Why would you give Russia the third spot behind USA and Canada? Russia has never won such a tournament, and only been a finalist once, back in 1998. You know, when Gretzky was still playing and They Fleury was the Flames leading scorer.
Here's the combined best of the best tournament results, from 1996 World Cup to 2014 Olympics.
Canada: 4 wins + 1 final + 1 semifinal
USA: 1 win + 2 finals + 2 semifinals
Sweden: 1 win + 1 final + 1 semifinal
Czech: 1 win + 2 semifinals
Finland: 2 finals + 3 semifinals
Russia: 1 final + 3 semifinals
(Slovakia and Belarus both with 1 semifinal).
Top dog: Canada.
Tier 2: Sweden, USA, Czech.
Tier 3: Finland, Russia.
If you only look at results from the last decade (2004-2014):
Canada: 3 wins
Sweden: 1 win, 1 final
Finland: 2 finals, 2 semifinals
USA: 1 final, 2 semifinals
Czech: 2 semifinals
Russia and Slovakia: 1 semifinal
Top dog: Canada
Tier 2: Sweden, Finland, USA
Tier 3: Czech, Russia, Slovakia
Russia is a World Championship powerhouse, that's pretty much it. If we're talking best of the best national teams, you can MAYBE squeeze them in at the fourth place over Finland due to having more star power.
Also: the definition of a succesful tournament for Finland is doing better than Sweden. The idea of a combined Swedish+Finnish team makes my head hurt. And that would probably be the easiest combination.
Last edited by Itse; 11-19-2014 at 09:02 PM.
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