МАТЕРИАЛЫ
Самая впечатляющая победа нашего хоккея.
Как это было (по материалам американской
прессы)
После матчевые комментарии хоккеистов и тренеров.
Полная версия статьи "Red uprising in Montreal"
(Красное восстание в Монреале), на английском языке.
Виктор Тихонов: "Плач
канадцев" // "Советский Спорт"
Результаты матчей. Символическая сборная турнира
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“Sport Illustrated”. September
25, 1981
All that’s left now for the Soviet Union’s relentless
Big Red Machine to do is to pick up the revered old Montreal Forum, skate
it across Ste.Catherine Street, down through Old Montreal and dump it into
the St. Lawrence River, and the National Hockey League along with
it. This time was supposed to be different. Team U.S.S.R. was supposed
to be done for. It would be Team Canada's and the NHL's day. Eighteen months
ago the Soviets had dropped from sight, stunned by a ragtag U.S.A. Olympic,
team not overly talented but too young to know it. And for the past two
weeks, playing in a thing called Canada Cup II, the Soviets had looked
more like just another Team Sweden or Team Finland than a vaunted international
power.
But last Sunday night in the Canada finale, meeting
a Canadian team of NHL pros that everyone was calling Team Awesome, the
Soviets took the ice at the Forum and outskated, outchecked and outfinessed
Canada, ultimately scoring a crushing 8-1 victory. Eight goals. Oh no,
Canada.
Other Team Canada/NHL embarrassments at the hands
of the U.S.S.R. could be written off with one excuse or another. In 1972
Team Canada was hopelessly out of shape. lost some face but still won the
series. In 1979 the NHL had only two days to summon up the Challenge Cup
team that was routed 6-0 by the Soviets in the decisive game. But this
time Team Canada seemed to have everything in order. It had tremendous
scorers, a mobile defense. role players. It had enthusiasm. It had a full
month of training camp to get in shape, to iron out any wrinkles. And on
Sunday, Team Canada had only to beat a Soviet team that four nights earlier
it had annihilated 7-3 in a preliminary game.
"This was just a one-game deal." said Canada Defenseman
Brian Enghlom after Sunday's debacle, "and they came up better than us."
Wrong.
What happened before 17,033 mostly silent fans
was that the NHL finally ran out of excuses for losing "big" hockey games
to the Soviet Union. As Canada Cup II proved once again, the Soviets play
for the sickle better than the NHL-ers do for the buck.
What Canada Cup II was supposed to be was an extravaganza
of nationalism designed so that Canada could regain its hockey supremacy.
What it turned out to be was a bust, except for the Soviets, of course.
Instead of being a hotly contested two-week tournament pitting the world's
six strongest hockey nations - Canada, the U.S.S.R., Sweden, Finland, Czechoslovakia
and the U.S. - it was a one-game war. Alter the Soviet Union and Canada,
you see, there's a talent gap that even a friendly referee would find impossible
to bridge.
This year, for instance, Sweden was represented
by an odd amalgam of 16 NHL pros and seven amateurs who hardly knew each
other and played as if they didn't care to. Finland went winless, and in
its five games was outscored 31-6. While' Team U.S.A. was greatly improved
over the t976 Canada Cup I edition that earned the nickname "Team Useless",
the Americans didn't have a genuine goal scorer, something a hockey team;
well, needs.
And the timing for Canada Cup II wasn't exactly
perfect. either. Pretournament exhibition games began in mid-August, when
even a Rocket Richard would prefer to be on a beach. When Canada squeaked
past the Soviet Union in a tune-up at Edmonton a few weeks ago. one sardonic
Montreal newspaper-man was quick to call the game "the greatest hockey
thriller ever played in August."
Certainly. the six exhibition games and the 15-game
preliminary round robin to qualify four teams for the semifinals, not to
mention the $25 tickets, didn’t fool Canada’s sophisticated fans. At first
Quebec City was scheduled to host three games, including one of the semifinals,
but after only 4,055 Quebeckers turned out to see Canada play the U.S.
in an exhibition game, Cup organizer Alan Eagleson gassed Quebec and moved
the other two games to Ottawa, which then paked in all of 7,500 for the
Soviets' 4--I semifinal win over Czechoslovakia on Friday night. Until
Sunday night no Canada Cup game had been a sellout. The Soviets and Team
Canada, did draw 16,001 to the Forum Wednesday night, but a Team Canada
intrasquad game last month attracted an even larger crowd. At Winnipeg,
only 3688 watched Sweden play Finland. "Yeah." said New York Islander General
Manager Bill Torrey, an adviser to Team Canada, "but 1.300 of them were
NHL scouts."
