2016 World Cup of Hockey: Groups, preliminary schedule, playoff format, and how to watch

The World Cup of Hockey is a two-week international hockey tournament that will take place in Toronto, Ontario from September 17 - October 1, 2016. It’s a joint effort between the NHL and the NHLPA, in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

More than 150 NHL players will come together to form eight teams, starting their season early to compete in the best-on-best championship. As with all tournaments, teams will be broken into two groups for the preliminary round:

Group A

• Canada
• Czech Republic
• Europe (with players from several smaller European countries)
• USA/

Group B

• Finland
• North America (Canadian and American players who will be under 24 years of age on October 1)
• Russia
• Sweden/

Each team will play three round-robin games versus each opponent in its group. The top two finishers from Groups A and B will advance to the semi-finals, where the first-place teams will play an elimination game against the second-place team from the opposing group. The winners of the semi-finals will meet in a best-of-three final series.

Unlike most international tournaments, the World Cup of Hockey will follow NHL rules. Games will be played on the NHL-sized ice surface at the Air Canada Centre with full NHL rules. Round-robin overtimes will follow the NHL regular season format (3-on-3 for five minutes followed by a shootout) and elimination-round overtimes will follow the NHL playoff format (20 minute periods of continuous overtime).

The World Cup replaced what was the Canada Cup in 1996, with the tournament taking place seven times since 1976. Team Canada has dominated almost every time - bringing home the gold five times and silver twice. Their stacked roster entering this World Cup, including high-profile head coach Mike Babcock, makes them the team to beat once again.