Left to right: Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Denis Potvin, Bobby Clarke
September 15, 1976: Canada defeats Czechoslovakia, 5-4 at the Montreal Forum, and wins the 1st Canada Cup, taking the Final, 2 games to none. Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs scores the winning goal, 11 minutes and 33 seconds into overtime. Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins, who wanted to sit it out because of his injured knees, but was talked into it with an appeal to patriotism, was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Unless you count the 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union -- in which Orr was too injured to play -- this was the 1st time hockey had had something resembling soccer's World Cup, with the best available players, both professional and amateur, eligible, something that Hockey Canada had been insisting upon.
Hockey Canada also put aside its pro-NHL bias, which led to WHA players like Bobby Hull, Gerry Cheevers and Bernie Parent being kept out of the '72 Summit Series and nearly blowing it for Canada, and included players signed to both leagues.
That was the theory, anyway. In reality, while Cheevers and Parent had both been welcomed back into the NHL, only Cheevers was selected. Parent, having helped the Philadelphia Flyers win back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and '75, had been battling a neck injury in the 1975-76 season, although he did start the regular season in goal in Philadelphia. And the only player actually with a WHA team at the time was Hull, of the Winnipeg Jets.
In the round-robin games, Canada went 4-1, Czechoslovakia 3-1-1, the Soviet Union and Sweden both 2-2-1, the U.S. 1-3-1, and Finland 1-4. In addition to Montreal, games were played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, the Ottawa Civic Centre, the Winnipeg Arena; and one American arena, The Spectrum in Philadelphia (naturally, tying in with the U.S. Bicentennial), hosted 2 games, both of them matches of the U.S. team.
The U.S. team included some familiar names: Rick Chartraw, who was with the Montreal Canadiens team that had just won the 1st of 4 straight Stanley Cups, and Bill Nyrop, the Captain, who won the 1st 3 of those Montreal Cups; Mike Milbury of the Boston Bruins' tough-guy "Lunch Pail Athletic Club"; Lee Fogolin of the Buffalo Sabres; Lou Nanne of the Minnesota North Stars, who would become better known as an executive; Robbie Ftorek of the Phoenix Roadrunners, the Boston area native who had famously become the 1st U.S. high school hockey player on the cover of Sports Illustrated; and Craig Patrick, part of hockey's greatest family, son of Lynn, grandson of Lester, grandnephew of Frank, and also better known as an executive, the GM of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and the Pittsburgh Penguins' 1991 and '92 Stanley Cup winners.
The Soviet team included some '72 Summit Series holdovers, including goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, Captain Alexander Maltsev, and Valeri Vasiliev. But they were in a transition between the team that scared the hockey world in '72 and the one that would dominate the late 1970s and all through the '80s. And none of them played so much as a shift in the NHL, due to travel restrictions imposed by their country.
Also due to Warsaw Pact restrictions, most of the Czech players did not play in the NHL. The brothers Peter and Marián Šťastný played on the Czech team, as their native Slovakia was still part of the country. They, and their younger brother Anton, would play in the NHL, including together with the Quebec Nordiques. There was also Bohuslav Šťastný on the team, but he was not related to them, and was Czech rather than Slovak. František Kaberle played on the Czech team, and his sons František Kaberle Jr. and Tomáš Kaberle played in the NHL. However, despite the shared surname, Jiří Holík was not related to later NHL star Bobby Holik.
The Sweden team included Toronto Maple Leafs stars Börje Salming, and WHA Winnipeg Jets stars Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson and Lars-Erik Sjöberg. Although many players from Finland have done well in the NHL, only 1 member of their 1976 Canada Cup team played in the NHL: Tapio Levo, a defenseman who was with the Colorado Rockies in 1982 when they moved to become the New Jersey Devils.
The tournament is now called the World Cup of Hockey. Canada won the tournament in 1976, 1984, 1987, 1991, 2004 and 2016. The Soviet Union won it in 1981. The U.S. won it in 1996, after losing the Final to Canada in 1991. With 2016, it was set to be held every 4 years, in September, right before the start of the new season. The 2020 edition was canceled due to the COVID epidemic. A bid to merely postpone the 2020 WCOH to 2021, rather than cancel it outright, failed, leaving the concept in limbo.
UPDATE: The 2024 edition was not held, either. Instead, a "4 Nations Face-Off" was held, with Canada beating the U.S. in the Final in Boston on February 20, 2025, after Sweden and Finland had been eliminated. An agreement has been reached to stage a WCOH in 2028.
In 1998, The Hockey News released their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. Sittler was ranked 93rd. His Toronto teammate, Salming, came in at 74th. In 2017, both were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.
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September 15, 1976 was a Wednesday. Dutch actress Carice van Houten, known for her role on Game of Thrones, was born on this day. And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Doyle Alexander pitched a 4-hit shutout. Thurman Munson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Indians manager Frank Robinson, did not put himself into the game. He played his last game 3 days later.
* The New York Mets were swept in a doubleheader by the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-0 and 4-1 at Shea Stadium. John Denny pitched a 4-hit shutout in the opener, outpitching a washed-up Mickey Lolich.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 2-0 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Ray Burris pitched a 4-hit shutout.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Dave Parker went 4-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4 with a walk. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Baltimore Orioles were leading the Detroit Tigers, 1-0 after 6 innings at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, when the game was called due to rain. Andrés Mora had hit a home run. Reggie Jackson, in his only season in Baltimore, went 0-for-3. Wayne Garland had allowed 2 hits, on his way to a 20-win season, and a big free-agent contract with Cleveland. Sadly, he hurt his shoulder in Spring Training, and was never the same pitcher.
* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 4-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Butch Hobson hit a home run. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Hank Aaron, in his last month as an active player, went 0-for-3 with a walk. Robin Yount, on the way up, did the same.
* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Nolan Ryan went the distance for the win, allowing 6 hits and striking out 9. George Brett went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. The A's scored all 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. Rod Carew went 1-for-3.
