World Cup of Hockey 2016: Full Groups, Schedule and More

With the 2016 World Cup of Hockey set to begin in a little over a year, the NHL finally unveiled the full schedule and groupings for the tournament.

The World Cup of Hockey will begin on Sept. 17, 2016, and run through Oct. 1. The first six days will be dedicated to pool play among the two groups, and the two highest finishers in each group will advance to the semifinals. The World Cup final will be a best-of-three series.

You can view the two groups below:

Group A	Group B
Team Canada	Team Finland
Team Czech Republic	Team North America
Team Europe	Team Russia
Team USA	Team Sweden

Here's a look at the full schedule:

Date	Time (ET)	Matchup
Preliminary Round
Saturday, Sept. 17	3:30 p.m.	Team Europe vs. Team USA
Saturday, Sept. 17	8 p.m.	Team Canada vs. Team Czech Republic
Sunday, Sept. 18	3 p.m.	Team Russia vs. Team Sweden
Sunday, Sept. 18	8 p.m.	Team Finland vs. Team North America
Monday, Sept. 19	3 p.m.	Team Czech Republic vs. Team Europe
Monday, Sept. 19	8 p.m.	Team North America vs. Team Russia
Tuesday, Sept. 20	3 p.m.	Team Finland vs. Team Sweden
Tuesday, Sept. 20	8 p.m.	Team Canada vs. Team USA
Wednesday, Sept. 21	3 p.m.	Team North America vs. Team Sweden
Wednesday, Sept. 21	8 p.m.	Team Canada vs. Team Europe
Thursday, Sept. 22	3 p.m.	Team Finland vs. Team Russia
Thursday, Sept. 22	8 p.m.	Team Czech Republic vs. Team USA
Semifinals
Saturday, Sept. 24	TBD	Semifinal 1
Sunday, Sept. 25	TBD	Semifinal 2
Finals
Tuesday, Sept. 27	8 p.m.	Final Game 1
Thursday, Sept. 29	8 p.m.	Final Game 2
Saturday, Oct. 1	7 p.m.	Final Game 3 (if necessary)

Team Canada enters as the defending champion. The last World Cup was held in 2004, with Canada defeating Team Finland 3-2 in the final. Shane Doan scored the go-ahead goal 34 seconds into the third period.

With the formation of separate North American and European teams, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman argued in January that next year's tournament will be more all-encompassing than the previous two World Cup iterations.

"Everything we've been focused on has been to make this a great exciting tournament," he said at the World Cup press conference, per NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "A North American Youngstars team and a team of the best NHL European players from outside the ‘Big Four’ European countries enables us to include more of the very best players in the world who might otherwise have been left out of the competition."

Some, however, wonder how much the players will truly embrace the World Cup. Tom Gulitti of the Record in Bergen County, New Jersey, is among the World Cup's critics:

The 2016-17 NHL regular season is set to begin sometime around Oct. 12, 2016, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly revealed at the January press conference.

Stars taking part in the World Cup will have some time to prepare and train with their respective NHL teams before the season gets underway.

Still, skeptics like Gulitti are right to question whether those stars will fully exert themselves at the World Cup and put themselves at risk for injury with the regular season so close.