1996 World Cup Documentary

[AmericanDream]

Yep, also Russsia missing Bure, Zhamnov, Malakhov, Konstantinov, Mironov, and Zubov.

USA was without Roenick who in terms of importance would be on the same level as Lemieux for Canada. Roenick likely would have been our #1 center and he dropped out in the exhibition games because his contract wasn't going anywhere with Dollar Bill...

Not having Roenick was beyond massive for this team and no Beezer or Barrasso as well who would have been our #2 and #3. If Richter went down, it all would have been in Guy Hebert and Jim Carey for the US. No Kevin Stevens as well who was starting to feel injuries in that year.

Every team had a few top players that did not play.

 

[AmericanDream]

and great documentary by the way, we were just talking about this on the Hawks board.

also a cool note - James Hettfield from Metallica is the narrator for this special

 

[TheGoldenJet]

USA was without Roenick who in terms of importance would be on the same level as Lemieux for Canada. Roenick likely would have been our #1 center and he dropped out in the exhibition games because his contract wasn't going anywhere with Dollar Bill...

Not having Roenick was beyond massive for this team and no Beezer or Barrasso as well who would have been our #2 and #3. If Richter went down, it all would have been in Guy Hebert and Jim Carey for the US. No Kevin Stevens as well who was starting to feel injuries in that year.

Every team had a few top players that did not play.

I don’t underestimate the value of Roenick here, but by the time Russia played USA in the semis, they were missing their best winger, their #2C, and all four of their top 4 D. They were the hardest hit by injuries during the prelims and round robin.

That Russian team with those key guys playing went undefeated in the preliminary round.

 

[JackSlater]

Has this been shown in Canada? I'd like to see it even though the final result is my least favourite in international hockey history.

 

[Zine]

I don’t underestimate the value of Roenick here, but by the time Russia played USA in the semis, they were missing their best winger, their #2C, and all four of their top 4 D. They were the hardest hit by injuries during the prelims and round robin.

That Russian team with those key guys playing went undefeated in the preliminary round.

Injuries were the least of Russia’s problems at the 1996 World Cup.
That team was a disfunctional mess with old-school Boris Mikhailov coaching NHL millionaire superstars.
It shouldn’t be surprising that a lot of those guys refused to play for the national team from that point forward, at least until the Russian ice hockey federation cleaned itself up.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Does anyone have a a video of the documentary, "Orchestrating an Upset’ Documentary on ’96 World Cup"?

Don't want to relive the U.S. utilizing Canadian turncoats to parade around with that ugly trophy.

 

[c9777666]

You would. Especially Game 3. I don't know if you could find a game where a goalie played better. With the stakes as high as they were and Canada was just flying that game, peppering Richter with shots and a ton of high quality ones too. Lots of jaw dropping saves too. Yzerman got robbed blind in the 1st period but the biggest one was Damphousse on a breakaway in the 2nd period. He makes a move where Ricther basically has to turn into a pretzel to save it and he does.

Unreal performance and time has healed a lot of wounds since then for me where I can look at it with a more objective lens.

That was what it boiled down to- Richter came up big and Cujo did not.

So many goalie options and Canada went with a young, kinda sorta unproven netminder?

 

[JackSlater]

So many goalie options and Canada went with a young, kinda sorta unproven netminder?

I don't know if it is as perplexing as Sather calling his own number to coach the team (Bowman dropped out) after having coached 60 games in the previous seven seasons.

 

[The Panther]

I don't know if it is as perplexing as Sather calling his own number to coach the team (Bowman dropped out) after having coached 60 games in the previous seven seasons.

I remember hearing that Sather was going to coach, and thinking, "Wait... What??" He did make several strategic errors. Had a sounder approach been taken, a different outcome would likely have occurred.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Of course Canada probably would have won if they had all their best players there, but since this is a game it is far from a guarantee and Roenick and Barrasso and Beezer would have lessened that chance some. What if Richter would have fumbled at some time in this scenario and Vanbiesbrouck could have come in and played like he did that spring for the Panthers? Are we even sure that Richter would have been their number one with Beezer's Hart finish in 1994 and then that run in 1996? A more technically sound Beezer could have been a good thing to have if the team would have been forced to clog the defensive zone a bit like Florida did.

