Most entertaining best on best international tournament since 1996?

[Matty Sundin]

Top choice for me is 2010

For least entertaining I didn’t care much about 2004 other then maybe the Canada vs Czech game.

Click to read more...

 

[DrunkTurtle]

1996 World Cup no contest

Just a wild super physical war. Best on best has never been as violent since and probably never will be.

 

[Voight]

2006 was pretty crazy between the allegations of the Swedes throwing a game to Switzerland upsetting Canada.

 

[NyQuil]

2002.

You had Canada winning after looking pretty shaky in the round robin.

You had Sweden losing to Belarus.

 

[Czechboy]

1998 AINEC.lol

Roy vs Hasek
Gretzky, Bure, Fedorov, Selanne,
US smashing hotel rooms
100th anniversary
Beyond stacked rosters
The good guys won

 

[NyQuil]

1998 AINEC.lol

Roy vs Hasek
Gretzky, Bure, Fedorov, Selanne,
US smashing hotel rooms
100th anniversary
Beyond stacked rosters
The good guys won

It was pretty rough getting up at like 4:00 AM to watch the games.

I have pretty vague memories of that tournament.

 

[Miro4Norris]

Have only seen 2014, 2016 and 2025. I think i prefer four nations although everything has something i liked.

2014 Finland’s wins over USA and Russia and OT cd Can

2016 Crosby dominance

2025 Best games

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Coin flip between 02 and 10. Went with 10.

 

[Czechboy]

It was pretty rough getting up at like 4:00 AM to watch the games.

I have pretty vague memories of that tournament.

One flaw of the best on best Olympics is when we get in to far away time zones. I lose so much sleep.lol

Last year the Youth Olympic Games had a tremendous feed and Czechs were very good (Katolicky and Kachlir) and those games were at 2 and 4am.

 

[bobholly39]

I voted 2010.

But I'm Canadian, so that definitely helps...not only that we won, but that our best, generational golden boy like Crosby scored the OT winner, on Canadian soil with all the extra hype of Olympics being at home....so yeah, it helps.

It was also a great tournament though from an entertainment and hockey quality standpoint, so it might objectively be the right answer too.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

2010 and then 2016

 

[TimeZone]

2010 for me quite easily, that tournament was absolutely loaded with talent

 

[the valiant effort]

Remember when Ovechkin sat slo-mo Jagr down on his ass in 2010?

“Welp, that’s the last we’ll ever see of Jags! So long, friend.”

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

1996 for me.

Stacked rosters.
So many Hall of Famers.

Final was best of 3.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

2002 . Sakic had the most satisfying performance by a forward Ive seen in an international tournament.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

First of all, 4 Nations Crap isn't best on best.

I would have to go with the 2004 WC, because we knew it was going to be the only hockey we would be seeing for a while.

 

[Coffee]

Sochi 2014

 

[tarheelhockey]

More than anything, 1996 was just an incredible group of players.

It speaks to how much talent was not just in the NHL, but in the sweet spot of their careers where the talent could really shine.

(and on top of all this, in a perfect world we’d have seen Lemieux, Bourque, Hasek, Bure…)

USA
Tony Amonte - 25
Bill Guerin - 25
Brett Hull - 31
Pat LaFontaine - 30
John Leclair - 26
Mike Modano - 25
Keith Tkachuk - 23
Doug Weight - 25

Chris Chelios - 34
Derian Hatcher - 23
Kevin Hatcher - 29
Phil Housley - 31
Brian Leetch - 27
Gary Suter - 31

Mike Richter - 29

Canada
Rod Brind’amour - 25
Vincent Damphousse - 28
Theo Fleury - 27
Adam Graves - 27
Wayne Gretzky - 35
Claude Lemieux - 30
Trevor Linden - 25
Eric Lindros - 22
Mark Messier - 35
Keith Primeau - 24
Joe Sakic - 26
Brendan Shanahan - 27
Pat Verbeek - 31
Steve Yzerman - 30

Rob Blake - 26
Paul Coffey - 34
Eric Desjardins - 26
Adam Foote - 24
Scott Niedermayer - 22
Scott Stevens - 31

Martin Brodeur - 23
Curtis Joseph - 28

Russia
Sergei Fedorov - 26
Alex Kovalev - 22
Slava Kozlov - 23
Igor Larionov - 35
Alex Mogilny - 26
Alexei Yashin - 22
Alexei Zhamnov - 25

Slava Fetisov - 37
Sergei Gonchar - 21
Darius Kasparitis - 23
Sergei Zubov - 25

Nikolai Khabibulin - 23

Sweden
Daniel Alfredsson - 23
Peter Forsberg - 22
Tomas Holmstrom - 23
Markus Naslund - 22
Mats Sundin - 24

Nicklas Lidstrom - 25

Finland
Sami Kapanen - 22
Saku Koivu - 21
Jari Kurri - 35
Jere Lehtinen - 22
Teemu Selanne - 25

Teppo Numminen - 27

Czech Republic
Bobby Holik - 25
Jaromir Jagr - 23
Robert Lang - 25
Petr Nedved - 24
Martin Straka - 23
Petr Sykora - 19

Roman Hamrlik - 21

Slovakia
Peter Bondra - 27
Pavol Demitra - 21
Ziggy Palffy - 23
Miroslav Satan - 21

Germany
Olaf Kolzig - 25

 

[Puckstop40]

2010 gold medal game is one of the greatest hockey games of all time.

 

[LevelingSolo]

You remember where you were at that exact moment in the 2010 gold medal game

 

[vancityluongo]

Coin flip between 02 and 10. Went with 10.

yup, exactly

2010 *felt* a lot bigger, but that might be personal based on age at the time

 

[Maestro84]

2010 imo. Several teams were stacked enough to look like they could actually win gold and obviously the gold medal game is now part of hockey lore

 

[ViD]

The 2010 quarterfinals loss probably scarred more than others