2016 World Cup of Hockey: Schedule, scores and more

NHL hockey may be a month away, but a tournament with the league's biggest names should hold you over until then.

Hockey season has come early with the official start of the World Cup of Hockey. The past week and a half have seen a handful of pre-tournament games, but the real fun begins on Saturday, September 17 with the preliminary round robin tournament in Toronto.

The biggest hit of the tournament so far has been - unsurprisingly - Team North America's young stars, who dominated both of their pre-tournament games against Team Europe with speed and skill. Canada versus the United States was also a good draw in both pre-tournament matches, with each side winning one game apiece. Team Europe has looked exactly like how you'd expect a mishmash team of Europeans to look while Russia, Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic put together solid games in their pre-tournament matches.

It's not the Stanley Cup playoffs by any stretch, but the prospect of seeing Team North America run wild over the NHL's biggest names is definitely worth watching.

The format

The tournament will utilize a round robin style of play by groups, meaning you won't be able to see the United States play Team North America unless both teams make it to the semifinals. Instead, the four teams in each pool will play each other once over the course of a week, gaining points like the current NHL system with tie breakers being decided by goal differential and regulation wins.

The top two teams of each group will advance to the semifinals, before the two teams remaining play in a best-of-three series to determine the winner. Simple, yes?

The groups

Group A

1. Canada


2. United States of America


3. Czech Republic


4. Europe

Group B

1. North America


2. Sweden


3. Russia


4. Finland

Pre-tournament games

Thursday, September 8

Finland 3, Sweden 2
Russia 4, Czech Republic 3
North America 4, Europe 0

Friday, September 9

United States 4, Canada 2

Saturday, September 10

Czech Republic 2, Russia 1 (SO)
Sweden 6, Finland 3
Canada 5, United States 2

Sunday, September 11

North America 7, Europe 4

Tuesday, September 13

Finland at United States
7 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN1, TVAS)

Wednesday, September 14

Czech Republic at North America
3:30 p.m. EST (ESPN3, SN, SN1, TVAS)

Sweden at Europe
7 p.m. EST (ESPN3, SN360, TVAS2)

Russia at Canada
7 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Round robin games

Saturday, September 17

Group A: United States at Europe
3:30 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Group A: Czech Republic at Canada
8 p.m. EST (ESPNEWS, SN, TVAS)

Sunday, September 18

Group B: Sweden at Russia
3 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN, TVAS)

Group B: North America at Finland
8 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Monday, September 19

Group A: Europe at Czech Republic
3 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Group B: Russia at North America
8 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Tuesday, September 20

Group B: Finland at Sweden
3 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN, TVAS)

Group A: Canada at United States
8 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN, TVAS)

Wednesday, September 21

Group B: North America at Sweden
3 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN, TVAS)

Group A: Europe at Canada
8 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

Thursday, September 22

Group B: Finland at Russia
3 p.m. EST (ESPN, SN, TVAS)

Group A: United States at Czech Republic
8 p.m. EST (ESPN2, SN, TVAS)

World Cup semifinals

Saturday, September 24

Group B2 at Group A1
7 p.m. EST (ESPN2)

Sunday, September 25

Group A2 at Group B1
1 p.m. EST (ESPN)

World Cup final

Tuesday, September 27

Game 1, 8 p.m. (ESPN)

Thursday, September 29

Game 2, 8 p.m. (ESPN2)

Saturday, October 1

Game 3 (if needed), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)