SIHR Blog The Blueprint of Soviet Hockey

[Theokritos]

The Russians were on the move all the time. We could hardly keep up with them. They interchanged positions to the extent of the outside-left skating over to the right-wing and vice versa. I have never seen hockey played like it. It was a Chinese puzzle to try to follow the players in their positions as it was given in the programme. They simply wandered here and there at will, but the most remarkable feature of it all, they never got in each other's way. [1]​

Is the above a verdict on Soviet hockey? Perhaps on a team coached by Anatoli Tarasov or Viktor Tikhonov? Or maybe on the Russian Five in Detroit?

No! These are remarks by English football observers on a Russian soccer squad touring Great Britain in autumn 1945. Only two words of the original statements have been altered by me: Where it said running, I substituted skating, and where it said football, I substituted hockey. But these are the only changes that have been made. So how come an early appraisal of Russian soccer sounds almost literally like evaluations of Soviet hockey would sound decades later?

Boris Arkadyev, the “first great Soviet theorist of football”
Source: xliby.ru​

When the Soviets picked up Canadian hockey after World War II, the first players were recruited from bandy, or “hockey with the ball” as it was called in Russia. Not only did bandy resemble soccer tactically (11 players a side on a big field of play) – those Soviet athletes who chased the small ball on the ice rink during the winter months were also the very same people who chased the big ball on the soccer pitch during the summer season.

Soccer was the paradigmatic team sport in the USSR. It was even more popular than bandy and it offered much more opportunities for international competition. In Europe alone, several different styles and schools of thought had developed in soccer. The English traditionally preferred to “kick and rush” after the ball (not entirely unlike the “dump and chase” game that appeared in Canadian hockey since the 1940s). The Scottish had countered with the attempt to control the ball with shorter passes. Continental countries added their own interpretations and variations. International exchange brought technical and tactical development. By the 1930s, the established tactical setup (2 defenders, 3 midfielders, 5 forwards) was in the process of being replaced by systems that offered more flexibility. It was exactly in this period that the political leadership of the USSR gave the green light for Soviet soccer to enter the international picture.

Young Anatoli Tarasov as player-coach of a soccer team from Zagorsk outside of Moscow
Source: Alexander Gorbunov, Trener Anatoliy Tarasov (2015)​

Coaches and players were eager to embrace the opportunity and learn from foreign top teams. The experience gained in these international encounters became embroiled in the fabric of Soviet soccer. One man who emerged as both a particularly creative learner and a formative teacher was Boris Arkadyev, whom soccer historian Jonathan Wilson calls the “first great Soviet theorist of football” [2]. The flexible system that Arkadyev developed would go down in history as “organised disorder”:

We confused the opposition, leaving them without weaponry with our sudden movements. Our left-winger scored most of his goals from the centre-foward position, our right-winger from inside-left and our centre-forward from the flanks. [3]​

Arkadyev insisted on intense physical training to foster high-speed movement and quick passing. Using this new system, Dinamo Moscow won the 1940 Soviet championship in dominant fashion.

Arkadi Chernyshov (center) as a member of the Dinamo Moscow soccer team
Source: Leonid Reizer, Arkadiy Chernyshov (2020)​

Boris Arkadyev never coached hockey, but the first generation of great Soviet hockey minds all came up through the school of soccer coaches like him and others such as Mikhail Kozlov and Mikhail Tovarovsky. Their ideas about training, technique and tactics were shaped accordingly. Three examples:

Arkadi Chernyshov (head coach of the Soviet national team 1954-1957 and 1960-1972):

Career as professional soccer player. Central defender of the 1940 Dinamo Moscow championship team. As Russian soccer historian Alexander Soskin puts it, Arkadyev appreciated the tall and tactically literate Chernyshov for his “flair for accurate passing and his capability for work” [4]. The two were also close on a personal level: Arkadi Chernyshov's older sister Raisa was married with Boris Arkadyev's brother.

Anatoli Tarasov (head coach of the Soviet national team 1957-1960 and assistant coach 1962-1972):

Career as professional soccer player. He trained under Arkadyev with the Central Army soccer club (1944-1946) and called him a mentor. In the months immediately after World War II, Tarasov was sent to Hungary as a scout. Hungary had been a strong soccer country before the war and would soon make even more headlines with its tactically groundbreaking “Golden Team” in the early 1950s.

Vsevolod Bobrov (head coach of the Soviet national team 1972-1974):

Career as professional soccer player. One of the leading players of his time, he was a member of the squad touring Great Britain in 1945. Trained under Arkadyev with the Central Army soccer club (1945-1952). After his playing days, Bobrov served two terms as head coach of the Central Army soccer club (1967-1969, 1977-1978).

