Nitzy's Hockey Den

Program from the Moscow portion of the series A collection of post-game quotes after Canada's improbable comeback victory. "This is the happiest moment of my career," Henderson said. Ken Dryden added, "This had to feel greater than winning the Stanley Cup." He added, “Better write something about that guy,” pointing to Esposito as he stripped off his pads. “Didn’t he show us just what kind of a hockey player he is – just how great he is?” Phil Esposito stated bluntly,"I was more emotional in this series than I ever was in the Stanley Cup." He added, “What got me so motivated? Mostly it was the humiliation in that first game in Montreal … the fans who booed in Vancouver and some of the crap we had to read the papers. Alright, I’ll be explicit … the crap on the editorial pages.” The seldom seen, not quite as iconic, photo of the winning goal from the front page of the Globe & Mail “We have one thing the Russians haven’t got – heart,” Gar...

In between Game 7 and Game 8 of the Summit Series there was great furor over the choices of referees for the final match. Team Canada was adamant that the two West Germans Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader not be allowed to work. Joe Kryczka, president of Hockey Canada demanded Uve Dahlberg of Sweden and Czech, Rudy Batja. As much as Team Canada disliked Kompalla (Sinden called his work incompetent), he himself was far from flattering toward the Canadians. Dan Proudfoot of the Globe and Mail wrote about Kompalla the day before the final match; Josef Kompalla doesn't think much of Team Canada, either. He dislikes our players' manners. "They make a lot of noise about one faceoff, whether it should be a few feet away. They're very childish. They come and swear at us and call us blinkety-blank German referees who don't know anything. They're all bad. Ratelle is a very good and disciplined player, and the blonde defenceman No. 3 (Stapleton) also is very good....

Henderson's 2nd consecutive Game Winner Ted Blackman, Sports Editor of The Montreal Gazette begins his column on Game 7 as follows; The Russians steadfastly refuse to single out heroes when they win, claiming all players are equal in a collective team effort, but after a loss… brother, better pack the long johns for the trip north. "Gennadiy Tsygankov — he cost us the victory," Vsevolod Bobrov declared in a rare burst of frankness after Canada stole a 4-3 victory from Rusia last night to square the series and set up tomorrow night's showdown for the Borscht Bowl. Tsygankov was the goat on Paul Henderson's winning goal with little more than two minutes to play. He was rooted to the ice as Henderson slipped the puck through his skates, dashed behind him to pick it up and fired a high shot past Vladislav Tretiak at 17:54. "Never got more personal satisfaction out of a goal," Henderson said of his sixth score of the series and second winner in as many ...

Team Canada bench shows slight displeasure over a call. From Time magazine Game Six was a 3-2 victory for Canada despite the fact they accumulated 31 minutes in penalties to the Russian's 4. Canada was shorthanded for a ridiculous 17 minutes of play. Following are excerpts of the coverage of Game 6 from the Montreal Gazette and Globe and Mail. “Those two guys are no more referees than my old man,” said Phil Esposito. He was talking about the two officials Franz Baader and Josef Kompalla.  Harry Sinden called the work of the two West German officials, “entirely incompetent – the worst officilals I’ve ever seen in my life.” He said he would meet with the Russians to seek to have both relieved of their assignment for Thursday’s final game. In response to the Canadian discourse, Russian assistant coach Boris Kulagin said, “It’s the Canadian tradition to complain about the officials, not the Russian tradition.” Presumably, he forgot that Russian officials inv...

"Damn flowers. Nice kids, the ones who skated out and gave us them. But the flowers, the stem fell off. I stepped right on it and was on my ass in a flash. Must have looked good, huh? A hundred million guys watching all around the world, brass bands playing, the Russian cats in the stands, and here I am dumped on the ice. So I waved to the folks back home in the Soo, a wave from the dummy with egg on his face." - Phil Esposito after slipping on a flower in the pre-game ceremony prior to Game 5 in Moscow Assisstant coach John Ferguson spoke for Harry Sinden who did not emerge from the dressing room after the game, "I'm sick tonight. This game reminds me of that Boston Montreal playoff two years ago...you know, the one we had 5-1 and then lost 7-5. Tommy Johnson told us, Cool it, don't give 'em anything. We played defensive and ended up losing. Same thing again tonight. But we're coming. We got two and a half periods of it together tonight. Then...

