Soviet players points/goals/MVP top finishes

[VMBM]

Thanks for the attempt. But I'm 99% sure they didn't bother to go their own archives and look up the original sources from 1976. So unfortunately, their answer doesn't really help us.

Good point.

I think the IIHF Guide And Record Book that Staniowski mentioned was probably the book that the poster was referring to when I asked about this problem years ago on THOH. I just remember that he/she got a bit irritated with me, when I kept going on about the issue even after his/her post. But obviously this is not such a simple problem that a book like that would provide a definitive answer for.

Anyway, clearly according to IIHF's official line, it was Pospisil and Martinec - unless someone there bothers, like you said, go through their own archives, and then maybe would find some 'waterproof' document(s) of otherwise. I'm not holding my breath.

My problem with Pospisil and Martinec being just mistakes is this; it would have required two different kind of mix-ups. Firstly, mixing up the All-Star voting with the best defenseman (in Pospisil's case) and not only that but also mixing up the top scorer with the best forward (in Martinec's case; after all, Kharlamov did get more All-Star votes... or AS points, whatever). I mean, even I'm not that confused or sloppy. And then IIHF themselves would repeat this mistake year after year... But there also could be a simpler explanation to that possible error, of course.

I have to say that there's something about the observation that (otherwise) there have never been 3 players from the same country chosen as the best players. Not even e.g. in 1983 when Jiri Lala was named the Best Forward (Tretiak the goalie and Kasatonov the dman), although USSR was clearly the best team and KLM (the All-Star team was Tretiak + Green Unit) destroyed the opposition. So, IIHF definitely have a tendency to choose, if possible, players from different countries. And this seems to be common in some other tournaments and their selections too; look at the Canada Cup '76 All-Star team, for example. On the other hand, rarely has a team been so superior as CSSR was in 1976.

At this stage, I don't see any big crime if all those names involved are credited for the awards. It would be nice to find out a satisfying answer, but...

 

[Theokritos]

...I´ve seen some that listed Kharlamov as the best F of the WHC. Example: the page from Slovakian hockey yearbook 1976:

¹18 ? 02.05.76.pdf
It's Kharlamov here. This is the source I trust the most.

To add to these:

The hockey page from Polish newspaper Trybuna Robotnicza from April 26th 1976 also says Holeček, Waltin and Kharlamov were the IIHF Directorate picks while the All-star team consisted of Holeček, Waltin, Pospíšil, Martinec, Nový and Kharlamov. I can provide the PDF later.

The 1976 edition of the Finnish hockey yearbook Jääkiekkokirjat has the same. (PDF here. See bottom of p.115 for All-star team and top of p.116 for Directorate Awards.)

So the four contemporary sources we've got so far (two newspapers from April-May 1976, one Polish and the other Russian, plus two yearbooks from 1976, one Finnish and one Czechoslovak) all confirm Waltin and Kharlamov as the winners of the IIHF Direcotrate Awards. It's only a few (?) years later that Pospíšil and Martinec pop up. I have no idea what went wrong there, but that's some strong evidence in favour of Waltin and Kharlamov IMHO.

 

[VMBM]

As much as it looks right now that Waltin-Kharlamov is the right answer, it just doesn't cease to amaze me that such an error (Pospisil-Martinec) could have been made, and almost certainly by someone/some people working for IIHF (why would IIHF follow some other erroneous source?). Getting wrong 2 out of 3 almost equals sabotage to me.

I was trying to look some clues from Kharlamov's autobiography (Finnish version), but not surprisingly I couldn't find anything (Kharlamov rarely goes into any great detail regarding the tournaments he played in). I wonder whether Martinec says anything about it in his book (like "I was disappointed not to win.../I was happy to win the Best Forward award").

 

[Theokritos]

As much as it looks right now that Waltin-Kharlamov is the right answer, it just doesn't cease to amaze me that such an error (Pospisil-Martinec) could have been made, and almost certainly by someone/some people working for IIHF (why would IIHF follow some other erroneous source?).

Same here. It is extremely puzzling.

 

[Namba 17]

Some brief analysis:

Top-5 Soviet League goalscoring finishes (5 minimum):

Mikhailov - 11 times
Guryshev - 10 times
Starshinov - 9 times
Makarov* - 8 times
Krutov* - 8 times
B. Mayorov - 7 times
Petrov - 6 times
Bobrov - 6 times
V. Aleksandrov - 6 times
Almetov - 6 times
Shuvalov - 6 times
A. Yakushev - 5 times
Balderis - 5 times
Firsov - 5 times

Top 5 WC/OG goalscoring finishes (4 minimum):

Mikhailov - 8 times
Kharlamov - 6 times
Makarov - 5 times
Vikulov - 5 times
Maltsev - 5 times
Loktev - 4 times
Krutov - 4 times
Firsov - 4 times
Starshinov - 4 times
Almetov - 4 times

Top 5 WC/OG scoring finishes (4 minimum):

Kharlamov - 8 times
Mikhailov - 7 times
Makarov - 6 times
Maltsev - 5 times
Petrov - 5 times
Vikulov - 5 times
Firsov - 5 times
A.Yakushev - 4 times
Larionov - 4 times

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

So the four contemporary sources we've got so far (two newspapers from April-May 1976, one Polish and the other Russian, plus two yearbooks from 1976, one Finnish and one Czechoslovak) all confirm Waltin and Kharlamov as the winners of the IIHF Direcotrate Awards. It's only a few (?) years later that Pospíšil and Martinec pop up. I have no idea what went wrong there, but that's some strong evidence in favour of Waltin and Kharlamov IMHO.

I can also add that the Czechoslovakian equivalents to the Soviet Futbol-Khokkey magazine had Holecek-Waltin-Kharlamov. The Stadion (Czech) edition from May 11 and Start (Slovak) edition from May 17.

Martinec in his autobiography mentioned that he was an All-Star and the top scorer, but did not mention anything about the IIHF Directorate Award.

I also looked at the official documentation from this tournament that I have at home, but unfortunately the compendium did not contain this information.

 

[Theokritos]

I can also add that the Czechoslovakian equivalents to the Soviet Futbol-Khokkey magazine had Holecek-Waltin-Kharlamov. The Stadion (Czech) edition from May 11 and Start (Slovak) edition from May 17.

That makes it six sources from 1976 (four from April-May 1976) from a variety of different countries that all agree the Directorate picks were Holeček, Waltin and Kharlamov.