Vsevolod Bobrov (left) watches as Boris Arkadyev draws a tactical diagram in the ground
Source: Vladimir Pakhomov, Vsevolod Bobrov (2002)​

It's no coincidence that when Anatoli Tarasov discussed his idea of a new basic setup for hockey (2 forwards + 2 midfielders + 1 defender instead of 3 forwards + 2 defenders) in his book Sovershennoletie (“Coming of Age”) in the second half of the 1960s, he pointed to the historic development of tactical setups in soccer: After all, this was the sport that had provided the frame of reference for him and his colleagues during their formative years. And when Tarasov's career as coach of the Central Army hockey club finally came to an end in 1974, he didn't miss the chance to try his luck as coach of the Central Army soccer squad, albeit without success.

Intense physical training, fast movement, quick passing and positional interchangeability – all these pillars of Soviet hockey were already promoted decades earlier in soccer by the very men who coached Chernyshov, Tarasov and Bobrov. It was 1930s and 1940s Soviet soccer that provided the blueprint for Soviet hockey.

[1] Quoted after Jonathan Wilson, Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics (2008), Chapter 5
[2] Wilson
[3] Wilson
[4] Alexander Soskin, Futbolny chelovek iz khokkeynoy legendy. In: Futbol 9, 2001

Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)

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[sr edler]

Nice work again, and cross-sports examination can often be quite interesting. They played that typical "kick and rush" game that early in English football?

In Sweden Sven Tumba famously played both hockey and football, but I was actually a bit surprised to see he only did two games with the two national football teams (A & B). In football he was apparently a winger, whereas in hockey he played center.

In early era Canadian hockey, players were often into many different sports, but I think the one most similar to hockey would probably be lacrosse, as there were sticks (and puck/ball) involved in both. But I'm really not as well read on lacrosse (yet) to really say how much the two sports had early influence on each other, outside of minor things such as single player shot technique.

 

[Theokritos]

Nice work again, and cross-sports examination can often be quite interesting. They played that typical "kick and rush" game that early in English football?

Now that you ask... I'm not sure anymore. It's been quite some time since I've read the relevant chapter and I don't have access to the book right now. Will have to look it up in the weekend. I might be misrembering it. Maybe it was individual forays instead of the long ball that the Scottish tried to counter with passing.

 

[sr edler]

Now that you ask... I'm not sure anymore. It's been quite some time since I've read the relevant chapter and I don't have access to the book right now. Will have to look it up in the weekend. I might be misrembering it. Maybe it was individual forays instead of the long ball that the Scottish tried to counter with passing.

I wonder if that "kick and run" game was ever that successful on an international level, in football. I think in hockey it makes a bit more sense, with dump and chase, since it's a smaller field and you probably have a better chance of retrieving the puck off of the boards. But still, it was never really a thing in Euro hockey, and it's kinda gone out of fashion nowadays with the possession craze.

The worst thing in football is probably having to chase the ball too much, giving away too much energy, especially to a team with a great passing game. But I think it (kick and run) was a popular thing in English football in the 80s/early 90s, before the emergence of the Premier League, especially amongst the mid to lower tier teams.

 

[kaiser matias]

Worth noting one of the fans watching that 1945 Soviet tour was a Canadian army officer named Clarence Campbell. He was also at some hockey matches in London where he saw Soviet football officials, and later noted that it "was the time when the Russians got the idea for their hockey team. The Russian soccer players were more interested in watching Canadian players play hockey than in soccer." (quoted from Lawrence Martin's The Red Machine, pp. 25-26)

 

[Sanf]

Great article!

I´m somewhat familiar with Boris Arkadyev. Did not know that he was so closely tied with the group of big hockey influencers in Soviet.

About the kick and rush. I guess it was somewhat similar. I have understood that WM was quite conservative (defensive) counter attack tactic. It brough inside forwards and quite tight manguarding (or is it shadowing I know the Finnish terms better). But as you mention in 30´s different kind of tactical versions arrived. It´s been while, but I remember reading that actually Austria was using long high passes in their V tactic that is closely related that "80´s English football". But it´s while since I read these.

Tumba reminded me of quite many Finns who played both sports in Finland. Last I believe was Kari Eloranta who won Finnish Championships in summer of 82 and 86. Did not participate in Eurocups because I believe he was in NHL both times.

edit. I had to check and Finnish term välihyökkääjä apparently does not completely translate to inside forward. Välihyökkääjä is forward who comes down in field to help defence.

