked 2nd with 3345 points in the IIHF World Ranking.

All eight teams competing in the World Cup of Hockey 2016 are announcing their rosters of at least 16 players today.

Each of the eight teams will have a tournament roster of 23 players: 20 skaters and three goaltenders. The balance of each team’s roster will be announced no later than June 1, 2016.

The World Cup of Hockey 2016 is a joint effort of the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association, in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The eight teams are split into two Groups, Group A and Group B, for the Preliminary Round (Sept. 17-22), when each team will play its three Group opponents in a round-robin format. Placed in Group A are Team Canada, Team Czech Republic and Team USA, plus Team Europe, a pan-European roster of players from birth countries outside of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/14883244/nhl-morning-3-3-world-cup-hockey-hype-gearing-up