With the '79 Challenge Cup disaster in mind, the
NHL changed its international game plan for Canada Cup '81. "This year
we shied away from a media dream team." said Team Canada General Manager
Cliff Fletcher. who's also the general manager or the Calgary Flames. Indeed.
Team Canada wasn't a mere collection of All-Stars. Sure, there was Guy'
Lafleur, Gil Perreault., Marcel Dionne, Denis Potvin and Larry Robinson,
as well as the Stanley Cup champion Islanders' thrill-a-minute line or
Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies. And, naturally, Wayne Gretiky
- gentleman, heartthrob, star of Pepsi TV ads and not a bad hockey player.
But six of the top 16 NHL scorers last season weren't even invited to camp,
and one of the early cuts was the 1980-81 winner of the NHL’s best defenseman
award, Randy Cadyle. So much for NHL glory. "We've taken our heads out
of the sand." Fletcher said. "A player without speed is dead against the
Soviets."
Still, the U.S.S.R. was less than awed by Team
Awesome, especially if you believed Anatoly Tarasov, the father or Soviet
hockey and the man who directed the Red Machine to 13 Olympic and world
championships. "To say I'm impressed wouldn't be telling the truth." Tarasov
said Friday night after Canada blitzed the U.S. 4--I in the semifinals.
"Your goalie (Mike Liut) isn't so great. And the defensemen aren't the
fastest, either." Only Gretzky impressed Tarasov. "Very smart." Tarasov
said, pointing to his head. “Very smart. Smartest player I’ve ever seen.”
For their part. the Soviets were a team in transition.
Gone were Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov and Valery Kharlamov, the guts
of the dynasty of the 1970s. And Soviet team spirit sank on Aug. 27 when
news came from the U.S.S.R. that Kharlamov, cut from the national squad
only a few days earlier, had died in a car crash near Moscow. Further,
in many Canada Cup games the Soviets had seemed lost on the ice. It was
as if they were looking for a teammate. a notable deviation from previous
Soviet teams, which seemed to locate linemates through telepathy. In five
chances against the Czechoslovaks one night, the Soviet power play failed
to produce a score. But they still had Vladislav Tretiak, who at 29 remains
the world's No. 1 goaltender. Tretiak sat out the 7-3 Soviet loss to Canada.
but in the six games he did play in Canada. he allowed only eight 'goals
and had by far the lowest goals-against average in the competition, 1.33.
On Sunday in Montreal, Forum vendors passed out
tiny Canadian flags, and when Jan Rubes began to bellow the lyrics to 0`
Canada, just about every voice in the place joined in. According to
plan, Team Canada came out pressing, shelling Tretiak early, trying to
take a lead. Meanwhile, the Soviets were content to back into their own
zone, play things safe, ice the puck, if necessary. “That’s something we’d
never seen them do,” Fletcher said later.
In a scoreless first period Team Canada pumped
12 shots at Tretiak, while the Soviets took four at Liut. In the second
period, though, the Soviets changed tactics and moved in on Liut,
who played shakily.
Igor Larionov fired from the slot and beat Liut
high, but Gillies tied the score on a wrist shot. Tretiak had no chance.
At 11:15 , there was a pileup in front of the Canadian net and the puck
dribbled out to the right face-off circle; Soviet Forward Sergei Shepelev
picked it up and flicked a backhander into the net. Liut never saw it.
Five minutes later Shepelev scored again. It was 3-1, for the Soviets,
and suddenly Canada was on the ropes. The Soviets scored two quick goals
and three late goals in the final period, and the rout was complete.
Afterward, in the Soviet locker room, a group
of players, led by veteran Aleksandr Maltsev, stuffed the huge, weighty,
nickel Canada Cup Trophy into an equipment bag bound for Moscow. Eagleson
spotted the Soviets leaving the building with the Cup and, as he said,
"tried to explain to them that it belongs to the Canadian Government."
Listen up. Alan. The Soviets don't need to steal
the Canada Cup. No, sir. No, Canada. They own it. |
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Одним из самых наблюдательных зрителей на Кубке Канады был Анатолий Тарасов. "Такого умного игрока как Уэйн Гретцки я ещё не видел в своей жизни", - сказал патриарх советского хоккея
ЛИНКИ: ИЗ АРХИВА "ЗВЁЗД С ВОСТОКА" |