The world's best ice hockey players will clash again - this time under North American National Hockey League rather than Olympic rules - when the World Cup of Hockey begins this week.

　　The eight-team tournament gets underway today when the Czech Republic plays Finland in Helsinki, while Canada plays the defending champion United States tomorrow night in Montreal.

　　The tournament begins one day after the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics, which is why training camps received relatively little public attention. But a sense of foreboding hangs over the event in Canada.

　　It may be the last chance to see the NHL's best players for a long while, as their collective bargaining agreement expires on September 15 - the day after the tournament final. There is fear of a long lockout that may even wipe out the 2004-05 NHL regular season.

　　"Our mindset is focused on these two weeks and what it's going to take to win this tournament," said Wayne Gretzky, executive director of Team Canada who is also part owner of the Phoenix Coyotes.

　　"This is a very complex situation and it's being handled by two people and hopefully, they can find a common ground. How it will end, I'm not sure," the former Canadian great said.

　　Ironically, the World Cup is jointly run between the NHL and the NHL Players Association and is perhaps the one thing they agree on.

　　For two weeks at least, fans will be able to watch stars like Canadian captain Mario Lemieux, flashy Czech forward Jaromir Jagr, Swedish defenseman Niklas Lidstrom, Finnish goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and even 18-year-old Russian phenomenon Alexander Ovechkin.

　　The Americans upset Canada 5-2 in Montreal in the final of the inaugural World Cup in 1996, but the Canadians enter this event as the favorite coming off wins at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2003 and 2004 World Championships.

　　But the co-host Americans, the dangerous Czechs, star-studded Swedes and Russians, physical Finns and underdog Slovakians are all capable of winning.

　　"It's not a cakewalk for anyone," cautioned Gretzky. "We'll have to play with a lot of energy and heart."

　　The teams are split into two groups for the round robin portion of the event.

　　The European pool with Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany, will play their opening games in Europe on the larger Olympic-size ice surfaces.

　　The North American pool includes Canada, the United States, Russia and Slovakia and will play on smaller NHL rinks in Montreal, Toronto and St. Paul, Minnesota.

　　The quarterfinals are also split between Europe and North America, but the semifinals and the final will be played in North America, with the championship game scheduled for September 14 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

　　The opening round has little significance, as all eight teams qualify for the quarterfinals.

　　As Slovak general manager Peter Stastny put it: "You can play .500 and win this tournament. You can lose the first three games but win the next three."

　　But the round robin will give teams a chance to experiment and jell before single-game knockout play begins.

　　Except for Germany, which has mostly European club players, nearly all the rest come from NHL teams and, in North America at least, are likely to play a physical, defensively sound game.

　　"There's not a lot of room out there," said Gretzky. "I think the emphasis, even at this level, is on defensive play and checking.

　　"At the Olympics, it's a little more offensive and open. But I like our game. People love to see goal-scoring, but these guys play hard."