The IIHF World Championship came to a stunning conclusion yesterday, when the Czech Republic came away with an upset victory over heavily favored Canada. The Czechs dominated the Canadians in all three zones, winning races and battles for the puck consistently and decisively. The 3-0 final score barely illustrates the enormous chasm between the two teams. The Canadians, winners of this tournament in 2003 and 2004, often appeared as though they were skating through mud yesterday, while the Czechs’ potent counterattack generated numerous high-quality scoring chances.

When the Czechs won Olympic gold in 1998, it was largely due to the heroics of goaltender Dominik Hasek, who single-handedly neutralized the substantial offensive advantages enjoyed by the Canadians and Russians. The Czechs proceeded to win three straight world championships from 1999-2001, but before yesterday they hadn’t won a single medal since that reign of dominance. A major reason for the drought was Hasek’s decline, but now, it looks like his heir apparent has arrived.

With his stellar performance against Canada yesterday, Tomas Vokoun reminded the world that he deserves mention among the game’s finest goalies. Vokoun has consistently put up spectacular numbers in Nashville, but receives few accolades as a member of the NHL’s most obscure franchise. He stopped everything the Canadians threw at him in the final, and finished the tournament with an otherworldly 1.08 goals-against average and .956 save percentage.

Also noteworthy were the performances of former Rangers Martin Rucinsky and Jan Hlavac, both showcasing offensive gifts that surfaced in short supply during their time on Broadway. Rucinsky scored the Czechs’ second goal midway through the second period, when he received a beautiful lead pass from Jaromir Jagr as he rushed into Canada’s zone and launched a wrist shot under Martin Brodeur’s glove.

Brodeur, like the rest of his teammates, delivered an uninspired performance yesterday; it likely had a great deal to do with the fact that 14 of Canada’s players were inactive this season due to the NHL lockout. Team Canada was carried throughout by its top line of Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, and Simon Gagne, but an absolutely stifling performance by the Czech defense kept Canada’s top line off the score sheet for the first time in the tournament. Nonetheless, Thornton was named the tournament’s best player for leading all players with 16 points in nine games.

The world championship also proved that nothing prepares hockey players for elite-level competition like playing hockey. The Canadians clearly stayed in strong physical condition during the lockout, but they did not have the legs to keep up with the Czechs, all of whom remained active in their home country and elsewhere in Europe. Their superior fitness also allowed the Czechs to survive the absence of Patrick Elias, who is recovering from a near-fatal bout of hepatitis A, believed to be contracted from food he ate while playing in Russia this season.

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If the NHL and NHLPA manage to come to terms on a new collective bargaining in time to save next season, the 2006 World Championship will once again play second fiddle to the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, with Saturday’s announcement that the union has canceled its May 24 meeting, speculation abounds that the owners and players are still quite far apart in their negotiations. The two sides are scheduled to conduct three days’ of talks again next week, but it is unclear whether they’ve made any progress.

This situation does not bode well for the future of the NHL, as some major corporate partners are expected to make decisions about their future in the next four weeks. Most prominently, ESPN must decide by June 1 whether or not it intends to renew their relationship with the NHL. Given that Celebrity Bowling (featuring NHL players, no less) generates better ratings than NHL playoff games, it would seem that the network holds most of the leverage.

Another strong indication of how far hockey has fallen from the American public’s good graces is the fact that the world championship was not televised in the U.S. despite featuring many of the world’s best players. With the NHL out of sight, the sport as a whole is out of mind, and the NHL and NHLPA will have years of work to do to repair the damage.

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com