|
Remembering The 1977 World
Championships: Just as importantly, Canada would be allowed to use professionals at the World Championships, though the event would not be rescheduled from its traditional late-April time frame. That meant most of the nation's top professionals were still involved in NHL playoffs. Only players on teams who were knocked out of the playoffs early would be available. Canada would be forced to throw together a squad of individuals and hope for the best against international powerhouses such as the Soviet Union. The following article, written in 1977 by Martin Lader and/or Rick Gosselin, details the historic return of Canada to the World Championships, and the debut of NHL professionals at the event. Fiasco in Europe The spring of 1977 was one National Hockey League stars Phil Esposito, Carol Vadnais, Pierre Larouche and Walt McKechnie would just as soon forget. Not only did their respective NHL teams miss out or suffer early elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs, they were also members of a 20-player delegation that traveled to North America the previous fall to take part in the Canada Cup tournament.. So while the Guy Lafleurs, Bobby Clarkes, Marcel Dionnes, and Brad Parks were engaging in the play-for-pay wars of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Esposito, Larouche & Co. were playing for a pittance in Europe and locked in what very well could have been the most frustrating and humiliating endeavour of their careers. The frustration came from the quality of the opposition: the humiliation came from within. The disturbing reports flowed daily across the trans-Atlantic cables: - Esposito, one of the most revered names in North American hockey, punched Czechoslovakian Coach Jan Starsi, chased Sweden's Stig Salming around the rink following an exhibition game and was reprimanded by the International Ice Hockey Federation for refusing to shake hands with Finnish referee Raimo Sepponen following an 8-1 loss by Canada to Russia. - Vadnais, a teammate of Esposito on the New York Rangers and a player considered chippy even by North American standards, sent Sweden's Kent-Erick Andersson to the hospital with internal injuries after levelling him with a pitchfork-like jab with his stick to the mid-section. - Eric Vail of the Atlanta Flames was thrown out of a game against Russia for swinging his stick at the head of an opponent in a deliberate attempt to injure. - Phil Russell of the Chicago Black Hawks decked an opponent while skating back to the Canadian bench during a stoppage of play. - McKechnie of the Detroit Red Wings was accused of flipping a puck at the face of an opponent during another stoppage of play and showing disrespect for the Russian national anthem by casually leaning on his stick when it was being played prior to a game between the two teams. - Temperamental youngsters Larouche of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Wilf Paiement of the Colorado Rockies were the targets of almost daily misconduct penalties because of their on-ice shenanigans. The performance by the Canadians marked a big step backward for the hockey players who collectively consider themselves the best in the world. Canada, competing in the World Championships for the first time in eight years, had to settle for a fourth place finish in the tournament behind Czechoslovakia, Sweden and the Soviet Union with a 6-3-1 record. The chippy Canadians were also the most penalized team in the tournament with 205 minutes in 10 games - which was 74 minutes more than the next team. The nxt team was an at-times chippy United States squad. Canada managed a 3-3 tie and an 8-2 triumph in two games against eventual champion Czechoslovakia but was embarrassed in its two games with the Russians - being outscored 19-2. The goon tactics employed by the frustrated Canadian team were a disgraced, but the North American professionals felt the officiating at the tournament was even more of a disgrace. "It's a shame that they assigned boy scouts to do a man's job," moaned Canadian coach Johnny Wilson about the officiating at the conclusion of the tournament. "If we got fair refereeing - not in our favour - just fair," says Paiement, "we could beat the Russians. When we play well with fair refereeing, nobody can beat us. There's no way in the world any of those teams could have beaten us with fair refereeing." "I was most disturbed by the interference that is allowed to go on in European hockey," chimes in John Mariucci, the super scout of the Minnesota North Stars who coached the United States team to a second-place finish in the second division behind Finland. "there is a lot of holding of sticks. The European teams get away with it because that is apparently the way of doing things over there. Those things ought to be penalties just as much as spearing and tripping." "We were just more flagrant with our penalties," adds Bob Murdoch of the Cleveland Barons. "We didn't quite get down our act of sticking someone in the back the way the Europeans do. We were doing it in full