The 2016 World Cup of Hockey (abbreviated WCH2016) was an international ice hockey tournament.[1] It was the third installment of the National Hockey League (NHL)-sanctioned competition, 12 years after the second World Cup of Hockey in 2004. It was held from September 17 to September 29 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Canada won the championship, defeating Team Europe in the best-of-three final.
The national anthem for each team playing was played before the start of each game. However, there were two exceptions: no anthem was played for Team Europe because of the team's multiple national representatives, while both "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada" were played before games Team North America played.[3] Team Europe players wore badges with their respective nations' flags on their jerseys.[4]
Each team's roster was limited to twenty skaters (forwards and defencemen) and three goaltenders. All eight participating teams submitted their initial roster of sixteen players on March 2, 2016.
Jerseys
Each one of the national teams' players wore a customized jersey manufactured by Adidas.[5]
Jerseys
Group A
Czech Republic
Canada
USA
Team Europe
Group B
Finland
Russia
Sweden
Team North America
Venue
In contrast to previous World Cups, all contests in the 2016 World Cup were held at the same site.
In Canada, Rogers Communications held broadcast rights to the tournament; the tournament was aired by Sportsnet in English and TVA Sports in French. Similarly to its sub-licensing agreement for Hockey Night in Canada, the semi-finals and finals were simulcast by CBC Television.[7][8] Although it was initially reported that Rogers was allowed to match competing bids for the rights (such as by Bell Media and ESPN's TSN) per its holding of exclusive national media rights to the NHL in Canada, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman denied that there was such a rule, and that the bidding process was "competitive".[9]
In the United States, the tournament was broadcast by ESPN and ESPN Deportes in English and Spanish, respectively; NBC Sports, the national rightsholder of the NHL in the United States, passed on the tournament due to scheduling conflicts with various events being broadcast by its networks in that period of time.[9][10]
The broadcasts incorporated the use of technology by British firm Supponor to allow for the digital replacement of advertising on the rink boards on selected camera shots. These allowed a single advertiser at a time to brand the entire board, localization of advertising in different media markets, and other customized graphics to be substituted onto the boards. Advertisements are replaced when cameras shots are switched to minimize distractions.[11]
Officials
The NHL selected seven of their referees and seven linesmen to officiate the tournament.[12]
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