GAME ONE
Canadian team outplayed in every area, stunned coach admits
By DAN PROUDFOOT
Globe and Mail reporter
Monday, September 4, 1972
MONTREAL - There have been so many reversals it would have been no surprise if Team Canada coach Harry Sinden had spoken Russian in discussing what he had seen happen to his players in the opening game of the international hockey series.
But no, the disappointed coach spoke plain English.
Team Canada lost 7-3 to the Soviet Union Nationals, and this is how he analyzed it.
"They outplayed us in every aspect of the game, from goaltending to shooting, skating and passing. And yes, they showed they are in better condition than we are.
"I was stunned how well they played at times. You play just about as well as the other team permits you, and they didn't allow us to play very well."
Sinden maintains his National Hockey League Selects will win the eight-game series. But, almost in the same tired breath, he says "unless we play absolutely flawless hockey, we'll be life and death to win against this team."
Saturday at The Forum, the Canadians made enough bad plays to fill a garbage dump. They started quickly, with goals by Phil Esposito and Paul Henderson, but the visitors were not shaken from their pursuit of destroying the myth of clear NHL supremacy. By the seventh minute, when Henderson made it 2-0, Team Canada was showing signs of confusion in spite of its scoring success.
And soon the best of the NHL showed they were totally incapable of solving the plays the Russians threw at them.
Boris Spassky would still be world chess champion had he only half the moves of his country, left wing Valary Kharlamov, who handled respected NHL defenceman Rod Seiling and Don Awrey as Muhammad Ali would treat a preliminary boy in an exhibition. He danced around them, and beat goaltender Ken Dryden with ease.
Kharlamov saved his spectacular goals for the second period, by which time the score was 2-2 on goals by Eugeny Zimin and Vladimir Petrov. The tying goal was scored while the Russians were defending against a Canadian powerplay which was reluctant to pull out of the attacking zone, even as Petrov and Boris Mikhailov sped toward Dryden with only Seiling back.
Team Canada had the crowd of 18,818 cheering again with a spurt in the final period. Clarke banked a shot by Ellis behind Vladislav Tretiak to close the score to 4-3 near the 10-minute break. But Mikhailov, Zimin and Alexander Yakushev used the same combination of puckhandling and agility in the final 10 minutes Kharlamov exhibited earlier for goals.
Sinden's Selects were confounded by the twisting, side-stepping newcomers and it was only partly because they didn't skate with them.
The Canadians also were outdone in goaltending, shooting, and rough plays - all facets of hockey in which the game's originators were expected to have an edge.
The New York Rangers forward line of Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield "wasn't skating" - Sinden's words. The Esposito, Frank Mahovlich, Yvan Cournoyer combination was far from its potential, with both Mahovlich and Cournoyer missing passes and the latter having a generally miserable evening.
"I would have liked to have seen Cournoyer shoot more," Sinden understated.
Cournoyer, like many of his teammates, had good intentions but poor timing. There was a reluctance to pass until too late, a drag in the execution of plays, a lack of solid positional play when defending.
"We didn't shoot half as much as we should have," said Esposito. "We played a panic button brand of hockey," said Dryden, "five men chasing the puck."
Sinden and his players agreed Team Canada may have been too high for the game. "We got a little overanxious to take the man out," said the coach. "You can't run around and expect to win. I've seen this happened before, when a team is a little too anxious."
And the Russians? They remained cool throughout, while they trailed 2-0 and when they won 7-3. Rick Noonan, the Canadian trainer helping the Russians, was in their dressing room afterward, and he said "it was just another game to them. The coaches came around and shook each player's hand, but it didn't seem like any big deal."
Canadian pride may be hurt by the awful skills of the Russians, but the national psyche should be soothed by the knowledge the NHL players will improve as this series continues. They learned much from what was supposed to be a lesson for the Russians.
"They have a good hockey team." Said Esposito, "a lot better than I thought. But what was the score, 5-3, 7-3? No way you'll see that again.
"When we were ahead 2-0, I missed three unbelievable chances. Why? It's because I don't have my timing. It's one thing to be in condition. It's another thing to have that timing. You need games to get that. If it was around Christmastime, I wouldn't miss those kind of chances baby. The game did us a lot of good."
Gord Berenson cautioned before the series opened that Team Canada wouldn't have the timing to operate near its potential. The Russian team hasn't been together long as a unit either, but its members were playing with other teams before attending the national training camp two weeks ago, and they're much more familiar with each other as teammates than are the Canadians.
