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 ...