Ice Hockey Russia Canada

All games are broadcast nationally in canada on sportsnet.

Ice hockey russia canada. The two most successful nations in olympic men s ice hockey history face off at lausanne 2020 on saturday 18 january. Ice hockey in russia is more than just ice hockey. Canada and russia in the forms of the soviet union unified team and olympic athletes from russia at previous games meet in the opening match in group b. During the soviet union period the soviet championship league was the premier ice hockey league.

Russia having cold climate that traditional hockey countries like canada have and the popularity of bandy which is a very similar sport all these combined made hockey a popular sport in russia. As of 2020 they are rated second in the iihf world ranking. Ice hockey was further popularized by canadians introduced to the soviet union in 1932. Superseriya sssr canada known at the time simply as the canada ussr series was an eight game series of ice hockey between the soviet union and canada held in september 1972.

It is the national sport victory in which has always supported the prestige of the state. Hockey became popular in soviet union after second world war before which bandy similar to hockey was more popular winter sport. The team has been competing internationally since 1992 and is recognized by the iihf as the successor to the soviet union team and cis team. The russian team is a member of the so called big six the unofficial group of the six strongest men s ice hockey nations along with canada the czech re.

The event is organized by the canadian hockey league and consists of six games total each year with the russian selects playing two games versus each league s all star team. The summit series or super series in russian суперсерия ссср канада. Surprisingly it didn t take root on russian soil straight away but only at the end of 1940s originally the russians preferred hockey with a ball.