VMBM
And it didn't even bring me down
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...
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