Thanks to a generous offer from Lowell Van Zuiden, a Calgary orthopedic surgeon, at least one Soviet player from the 1972 Summit Series will reap something from the anniversary celebrations of the greatest sports event in Canada's history.

	Series stories
	•	Eric Duhatschek - Hockey won
	•	Sept. 20: Man who helped set up games is erased from tournament lore
	•	Sept. 19: Absence of Bobbys dogged Canada
	•	Sept. 18: Esposito's rallying cry
	•	Sept. 17: A time when some had to eat their words
	•	Sept. 16: Stars left to toast themselves
	Related stories
	•	Sept. 23: Ex-foes may assist Russian
	•	Sept. 23: David Shoalts - Soviets deserve Summit rewards, too
	•	Sept. 20: Clarke rejects 'phony' apology
	•	Sept. 19: Friction surfaces between linemates
	•	Sept. 17: Lawrence Martin - A bodycheck to communism
	•	Sept. 14: The Eagle is born again
	1972 game stories
	•	Game 1: Canadian team outplayed in every area, stunned coach admits
	•	Game 2: It's even: Canada beats Russia 4-1
	•	Game 3: Russians' play in 5-5 game shows hockey belongs to both countries
	•	Game 4: Russians win 5-3 in B.C., go home as favorites
	•	Game 5: Angry Canadians blame selves for 5-4 Moscow loss
	•	Game 6: Team Canada is confident it can win series
	•	Game 7: Canada ties series with 4-3 triumph
	•	Game 8: From Russia with Glory
	Have your say
	•	What are your personal memories of the Summit Series?
	•	Read what others said
	Photo gallery
	•	For images of 1972, click here
	Link
	•	For more on the Series of the Century, see ESPN Classic Canada

As reported by The Globe and Mail today, steps are being taken to try toget Evgeny Mishakov the treatment he needs for his swollen knees.

If replacements for both knees are needed, Van Zuiden has offered to perform the surgery free. Both Van Zuiden and people connected to the Canadian team are looking into raising money to pay the other costs of bringing Mishakov from Moscow to Calgary.

Also see:
• Ex-foes may assist Russian (Sept. 23)
• David Shoalts - Stars left to toast themselves (Sept. 23)

But when the hockey players from that historic Canadian team gather this weekend to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their victory, it would be nice to think that more Soviet players could share the wealth.

As Mark MacKinnon, The Globe's Moscow bureau chief, wrote in the first of a five-part series marking this anniversary, many of the stars of the Soviet Union team "live in obscurity, some well below the poverty line."

To any Canadian old enough to remember the series, this should be troubling news. For no matter how rabidly we hated those players 30 years ago -- to us, they were the very face of totalitarianism -- we owe them a great debt.

Had it not been for the immense scare thrown into our hockey system by the Soviets, the Canadian version of the game would probably have imploded simply because of the inertia caused by our smug belief that no one else could play as well as us. Instead, the first of many waves of national hand-wringing that would follow every international defeat or near-defeat, produced a seminal change in North American hockey.

Yes, you can argue, and many do ad nauseam, that our system still lags behind the Europeans in developing skilled hockey players. But you cannot argue that Canadian hockey is not better than it was in 1972 and that the Summit Series hastened the metamorphosis of the National Hockey League into a global league.

Physical conditioning for hockey players took a huge leap forward after that series. So did the organization and the teaching of minor-hockey coaches in Canada.

The plight of many players from the 1972 Soviet team remains a sad footnote in an otherwise happy story for Canadians.

These men were doubly victimized.

First, after their skills were showcased in the series, they were denied the opportunity of a prosperous living in the NHL by the Soviet regime. Second, after the collapse of that regime and the resulting economic chaos, the military pensions of many of the players, often their sole source of income, were devalued to less than $100 a month.

The former NHL players on the Canadian team are all too familiar with pensions that have been the subject of scandal.

But at the same time, those players hold the marketing rights to much of the anniversary celebrations and the related revenue sources.

Through Ficel Marketing of Mississauga, the Canadian players will share in the sale of memorabilia, souvenirs and a DVD series of the telecasts of all eight games.

This is not to say nothing has ever been attempted to help the Russian players. But the wild west nature of business in today's Russia makes it difficult.

Ed Gryschuk of Ficel said he has been approached at least seven times over the past three years by different people claiming to represent the Soviet players. And each time, he said, "when push came to shove, they could not do anything."

Ron Ellis, a member of the players committee that oversees the affairs of the 1972 team, told the same story. Both he and Gryschuk said there is still an interest in helping the Soviets.

"We do think a lot of them," Ellis said. "We got to know some of them who came over for the 10th anniversary, and, of course, [Vladislav] Tretiak is a good friend."

There is hope the Soviet players can be helped now that hockey great Viacheslav Fetisov has been put in charge of Russian sport by President Vladimir Putin. No attempts have yet been made by Ficel or the Canadian team to contact Fetisov, although both Ellis and Gryschuk said his presence is encouraging.

"The biggest obstacle I ran into was how to communicate [with the former players] and figuring out what was real [in the Russian business world]," Gryschuk said. "You don't want to do business in Russia. But if I could get in contact with someone like Fetisov, it would be a whole different ball of wax."
dshoalts@globeandmail.ca