 

[Brodeur]

Here's a YouTube link in case anybody hadn't seen it.

Bill Guerin did a lengthy podcast last week going over his career and he mentioned how the '96 World Cup was the best tournament he played in. Off the charts skill level plus a level of nastiness that's hard to replicate now. Definitely a fun walk through memory lane. Admittedly I think I was still too new of a hockey fan to truly appreciate what I was watching. For fun, I was trying to reconstruct some of the lines.

Canada
------------
Shanahan-Sakic-Lindros
Damphousse-Gretzky-Linden
Brind'Amour-Yzerman-Fleury
Graves-Messier-C.Lemieux
Primeau

Stevens-Desjardins
Coffey-Foote
Niedermayer-Odelein
Jovanovski-Cote-Blake*

Joseph-Brodeur-Ranford

Russia
--------------
Nemchinov-Fedorov-Mogilny
Kozlov-Larionov-Kovalenko
Zelepukin-Yashin-Kovalev
Berezin-Nikolishin-V.Bure
Zhamnov*-Semak-P.Bure*

Fetisov-Zubov
Malakhov-Yushkevich
Kasparaitis-Tverdovsky
Ulanov-Zhitnik
Gonchar-Karpovtsev

Trefilov-Khabibulin-Shtalenkov

Sweden
---------------
Sundstrom-Sundin-M.Andersson
Alfredsson-Forsberg-Bergqvist
Juhlin-Nylander-Dahlen
A.Johansson-Nilsson-Garpenlov
Holmstrom-N.Andersson-Naslund

C.Johansson-Albelin
Norstrom-Lidstrom
Rohlin-Popovic
R.Johansson-Jonsson

Salo-Soderstrom-Hedberg

USA
---------------
Tkachuk-Modano-Guerin
Weight-LaFontaine-Hull
LeClair-Smolinski-Amonte
Deadmarsh-Otto-Young
McEachern-Konowalchuk-Rolston

Leetch-D.Hatcher
Suter-Chelios
Schneider-K.Hatcher
Housley-Chambers

Richter-Hebert-Carey

----------------

It's funny, I all but assumed Jeremy Roenick was on the team. You can still find '96 World Cup Roenick jerseys on eBay. But he pulled out because he was an unsigned RFA.

The Russians weren't as deep as I had remembered but that was in part due to injuries. Alexei Zhamnov was the 1st line LW early in the tournament but missed the semifinal game against the US. Pavel Bure got hurt early in the tournament as well. Andrei Trefilov was the starter for the semifinal. It seemed like they dressed 7D for the semifinal with Igor Ulanov taking an odd shift at forward.

No right handed D for Sweden was interesting to see. Also was weird seeing Lidstrom wearing #4.

Paul Kariya pulled out with a groin injury before the tournament. Mario Lemieux and Ray Bourque opted for more rest. Perhaps some behind the scenes reasons for Patrick Roy not being included.

 

[Staniowski]

Here's a YouTube link in case anybody hadn't seen it. Definitely a fun walk through memory lane. Admittedly I think I was still too new of a hockey fan to truly appreciate what I was watching. For fun, I was trying to reconstruct some of the lines.

Canada
------------
Shanahan-Sakic-Lindros
Damphousse-Gretzky-Linden
Brind'Amour-Yzerman-Fleury
Graves-Messier-C.Lemieux
Primeau

Stevens-Desjardins
Coffey-Foote
Niedermayer-Odelein
Jovanovski-Cote-Blake*

Joseph-Brodeur-Ranford

Russia
--------------
Nemchinov-Fedorov-Mogilny
Kozlov-Larionov-Kovalenko
Zelepukin-Yashin-Kovalev
Berezin-Nikolishin-V.Bure
Zhamnov*-Semak-P.Bure*

Fetisov-Zubov
Malakhov-Yushkevich
Kasparaitis-Tverdovsky
Ulanov-Zhitnik
Gonchar-Karpovtsev

Trefilov-Khabibulin-Shtalenkov

Sweden
---------------
Sundstrom-Sundin-M.Andersson
Alfredsson-Forsberg-Bergqvist
Juhlin-Nylander-Dahlen
A.Johansson-Nilsson-Garpenlov
Holmstrom-N.Andersson-Naslund

