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World Cup of Hockey
Sept. 17 – Oct. 1, 2016
Air Canada Centre – Toronto, ON
ESPN Networks (US), SN/CBC/TVA Networks (Canada)
The Carolina Hurricanes may not be the most popular guests on the invitee list, but fans should still find plenty of entertainment as some of hockey's best demonstrate their skill and national/continental pride when tournament games begin Saturday for the World Cup of Hockey.
The Canes will be represented by two players who have yet to play a game in their system. Sebastian Aho may be coming into training camp as a rookie, but he'll be sharing top line responsibilities with Aleksander Barkov and Patrik Laine for Team Finland after sitting out the first two exhibition games. Unfortunately, his spot in the line-up appears to have pushed out the only other Canes player, newly-acquired Teuvo Teravainen, as he will enter the first game of the tournament as a healthy scratch.
Canes head coach Bill Peters will be assisting alongside friend and mentor Mike Babcock behind the bench for heavily-favored Team Canada.
The two-week tournament begins with round-robin games tomorrow. The top finishers from that play will advance to elimination games beginning on Sept. 24 and finish with a best-of-three series for the finals on Sept. 27 through Oct. 1. All games will be broadcast across the ESPN network of stations and streamed on the WatchESPN app.
2016 World Cup of Hockey Schedule
All Times Eastern
Group A
Team Canada
Team Czech Republic
Team Europe
Team USA
Group B
Team Finland
Team North America
Team Russia
Team Sweden
Preliminary Round
(round robin) (away team listed first)
Saturday, Sept. 17
- Team USA vs. Team Europe, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports
- Team Czech Republic vs. Team Canada, 8 p.m., ESPNEWS, SN, TVA Sports
Sunday, Sept. 18
- Team Sweden vs. Team Russia, 3 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
- Team North America vs. Team Finland, 8 p.m., ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports
Monday, Sept. 19
- Team Europe vs. Team Czech Republic, 3 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
- Team Russia vs. Team North America, 8 p.m., ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports
Tuesday, Sept. 20
- Team Finland vs. Team Sweden, 3 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
- Team Canada vs. Team USA, 8 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
Wednesday, Sept. 21
- Team North America vs. Team Sweden, 3 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
- Team Europe vs. Team Canada, 8 p.m., ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports
Thursday, Sept. 22
- Team Finland vs. Team Russia, 3 p.m., ESPN, SN, TVA Sports
- Team USA vs. Team Czech Republic, 8 p.m., ESPN2, SN, TVA Sports
Semifinals (single elimination; A1 vs. B2, B1 vs. A2)
Saturday, Sept. 24
- Semifinal 1, 7 p.m., ESPN2, CBC, TVA Sports
Sunday, Sept. 25
- Semifinal 2, 1 p.m., ESPN, CBC, TVA Sports
Final (best-of-three)
Tuesday, Sept. 27
- Final Game 1, 8 p.m., ESPN, CBC, TVA Sports
Thursday, Sept. 29
- Final Game 2, 8 p.m., ESPN2, CBC, TVA, TVA Sports
Saturday, Oct. 1
- Final Game 3, 7 p.m. (if necessary), ESPN2, CBC, TVA, TVA Sports
Frank Seravalli (TSN) has written a nice preview of each team.
Who are you rooting for? Please feel free to use this as a discussion/open game thread over the next few days and stay tuned for updates along the way.
[Editorial note: To keep folks from having to scroll for days on mobile devices, final rosters for each team are posted in the comments, which can be collapsed]