1991 Canada Cup Story
The 1991 Canada Cup was the last of the tournament in its present guise, which way later to re-emerge as the World Cup of Hockey five years later. The ’91 Cup seemed to lack the glamour of its predecessors as due to the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Although the men from Russia still wore ‘CCCP’ on their chests it was a hockey nation in chaos and looked nothing like the teams that had dominate international hockey during the 1980’s.
The young Soviet team never recovered from an opening loss to Czechoslovakia and missed reaching the semi-finals for the first time. Replacing the main threat from Eastern Europe to Canada’s dominance came from the United States and Finland, ridiculed in previous tournaments for their poor performance.
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