C.Johansson-Albelin
Norstrom-Lidstrom
Rohlin-Popovic
R.Johansson-Jonsson

Salo-Soderstrom-Hedberg

USA
---------------
Tkachuk-Modano-Guerin
Weight-LaFontaine-Hull
LeClair-Smolinski-Amonte
Deadmarsh-Otto-Young
McEachern-Konowalchuk-Rolston

Leetch-D.Hatcher
Suter-Chelios
Schneider-K.Hatcher
Housley-Chambers

Richter-Hebert-Carey

----------------

It's funny, I all but assumed Jeremy Roenick was on the team. You can still find '96 World Cup Roenick jerseys on eBay. But he pulled out because he was an unsigned RFA.

The Russians weren't as deep as I had remembered but that was in part due to injuries. Alexei Zhamnov was the 1st line LW early in the tournament but missed the semifinal game against the US. Pavel Bure got hurt early in the tournament as well. Andrei Trefilov was the starter for the semifinal. It seemed like they dressed 7D for the semifinal with Igor Ulanov taking an odd shift at forward.

No right handed D for Sweden was interesting to see. Also was weird seeing Lidstrom wearing #4.

Paul Kariya pulled out with a groin injury before the tournament. Mario Lemieux and Ray Bourque opted for more rest. Perhaps some behind the scenes reasons for Patrick Roy not being included.

And MacInnis wanted to play, but he had some type of flu.

They practically begged Bourque to play, but he said no.

 

[Brodeur]

And MacInnis wanted to play, but he had some type of flu.

They practically begged Bourque to play, but he said no.

I completely forgot about MacInnis. Found this link which also casually mentions Ron Francis being dropped for Sylvain Cote: Team USA's Hopes Rest With Defense

Canada Coach Glen Sather replaced the injured Al MacInnis with Ed Jovanovski of Florida and dropped Pittsburgh center Ron Francis for Washington defenseman Sylvain Cote.

Forward Brendan Shanahan was suspended Friday for Canada’s next game for breaking Alexander Semak’s right cheek with his stick in a victory over Russia.

 

[Theokritos]

I completely forgot about MacInnis. Found this link which also casually mentions Ron Francis being dropped for Sylvain Cote: Team USA's Hopes Rest With Defense

I think Francis got hurt in training camp and decided to go home.

 

[Staniowski]

Canada also tried to get Pronger. I think it was at the last minute, because they had a bunch of injuries, etc. I'm not sure if he said no, or what.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Wow! Thank you @Brodeur !

if anyone else is interested (or wants to join in this collaborative effort), we have a thread going with different documentaries, NHL, and international hockey videos on this forum. Definitely saved me a boring day during COVID:

Youtube link Compilation of Hockey Documentaries, Stanley Cup VHS/DVD’s & others

 

[Big Phil]

I miss this sort of hockey. The teams hated each other. You could see how badly the USA wanted to beat Canada. And Canada had the players on their team that were capable of physical play.

 

[Voight]

Team Canada did kinda choke there. The final game was a toss-up, but some poor coaching by Sather (why was he there to begin with?) and some timely plays by Hull and others made the US deservedly win.

Yeah, Bourque and Lemieux... I mean, Bourque was starting to get up there and Mario had had injuries and so on... It struck me as odd that Mario wasn't arsed in 1996 but then he was so eager in 2002.

Anyway, full marks to the US for that win.

I guess cause 2002 was the beginning of the end for him and he knew there was a very good chance it would be his last shot at a Gold Medal. He had also only ever played in one best on best tournament.

 

[JackSlater]

Lemieux came across very different after his 2001 comeback. More magnanimous and like a leader. I do wonder however if part of the difference between 1996 and 2002 for him, not that he could admit it publicly, was the chance to do something for once that Gretzky didn't do.

 

[Sentinel]

Watching it now. Pretty good!

 

[KillerMillerTime]

If Lemieux was there would have been a different story for Canada. Twice while Lemieux was the best player in the world 91, 96 he didn’t participate in the Canada cup.

That's life pal, get over it. If the US had Canada's climate, Canada would never win a Gold Medal so get over it.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Was goaltending considered a shaky spot for Team Canada throughout the tourney? Cujo had not yet reached his prime and there were a LOT of other options.

Shows you how pedestrian Canada's tending is currently after an aging Price.