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What is the biggest international rivalry in Ice Hockey?

Leafs_Fan asked:


It’s gotta be Canada vs USSR, which, traditionally, are the two best hockey-playing countries. The number of gold medals each of these two nations has won speaks for itself. However, since the fall of Communism has hurt Russian hockey, I’d say the two best countries are now Canada and the Czech Republic.

Nowadays, the biggest rivalry might be even be between Sweden and Finland.
I think USA vs Russia might be big from the American standpoint, but not on an international level … and that rivalry only came about during the 1980 Winter Olympics and then quickly dafed into oblivion.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “What is the biggest international rivalry in Ice Hockey?”

  1. ruussia vs usa

  2. Russia vs. USA

  3. Canada and Russia. Seriously, it seems like they’re always facing off in either the semifinals or the finals in international tourneys.

  4. Canada vs. USA they hold the most positions in the NHL and they are the only 2 north american hockey teams

  5. two_eighty_eight on January 9th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Canada/Russia has died down along with the Soviet Union. It hasn’t been the same as something like say, the Summit Series. Canada/USA started picking up after ‘98 Olympics. But, yeah, Sweden/Finland is one of the bigger rivalries now. Who knew Scandinavians can be so violent?

  6. Canada v. Russia

    Believe me, neither of those teams get up for anyone else like they do each other.

    The USA - Canada rivalry is developing, but it’s nothing like Canada - Russia.

  7. It will always be Canada/Russia. The summit series and the world juniors are proof of that.

  8. Czech Republic and Russia. There is a lot of bad blood between them because of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Czech/Soviet games used to be some of the dirtiest international hockey in the 70’s and 80’s.

  9. Da Da Canada..Nyet Nyet Soviet…Just check out the last few years of World Jr. They will all face each other next Olympics, future World Cups etc. The tradition will continue..

  10. hockeykicksass2009 on January 18th, 2009 at 11:55 am

    canada v. russia

  11. How big of an ego must you have when it is the USA vs. The World!

  12. Ask any Swede or Finn.
    Sweden and Finland of course

  13. Actually you clearly don’t understand what a Rivalry is in my view. As to the USA vs Russia, that never really happened it was USA vs USSR. It was about the Cold War and about Democracy vs Communism. As to one of the biggest Rivalries I would say the Czech Republic vs Russia. The Czech Republic still holds the invasion of Czechoslovika against Russia. See to me a REAL rivalry isn’t based simply on who wins, it is based on the history as to why the two have something against each other.

  14. USA CANADA the last few years

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