Almost Everyone Predicted A Team Canada Romp

Pretty much everybody in Canada, and most common folks in Russia, believed that the NHL led Team Canada was going to handle to the Soviet national team with ease. Some granted a little leniency and said that the Russians would squeak out a win or two. But most "experts" predicted a 8 games to none sweep for the mighty professionals.

Let's take a look at some of the published predictions:


"The NHL team will slaughter them in eight straight."
-Gerry Eskenazi, New York Times

"Canada will win handily: they might lose one in Moscow. Say 7-1."
-Milt Dunnel, Toronto Star

We might lose one in Russia. 7-1 for Canada."
-Claude Larochelle, Le Soleil (Quebec City)

"Canada's two goals a game better. It looks like 8-0 Canada."
-Foster Hewitt

"8-0 Canada - and that's also the score of the first game."
-Fran Rosa, Boston Globe

"Canada 7 games to 1."
-Mark Mulvoy, Sports Illustrated

Canada's Bobby Orr penned a Toronto Sun article on September 2, 1972 with his predictions. He too expected a lopsided victory for Canada, but accurately predicted that Team Canada would get better as the tournament progressed.

Even the famous Father David Bauer expected "total" victory. As the architect of the Canadian National Team program in the 1960s, Father Bauer could very well have been the Canadian authority on Soviet hockey. He also wrote a Toronto Sun article entitled Reasons To Expect Total Victory.

Two voices who dared to differ were written off as "cranks" looking to make publicity.

One was Billy Harris, the former Toronto Maple Leafs star. He claimed the previously unheard of and poorly reviewed Soviet goaltender named Vladislav Tretiak would be the difference in the series. No one believed him, though he would be proven right.

John Robertson, a reporter for the Montreal Star, drew the ire of the entire country when he predicted the Russians would win 2 of 4 games in Canada and all 4 games in Moscow. He made this outlandish prediction based on the Soviets' superior training and conditioning at that particular time of year, which of course was the major concern in Canadian minds.

Robertson was roasted by his peers in the media as a flake who was just trying to sell newspapers. They told him he should be writing for the Soviet government-run newspaper Pravda.

In response Robertson said: "We have taken one hundred years of hockey heritage and shoved it into the center of the table and staked it on the outcome of an eight-game series in which we sit back and allow the deck to be stacked against us."

No one thought Robertson knew what he was talking about back then. It might even be very possible Robertson didn't even know he was as close to the truth as he thought he was. One thing is for sure: we should have listened to him.