Hockey is unlike most other American sports in that international competition (i.e. players playing for their respective countries) is highly regarded and players annually take part in tournaments that pits country against country. In fact, every four years when the Winter Olympics take place, the NHL and other leagues around the world stop playing for two weeks to allow their players to play for their countries.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the overall governing body of international ice hockey. They not only set up tournaments and country rankings, but they are in charge of transfer agreements between leagues and drug testing for the players.
The five hockey powers in the world are generally considered Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, and the United States. Canada and Russia are considered the best of the five, with Canada's crazy amount of depth and Russia's amazing high-end talent on its top two lines. Sweden and Finland are slightly below those two, having good players that all play into a system, but aren't world class. The United States brings up the rear, as their hockey talent skipped a generation between the Modano/Roenick era and the current one, and most of their good players are under 25.
Canada and the United States are by far the two best countries in terms of women's hockey, in that there is no question which two countries would be playing for the gold medal in any international competition in women's hockey. Other countries are trying to develop their players, and there has been improvement, but Canada and the US still take the cake.
Tournaments
Olympics
The Olympics, which comes around every four years, is the top international tournament. All of the top players for each country plays in the tournament barring serious injury, and even then they sometimes play; Steve Yzerman had no cartilidge in his knee and still led Canada to the gold medal in 2002.
When ice hockey was first introduced to the Olympics, Canada absolutely dominated the play; from 1920-1952, Canada won all but one gold medal (the 1936 gold went to Great Britain). Come 1956, the Soviet Union dominated play. From 1956-1992 they won all but two gold medals (the 1992 gold coming as the Unified Team after the Soviet Union broke up). The two they did not win - in 1960 and 1980 - were the only two gold medals in men's hockey the United States has won.
In 1998 NHL talent was allowed to participate in the Games; previously, it had been restricted to amateurs. Since then, there have been three different countries that have won gold, breaking up the streak of having one country dominate the gold.
World Championships
The World Championships is the biggest annual hockey tournament, played every year in April and May. Because they are held at the same time as the Stanley Cup playoffs, players only join their countries' teams if their NHL teams didn't make the playoffs or got eliminated. So while there is plenty of high-end talent, especially for deep countries like Canada or countries that have good players that tend to not make the playoffs/bow out early like Russia, it is not a perfect representation of the top talent.
Just like in the Olympics, the World Championships have been dominated by Canada and Russia/the Soviet Union, with the Czech Republic and Sweden also winning more than a few times, especially in recent years.
World Junior Hockey Championship
Officially called the IIHF Wolrd Under 20 Championship, this tournament is for the best players under the age of 20 - usually, but not always, prospects who have yet to make it into the NHL. It is the best tournament to watch hockey prospects, whether they were drafted or undrafted. The tournament can sometimes inflate a prospect's rating and esteem (like Justin Pogge and Jordan Eberle).
This tournament is incredibly popular in Canada, especially when compared to other countries. It makes sense, then, that Canada absolutely dominates the tournament; a slogan one year was "Drive for Five," meaning that they were trying to get theif fifth consecutive gold.
Famous Events
1972 Summit Series
It was an eight game series between Canada's best and the Soviet Union's best in order to determine the world's hockey supremacy, as the Olympics wouldn't tell everything as Canada's best players were professionals and couldn't play. The Canadians went into the series thinking that they would win eight games to nothing. However, the series turned out to be a hard-fought one, with Canada eventually prevailling, winning four games to three with one tie. The eighth game of that series brought the entire country of Canada to a standstill. Paul Henderson scored the series-winning goal, known as "the goal heard round the world."
Miracle On Ice
This 1980 Olympic medal round robin game is considered one of the biggest upsets in history. It was the USA versus the USSR, with the United States being the ultimate underdogs, a team that wasn't even expected to medal. The Soviet team, on the other hand, was considered the best in the world. Yet the United States beat the Soviet Union, 4-3, after a hard-fought game. The game was one of the most-watched hockey games in US history, despite the fact that it was tape-delayed. The game is called the Miracle on Ice because of play-by-play guy Al Michael's call at the end of the game: "Do you believe in miracles? YES!"
