Hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. Canada was first represented internationally at the
1910 European Championships by the
Oxford Canadians, a team of Canadians from the University of Oxford. They represented Canada again at the
1912 World Championships. From 1920 until 1963, the senior amateur club teams representing Canada, were usually the most recent
Allan Cup champions. The last amateur club team from Canada to win a gold medal at the World Championship was the
Trail Smoke Eaters in
1961. The responsibility of choosing which team represented Canada belonged to
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) secretary-manager;
George Dudley from 1947 to 1960, and
Gordon Juckes from 1960 to 1963. Following the 1963 World Championships,
Father David Bauer founded the national team as a permanent institution. The new permanent national team first competed in
ice hockey at the 1964 Winter Olympics. His philosophy was to simply win the games against the weaker countries instead of running up the score. Canada, Czechoslovakia and Sweden finished with identical records of five wins and two losses. Canada thought they had won the bronze medal based on the goal differential in the three games among the tied countries. When they attended the presentation of the Olympic medals, they were disappointed to learn they had finished in fourth place based on goal differential of all seven games played. The players and CAHA president
Art Potter accused that
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) president
Bunny Ahearne, made a last-minute decision to change the rules and take away a medal from Canada.
Marshall Johnston summarized the team's feeling that, "The shepherd and his flock had been fleeced". In 1967, the Canada men's national team was divided into western and eastern branches.
Jack Bownass coached the eastern team, which played in the
Quebec Senior Hockey League with
Derek Holmes as its captain, to prepare for the
1968 Winter Olympics. Before the Soviet Union began international competition in 1954, Canada dominated international hockey, winning six out of seven golds at the Olympics and 10 World Championship gold medals. Canada then went 50 years without winning the
Winter Olympic gold medal, and from 1962 to 1993, did not win any World Championships. This was in part because Canada's best professional players were unable to attend these events as they had commitments with their
National Hockey League teams. Canada was awarded hosting duties of the
1970 Ice Hockey World Championships with the limited use of former professionals. The IIHF later reversed the permission after
International Olympic Committee president
Avery Brundage objected to professionals at an amateur event. CAHA president
Earl Dawson withdrew the national team from international competitions against European hockey teams until Canada was allowed to use its best players. While boycotting the IIHF, other international competitions were held such as the 1972 Canada–USSR
Summit Series and in 1976 the inaugural
Canada Cup invitational. Canada returned to the IIHF in 1977 after a series of negotiations between IIHF President
Günther Sabetzki and top Canadian and American professional ice hockey officials. As a result, professionals are allowed to compete at the World Championship which was scheduled later in the year to ensure more players are available from among the
NHL teams eliminated from the
Stanley Cup playoffs. In return, a competition for the Canada Cup was to be played every four years on North American territory with the participation of Canada, the United States, and the four strongest European national teams, including professionals. In 1983, Hockey Canada began the "Program of Excellence", whose purpose was to prepare a team for the
Winter Olympics every four years. This new National Team played a full season together all over the world against both national and club teams, and often attracted top NHL prospects. In 1986, the
International Olympic Committee voted to allow professional athletes to compete in Olympic Games, starting in 1988. Veteran pros with NHL experience and, in a few cases, current NHLers who were holding out in contract disputes joined the team. This program was discontinued in 1998, when the NHL began shutting down to allow its players to compete. After not winning a gold medal for 33 years, Canada won the
1994 World Championship in Italy. Since that time, they have won in 1997, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2023. Canada captured its first Olympic gold medal in 50 years at
Salt Lake City 2002. At
Vancouver 2010, Canada won the gold medal with a 3–2 win against the
United States in the final.
Sidney Crosby's overtime goal secured Canada the final gold medal awarded at the Games. At the
2012 World Championship in Finland and Sweden,
Ryan Murray became the first draft eligible prospect to represent Canada at the
Ice Hockey World Championship. Canada successfully defended gold at
Sochi 2014, becoming the first men's team to do so since the Soviet Union in
1988, the first to finish the tournament undefeated since
1984 and the first to do both with a full NHL participation. Their relentless offensive pressure and stifling defence has earned the
2014 squad praise as perhaps the best, most complete Team Canada ever assembled.
Drew Doughty and
Shea Weber led the team in scoring, while
Jonathan Toews scored the gold medal-winning goal in the first period of a 3–0 win over Sweden in the final. The architect behind the 2010 and 2014 teams,
Steve Yzerman, immediately stepped down as general manager following the win. Led by general manager
Jim Nill, head coach
Todd McLellan, and the late addition of captain
Sidney Crosby, Canada won the
2015 IIHF World Championship in dominating fashion over
Russia, their first win at the Worlds since
2007. By winning all 10 of their games in regulation,
Hockey Canada was awarded a 1 million Swiss franc bonus prize in the first year of its existence. Canada scored 66 goals in their 10 games and had the top three scorers of the tournament:
Jason Spezza,
Jordan Eberle and
Taylor Hall.
Tyler Seguin also led the championship with nine goals. The win secured Canada's return to number one on the IIHF world rankings for the first time since 2010. At the
2021 IIHF World Championship, following a cancelled
2020 tournament due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Canada returned to the competition with a roster weaker than most years, featuring rare inclusions of draft prospects and other non-NHL prospects. The team lost three games in regulation to start the tournament, the first Canadian team in Worlds history to do so, and needed 10 points over the final four round robin games to make the playoff round. Winning the tiebreaker over Kazakhstan, Canada qualified for the playoff round as the lowest seed and managed wins over Russia and the United States before playing Finland for a rematch of the
2019 final in the
gold medal game.
Nick Paul's goal won the game for Canada in overtime, despite the Finns having either led or been tied the entire game, capping off a most unlikely Canadian IIHF men's gold.
List of teams representing Canada from 1920 to 1963 ==Competition achievements==