view of the referee." Esposito was disturbed almost as much with the press coverage as he was with the officiating. The Rangers' captain claims North American hockey fans heard just one side of the Canadian problems over in Vienna - the wrong side. "There were marks all over my Team Canada sweater from being speared over there," says Esposito. "There are some places that the sweater is just held together with tape. My wife was there. She saw all the marks on my back and behind my legs from where they speared me. "I could care less what the papers write or say about Mr. Starsi. They didn't say anything about him spitting on me. That happened just before I punched him. It was right after I scored a goal. There was a tussle in front of their bench and I went over there because everyone was milling around. I felt this spray on my neck and there he was yapping at me, so I just him him right on the nose. "I told him to back up and shut up. When he didn't, I just bopped him. I had met him before and spoken to him in English and he's talked back. So I knew he understood what I was saying." "we heard the criticism and it was very unfair," adds goalie Jim Rutherford of the Detroit Red Wings. "We took fives weeks out of our lives, without getting paid, to represent our country. We could have gone to Florida on vacation instead. "We were trying. I'm not ashamed of what we did; we played well for being a garbage team. We beat the world champions, the Czechs, 8-2 in the final game. Emotions ruled in those games, especially against the Russians. The funny thing is and this sounds funny because they beat us so bad, but I don't have as much respect now for the Russians as I did before we played them. Our problem against them was that we didn't have any confidence in ourselves. We thought they were better than they really were. They are very sly at what they do." "We took nothing but aggravation from the minute we were packed," Esposito says. "No one knows the frustration and the tournament you have to go through at one of those tournaments - from the refereeing to our getting doubled charged what everyone else had to pay at the hotels. "One thing I vow. I'll never participate in an international competition again unless the rules are changed and the officiating improved. In my opinion, we'd never have participated in the tournament if we hadn't had an obligation from the Canada Cup. Why should we go back? Nobody on our team needed it. nobody in Canada needs it." But Alan Eagleson, hockey's player agent extraordinaire and the organizer of the Canada Cup, disagreed with Esposito about the practicality of Canada withdrawing from the annual tournament. "I think it would be wrong to pull out again," Eagleson says. "We withdrew in 1969 because they did not let us use professionals. But now we will have to remain in competition trying to reach a point where we can challenge the Russians and the other strong European teams. "When Canada abandoned world championship competition seven years ago it was a severe blow to Canada's prestige and a bitter disappointment to Canadian hockey fans. Team Canada's re-entry in the 1977 World Championships is therefore of great significance to international hockey competition and that is how it should remain." The United States also had its share of embarrassing moments, including fisticuffs on the bench between Mariucci and team captain Lou Nanne during a 5-4 loss to Romania - the only game that European team was able to win. The Americans, who finished with a 3-6-1 record, did manage to beat Finland for their major upset of the tournament. "I evaluated our players and approached whom I thought were the best 32 players available," Mariucci explains, "but only two from that list made it. Thirty refused or could not come. Also, we only had two weeks to prepare for the tournament and we were working on a budget of $70,000 while the Canadians had budget of something like $780,000. "Our players had to make do on $150 a week. they couldn't even bring their wives along. We gave them no incentive for finishing high or becoming champions. It is an injustice for us to ask a pro to give up his vacation and not be reimbursed. I cannot speak for the Russians, Czechs or Romanians, but as far as I was concerned, we were the only dyed-in-wool amateur team in that tournament. Mariucci, like just about everyone else, questioned the Canadian intimidation tactics. "I'm not going to criticize what other teams did," he says, "but as to Canada, with 20 NHL players, their score against the Russians in two games leaves no question in anybody's mind you cannot play that type of aggressive, intimidating style of hockey over in Europe or against European styles. "European hockey is strictly a skating and passing game. I'm not knocking it - it's great hockey. But I tried to tell my players you cannot play national Hockey League style in Europe and expect to be successful. you don't win by how rough you are." You win at hockey by playing hockey - something the NHL players apparently forgot how to do at times in Europe.
|
