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Can The U.S. Steal
Olympic Gold From The Russians? Part 2. Written By Dan Stoneking
in the hockey annual Consider what the Russian hockey team accomplished this year as they have painted the hockey world rouge. In February they embarrassed the National Hockey League in the three game Challenge Cup series in New York. Then in April they waxed the rest of the planet at the World Championship, which the Soviets held in Moscow. The magnitude of those achievements merits a more detail review. First, the Challenge Cup, a hockey summit played in an NHL rink, under NHL rules which should have posed two strikes against the Russians. NHL participants are allowed to cover their eyes for these flashbacks. In the opening game the NHL scored after only 16 seconds had elapsed. Montreal's Guy Lafleur took a feed from Philadelphia's Bobby Clarke and connected on the first rush of the game, the first shot. It was the fastest goal ever scored from an opening faceoff in one of these NHL-Soviet exhibitions. If it seemed too easy, it was. While it started like an NHL romp, it hardly ended up that way. New York Islander Mike Bossy made it 2-0 just six minutes after Lafleur's opening fireworks and the NHL defenders kept Soviet shooters from taking a shot at Montreal goalie Ken Dryden for the first 12 minutes. Canadien Bob Gainey shutout the Soviet's newest cannon, Helmut Balderis, and scored a goal himself as the NHL won, 4-2. The Russians looked like a bunch of Volga River boatmen after too many tough days at the ropes. They played like they were stuffed with too much vodka and caviar and borscht. Were these the same guys who almost stunned the hockey world in 1972 when they showed up wearing bird cage masks and guzzling Coke by the gallon and had the strange warm up rituals? Were these the same guys who almost shocked Canada's nervous system by winning three games, losing four and tying one against the NHL elite? Only New York Islander and NHL team general manager Bill Torrey struck a cautious note after the first game of the Challenge Cup. "The Russians will adjust," he said. Adjust they did. The NHL squad could have won the series in Game 2, but lost leads of 3-1 and 4-2 as the Russians kept coming and coming and coming and coming. The Soviets won, 5-4, and who would have guessed that the NHL scored its last goal of the series in the second period of the second game? Team NHL only got 16 shots on goal. A star studded collection like that should have mustered that many in one period. The Russians slaughtered the NHL club 6-zipski in the rubber match. Team captain Boris Mikhailov's goal in the second period broke a 0-0 tie and it was kaput for the NHLers. It was the beginning of a bear hug that the NHL will not soon forget. The Russians had mastered the NHL's best even though the Soviets were missing the team's best defenseman, Viacheslav Fetisov, who was left at home for reasons that were variously described as a virus and a bad back. The Russians won even though veteran blueliner Vladimir Lutchenko also missed the series because of injury as did Alexsandr Maltsev, one of their front line forwards. The Soviets waltzed through the third game even though Valery Kharlamov, one of their heroes of 1972, sat out the last two games with an injury. The post-Challenge Cup reaction was predictable. "What they did to us has set back hockey in North America 10 years," fussed Harold Ballard, the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. "There isn't a fan in Canada or the United States now who won't think he's buying a ticket for a second class product. It is embarrassing for us, humiliating and degrading." If we would have won the second game everyone would have said we were the greatest but that wouldn't have been true," said Montreal defenseman Serge Savard. The Soviets took victory graciously. "This does not mean hockey in Russia is superior to hockey in Canada and North America," said Viktor Tikhonov, the Russian coach. Now that, comrades, is detente. |
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