Japan's National Team

[BigDucky]

I knew they had one, because I remember them playing at Nagano. I was perusing their Wikipedia and saw that they have an impressive 3-34-3 record against team Canada. Does anyone know when and how they beat Canada? Were they playing a drunk, under-5 team?

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[Bismuth]

Cdn. National Team '96-'04

This record is a result of the previous National Team system. Canada used to assemble a travelling National Team (usually of professional and junior cast-offs) that completed an entire season by competing in various tournaments and exhibition series worldwide. While some notable players played for the National Team during contract disputes and other situations (Eric Lindros, Sean Burke, Joe Juneau to name a few), the team was particularly sparse in the late 90s.

Not sending your best possible National Team is going to result in some upsets, especially when lower tier teams can send their best players. I don't believe Japan's team would have played an entire season together, and limited professional obligations means they could usually send their best line-up.

Hockey Canada's website only has data dating back to 1996, but I believe the three instances were:

February 21, 1997
October 11, 1997
February 4, 2004 (Apparently Fukufuji stood on his head)

Canada stopped the season-long National Team program in 2000 and has since improved their international results by sending more talented teams to only the more high-profile tournaments. Unfortunately, the Japanese National Team has gone in the opposite direction.

To be fair to the Canadian Team, they did beat teams like Japan most of the time. Maybe these blips on their record were the results of a few brews?