  After the Canadian half of the Summit Series, Hockey Canada produced an "Official Home TV Program", which I have in my collection. It's filled with great colour photos as well as the stats from the first four games (at bottom of the page).  Upon arrival in Moscow from Stockholm, most of Team Canada was whisked away from the waiting reporters. Phil Esposito however was interviewed briefly at the airport by Tass, the official Russian news agency, which distributed these quotations in it's world service. His thoughts seem subdued and perhaps have been sanitized by the Russian news agency. "The U.S.S.R. national team are magnificent hockey players. I had not seen Soviet players earlier and could not judge their mastery." "I hope that the games in Moscow will be tense and interesting. Your athletes play fair and I am sure the referees will face no difficulties."   "I particularly liked Yakushev, and I wouldn't mind...

A look at the second game Team Canada played in Sweden, tying 4-4 after winning 4-1 the night previous. Coach Sinden was far from happy with his team's effort in the victory and decidedly less-so with last second draw salvaged on a Phil Esposito last minute short-handed goal. From the files Ted Blackman of the Montreal Gazette and Dan Proudfoot of the Globe and Mail. "Do they think it's Viet Nam?" asked Owe Sterner, brother of Ulf Sterner, Sweden's most respected player. Following are highlights of the evening's violence:   At 17:02 of the first period Bill Goldsworthy is penalized for cross-checking. Infuriated, he makes a spearing motion at a Swede's face. Esposito inquired of referee Franz Baader before the game if he knew all the rules. Baader shows he does by giving Goldy a spearing minor which carries an automatic misconduct. At the end of the first period, Espo reacts to subtle fouls by Borje Salming by cross-checking him as the teams leave the ...

With tomorrow being the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest games ever played let's have a second by second look at Team Canada's tournament winning goal. Play along at home by watching the link below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruloAuFazcg 1:36 Face off to the left of Grant Fuhr. Dale Hawerchuk against Vyacheslav Bykov. On the boards to Hawerchuk's left is Paul Coffey, Mario Lemieux and Larry Murphy on the right hash-marks with Gretzky flanked out of the edge of the other face off circle's hash-marks. To Bykov's right, on the boards is Andrei Khomutov with Valeri Kamensky ten feet off the hash-mark and slightly behind Bykov anticipating a quick shot off a won draw. Igor Kravchuk is on the right point, Igor Stelnov on the left. Linesman Kevin Collins drops the puck. 1:35 The draw ends up slightly left and behind Bykov (not close enough to Kamensky for a shot). Lemieux slices in front of Kamensky and gets scoops up the puck. Gretzky gets in moti...

 Most of us have heard of the devious acts committed by Russian officials while Team Canada was in Moscow. Canada's steak and beer brought from home was "lost", late-night phone calls were made to disrupt sleep and there were mystery "illnesses" to preferred referees. I however was unaware that for one player at least, the suspicions of off-ice foul play by the Soviets began even before they left Canada. According to Ted Blackman, Sports Editor of The Montreal Gazette, The Big 'M' Frank Mahovlich was chock-full of conspiracy theories.  Frank Mahovlich checked into Room 1012 of the Bayshore Hotel (in Vancouver) and immediately began tapping the walls and peeking behind the drapes as the bellhop gaped incredulously. "Shhhsh," he whispered to Serge Savard, his bunkmate. "Don't say a word - this joint has gotta be bugged by their agents."  Serge nodded gravely. Two days ago he was laughing at the Big M and his growing p...

Pictured above is Phil Esposito and Team Canada arriving in Toronto from Vancouver, being greeted by 500 fans. The team was also greeted by hundreds of telegrams from all parts of the country. Alan Eagleson said he was "Surprised and gratified," by this. On the subject of Vancouver Eagleson added, "If a similar series is played in the future and I have anything to do with it, no game will be played in Vancouver." Eagleson kept his word through the 1976 and 1981 Canada Cups, finally relenting on Sept. 6, 1984 when Canada lost 4-2 to Sweden before 9,456 spectators. Russian assistant coach Boris Kulagin said, "We never expected such a result." Defenceman Alexander Ragulin added, "We are all very surprised how the tournament has gone. The Canadian team is very good, but there have been others from Canada as good. I feel the team we played in the 1967 world championships was as good." Interestingly, Ragulin went on to say, "No, I'm not co...