The results showed quickly. The Russians were superior both as a team and as individuals. They had an edge both in plays, as expected, and in innovation, where North American individual freedom is supposed to dominate.
What the Forum crowd saw in the opening minutes of the game briefly confirmed many of their preconceived ideas of Russian inadequacy. The visitors showed little poised in allowing Esposito and Frank Mahovlich to poke away for a score from directly in front of goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, where they arrived after Gary Bergman launched the first attack of the game. Minutes later, the Russians missed a sure goal while enjoying a power play. They passed the puck too many times, as expected.
Defenceman Rod Seiling blocked several shots with ease, but one by Petrov sent him hobbling to the bench. He came back to block another by Petrov, who held out his hands in an expression of frustration.
Clarke, later voted the outstanding Canadian player, beat Vladimir Shadrin on a face-off to feed Henderson for the 2-0 score. On the next play, Ron Ellis was tripped and crashed into a Russian knee. Ellis went to the dressing room and the Canadian powerplay went nowhere. The potent Ratelle line was not functioning well.
Ellis returned to the game minutes late and delivered the first hard check of the game. He slammed Boris Mikhailov, but the Russian recovered quickly. The Canadians soon learned their best hits weren't impressing any visitor. "The Russian players will never avoid any bodycheck," No. 2 coach Boris Kiahaggin said afterward.
Zimin shot the first goal for the visitors as the Forum scoreboard listed them by working his way into the slot to take a pass while Rod Gilbert and Guy Lapointe watched.
A Canadian power play merely gave goaltender Tretiak a chance to frustrate Esposito. No sooner had the penalty expired than Ragulin went off for tripping and this time the Canadian powerplay had all the spirit of the Los Angeles Kings on a bad night.
Gilbert lost the puck at the Canadian blueline. Petrov and Mikhailov launched themselves toward Dryden. Seiling was the only Canadian left in the play, and he wasn't as involved as he would have liked to have been. Mikhailov shot. Petrov scored on the rebound with Seiling and Dryden committed on the first shot.
In the closing minutes of the first period, Tretiak made another admirable kick save on Esposito. What Billy Harris, former Toronto Maple Leaf player and the coach of Sweden's national team in the past winter, predict was coming true. He had said the Russians would win the series largely on the strength of the 20-year-old's goaltending.
Tretiak was the equal of any long, hard shots that NHL supporters thought would beat him. But, many of the hardest shots in the NHL missed the net. And, as Sinden noted later, many two-on-one and even three-on-one breaks by the Selects produced no hard shots. "The type of player who had these breaks, should have had a goal, " said the coach.
Kharlamov stepped around Awrey for the 3-2 score, and slipped wide around Seiling to make it 4-2. The Canadians were looking less and less like teammates. Players spurted into the open and didn't get passes. Once Seiling looked for Ellis to dash in from the blue line, but the Toronto winger followed the conservative Leaf system and dropped back in a defensive role instead. Seiling was left with the pick and nothing to do with it.
Team Canada started the third period with a show of determination, but Tretiak made the necessary stop until Clarke banked in Ellis's shot. Team Canada continued to press. Peter Mahovlich missed with two heavy shots. Tretiak stopped a third.
The Russians abruptly regained control in the 54th minute. Mikhailov displayed a fantastic individual effort at Seiling's expense, faking to get by him and beating Dryden with another fake and a backhand.
Less than a minute later, Zimin earned his second goal of the game with another juggling act in front of Dryden. And Yakushev completed the scoring by faking Dryden to the ice and lifting the puck high into the net.
Russian coach Kulaggin observed it all and said afterward that his country would like to make this international competition an annual affair. He was evasive about any possibility of playing for the Stanley Cup. "You are professionals, we are amateurs, but we like to play you every year."
The Canadians nursed their wounds, chiefly their pride. Vic Hadfield had a scrape on his stomach, the result of a Russian spear, and Ellis looked forward to X-rays for his neck and Seiling's knee was bruised from the shot he blocked.
Sinden said a lesson had been learned. He said there would be lineup changes for tonight's game at Maple Leaf Gardens. And he said, in response to a question, that he liked the work of Clarke and defenceman Gary Bergman and Guy Lapointe. He didn't mention anyone else.
Russian interference had bothered his players, Sinden said, because they aren't used to being interfered with while not at the centre of the play. The Russians also learned about Canadian bad manners, however, when Lapointe and Clarke swang their sticks high and with abandon.
It was a lesson in differences, and perhaps the fan learned most of all. The fans learned that there is, after all, something more exciting than any National Hockey League game.
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