The Ice Hockey World Championship is one of the most interesting and spectacular game sports – ice hockey – has long and firmly gained support and recognition around the world. Well, the brightest and most popular event in the world of ice hockey is undoubtedly the Ice Hockey World Championship. Millions of fans are looking forward to this great event to wholeheartedly and passionately cheer for their favorite team.
Since 1977, when NHL players became full-fledged participants of World Hockey Championships, almost all legendary players of different generations have participated in these tournaments. Surprisingly, not one of the two biggest stars in world hockey history — Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux — has a World Championship gold medal to his credit.
Both great Canadians have only participated in World Championships once each. Wayne Gretzky played in 1982, when the main part of the tournament was held at the same Jaahalli Palace in Helsinki, where the games of the upcoming World Cup 2022 will be held. He was the tournament’s top scorer with 14 points (6 goals + 8 assists) in 10 games, but Canada finished only third at the tournament. The USSR team won all 10 games (including twice against Canada), while the Canadians managed to tie even with Italy (3:3). And it was this unexpected result, as it turned out later, that deprived Gretzky’s team even of second place, which was taken by Czechoslovakian hockey players.
Mario Lemieux took part in the 1985 World Championship, held in Prague, and was the silver medalist. The Canadians had a very uneven preliminary round, suffering two defeats in seven games (including a devastating 1-9 loss to the USSR) and one draw. In the Final Four they took revenge on the Soviet national team – 3:1, and it was Lemieux who scored two goals in that game. However, defeat in the decisive game against Czechoslovakia (3:5) did not let the Canadians win the gold medal, which went to the home team. Mario Lemieux had 10 points (4+6) in his only World Cup appearance.
Seven other players from the top 10 snipers in NHL history have played in World Championships in different years. Marcel Dionne was an iconic figure in the early years of the Canadian National Team’s performance in these tournaments. Currently ranked sixth on the NHL all-time snipers list, Dionne spent most of his career with Los Angeles, which wasn’t making much progress in those years. He was a regular visitor to Europe for the World Championships, where he won bronze three times – in Czechoslovakia in 1978, Germany in 1983 and Moscow in 1986.
Jaromir Jágr took part in ten world championships and won two gold medals for the Czech national team
Jaromir Jagr participated in ten world championships and won two gold medals for the Czech Republic.
Photo © 2015 Getty Images
Three more legendary Canadian players from the NHL’s all-time top 10 snipers were left without World Championship gold. Mark Messier has only bronze from the 1989 tournament in Sweden, Mike Gartner has two bronze medals (Finland 1982 and Germany 1983) and Steve Eiserman has two silver medals (Czechoslovakia 1985 and Sweden 1989).
The accomplishments of the other three countries on the list of the league’s top snipers at world championships were determined by the strength of their national teams. Brett Hull took only sixth place with the USA team at his only World Championship in Moscow in 1986. Russian Alexander Ovechkin and Czech Jaromir Jagr have five gold medals at the World Championships: Ovechkin won tournaments in Canada in 2008, in Finland and Sweden in 2012 and in Belarus in 2014; Jagr won in Austria in 2005 and in Germany in 2010. In addition, these two NHL stars hold the record for most World Cups appearances: Ovechkin made 13 appearances (from 2004 to 2019) and Jagr made 10 (from 1990 to 2015).
Much more successful than the legends of the past has been the history of World Cup appearances by arguably two of the protagonists of modern Canadian hockey. Sidney Crosby played in two such tournaments. He made his debut in a tournament in Latvia in 2006 at the age of 18 and scored 16 points (8+8) in nine games. Team Canada finished only fourth in the tournament, but nine years later, in Prague in 2015, Crosby led his team to victory in the World Championship as captain.
Connor McDavid, this season’s NHL regular-season top scorer, has also played in World Championships twice: in Russia 2016 he won gold with Team Canada, but in Denmark 2018 he was left without a medal (fourth place). Anyway, unlike their great predecessors, Canada’s two main reigning hockey stars already have a gold medal each at world championships.
The bottom line is that even with all the problems with the coincidence of World Cup and Stanley Cup dates between 1977 and today, virtually all the major figures in world hockey have won at least once each,