"I may not say it after I've slept on it," Bill Goldsworthy, the 'goat' of last night's 5-3 pummeling,"but right now, I am ashamed of being a Canadian."   He continued, "You have one bad shift and they're on you. We're playing for our country and that's the kind of support they give you. You're so nervous that you can hardly hold onto the puck after that. There was a time when a guy was proud to get a chance to play for his country. Now it's a shame. Not just here tonight. It was the same in Montreal, and in Toronto and in Winnipeg." Goldsworthy ended by flatly stating, "I'm glad the next four games are in Russia. We'll probably get a better reception there."   Goldsworthy drew two penalties in the first six minutes of the game and watched as the Russians converted on both of them. Each time Boris Mikhailov tipped home a point shot from Vladimir Lutchenko. Of his penalties he said, "I...

Sinden reshuffles troops for 'fresh legs' The headline in the Montreal Gazette prior to Game 4 in Vancouver, from Ted Blackman, Sports Editor. Harry Sinden, now faced with the very real possibility of heading overseas behind in the world hockey showdown, has reshuffled his lines on a major scale again in an attempt to inject "fresh legs" into the last game in Canada. His problem has been compounded by injuries to defenceman Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard. Lapointe will be out for Game 4 at least with a severe charley-horse: Savard is out for the series with a badly-bruised ankle, which may actually be fractured. "Some of the guys have played three games in five nights and they're a little run down." Sinden said as he outfitted Phil Esposito with his third set of wingers, Dennis Hull and Bill Goldsworthy, and dropped a new centre between Frank Mahovlich and Yvan Cournoyer - Gilbert Perreault.  "We're a little out of shape to be playing these...

Jean Ratelle scores in first period to make it 2-1 Canada  "I was fooled again," said assistant coach John Ferguson after the 4-4 tie in game three, "I felt that after we had taken a 3-1 lead, the final score might be something like 7-1. But those two short-handed goals. When you score one short-handed goal it can turn it all around. But two, that's almost fatal." Indeed it was almost fatal for Team Canada's hopes. The shorthanders by Petrov and Kharlamov were however only part of the near fatal dagger as the Russians other two tallies were in the final five minutes of the third. Tim Burke of the Montreal Gazette wrote in his game summary; Probably the only man in the world who has called this series exactly as it has unfolded is the trainer of the Russian team, Georgi Guzinov. The day before the series opened he said: "After three games, each team will have a victory and a tie." Meanwhile, Paul Henderson, who scored Canada's fourth g...

"You could say that Cashman was one of our leaders in changing the tone of this game from the one in Montreal." exclaimed Harry Sinden after Canada's 4-1 victory at Maple Leaf Gardens in Game two. Wayne Cashman inserted for the game after not dressing in the first game debacle said, "I played like we do it on the Bruins, you go into the corner and dig that puck out and start throwing it around in front of the net." Cashman added, "I watched the game very closely on Saturday night - and I saw them getting into the corners first all the time. I just decided to get in there first myself." For the first goal of the game Cashman set up Esposito in the slot after Cashman and Russian defender Vladimir Litchenko collided near the Russian blue line. In his wake, he left the Russian helmet-less and with a broken stick. Cashman said afterwards, "He broke the stick himself. I wouldn't do that to those guys. They can't afford to lose too many....

  "We were stunned, absolutely stunned." Harry Sinden said. "Yeah, I'm still stunned. I never kidded myself about the Russians, but I never realized their individuals could be as good in one-on-one situations. I didn't expect to see that." Sinden and the rest of Canada were in shock after the unknown, under-rated Russian squad shellacked Canada's professionals by a score of 7-3. Ted Blackman of The Montreal Gazette wrote, "To say we took Russia lightly is to hear General Custer ask: 'What Indians?' Sinden attempted to break down his sqauad's numerous shortcomings and failures in the newspapers of the next day, some of his thoughts follow.   In analyzing the GAG line of Ratelle, Hadfield and Gilbert, Sinden offered, "Ratelle's line is not ideally suited to the type of game we need. We'll have to go to more of a forechecking game. We have got to make the Russians commit mistakes in their own end. Forechecking is the ...