 

[Yakushev72]

In Tarasov's book "The Road to Olympus," he described the need to depart from Canadian tradition and to create something uniquely Russian (or Soviet, in the 1960's). He outlined his objections to Canadian hockey and what as he perceived as its weaknesses. He described a kind of nightmare he envisioned about opposing forwards passing the puck across the ice from behind the goal line, and inevitably creating a situation where an enemy forward was left uncovered in front of the net. To make a long story short, borrowing from soccer, he developed the 2-2-1 system which would create two"halfbacks," hybrid positions that would have both offensive and defensive responsibilities, one defenseman who strictly defended, and two forwards who had no defensive responsibility - only to attack the goal with lightning speed and creativity. To succeed, the team would have to execute at top speed for each shift, which mandated intensive physical training and exhaustive skills development. Thus the Soviet hockey that we saw from 1965-1988.

 

[Theokritos]

I'm happy that this topic is getting some replies because I thought it falls into an awkward territory: most hockey fans (in particularly North Americans) don't care for soccer and most soccer fans are not interested in hockey. But I really believe this soccer connection is pretty crucial to understand where basic ideas of Soviet hockey came from and I've never seen it spelled out before.

Worth noting one of the fans watching that 1945 Soviet tour was a Canadian army officer named Clarence Campbell. He was also at some hockey matches in London where he saw Soviet football officials, and later noted that it "was the time when the Russians got the idea for their hockey team. The Russian soccer players were more interested in watching Canadian players play hockey than in soccer." (quoted from Lawrence Martin's The Red Machine, pp. 25-26)

Thanks a lot for this. I was sure that I once read something about the Russians watching hockey in England in autumn 1945, but I couldn't find it anymore.

About the kick and rush. I guess it was somewhat similar. I have understood that WM was quite conservative (defensive) counter attack tactic.

I really have to look it up in Wilson's book tomorrow. I think the term "kick and rush" came later, but I thought the long ball was already used early in the English soccer.

 

[Theokritos]

They played that typical "kick and rush" game that early in English football?

So Wilson points to dribbling as the favoured mean in early English soccer. When England played Scotland in Glasgow in 1872, the advantage of the English in the dribbling department was thwarted by the Scottish game of close passing. In the following decades, passing became more common in England too, but not only in the Scottish vain but also under the influence of the Sheffield school which pioneered long balls – to the amusement of observers in London (1875) and the confusion of opposing players in Glasgow (1877). A report by the Scottish Football Association on the latter match contains the following comment on the Sheffield players: "Long kicking was largely indulged in on Saturday on their side."

By the early 1900s, "kick-and-rush" was apparently already a staple in English soccer. Here's what Wilson writes about Harry Bradshaw who became manager/coach of Fulham FC in 1904:

He had clear ideas on how football should be played. No fan of kick-and-rush, he employed a series of Scottish coaches schooled in the close-passing game, ensured a hefty Scottish representation among the playing staff and left them to get on with it.​

So "kick-and-rush" does indeed trace back to the 1870s and was already somewhat common in England by two decades later.

 

[Sanf]

So Wilson points to dribbling as the favoured mean in early English soccer. When England played Scotland in Glasgow in 1872, the advantage of the English in the dribbling department was thwarted by the Scottish game of close passing. In the following decades, passing became more common in England too, but not only in the Scottish vain but also under the influence of the Sheffield school which pioneered long balls – to the amusement of observers in London (1875) and the confusion of opposing players in Glasgow (1877). A report by the Scottish Football Association on the latter match contains the following comment on the Sheffield players: "Long kicking was largely indulged in on Saturday on their side."

By the early 1900s, "kick-and-rush" was apparently already a staple in English soccer. Here's what Wilson writes about Harry Bradshaw who became manager/coach of Fulham FC in 1904:

He had clear ideas on how football should be played. No fan of kick-and-rush, he employed a series of Scottish coaches schooled in the close-passing game, ensured a hefty Scottish representation among the playing staff and left them to get on with it.​

So "kick-and-rush" does indeed trace back to the 1870s and was already somewhat common in England by two decades later.

Oh that is true. I kind of mixed things and thought that you were talking about English playing kick and rush while Arkadyev started to "fix" Soviet football. The WM system which I talked about was brought in mid 20´s (by Arsenal and Herbert Chapman) and I believe most of countries played variants of that system when Arkadyev started to coach. My mistake.

 

[sr edler]

Always when I think about the English "kick and run" game today I can't escape the fact that a young Xavi Hernandez apparently was fascinated with Matthew Le Tissier. It just cracks me up a little that the guy who would become a center piece/regista when Spain's golden generation finally got over that hump, and won multiple international tourneys, used to obsess over Southampton highlights as a youngster.

I watch those highlights myself from time to time, by the way. That goal against Wimbledon for instance where he flips the ball to himself on a free kick is insane. But, in a broader picture, I just think it says something about English football in general and why they never really got over that last hump on the biggest international stage, with their golden generation. Not necessarily that they should have used Le Tissier more on the national team, because he had his own flaws, but more the fact that they never really brought forward a regista in the Xavi/Pirlo/Veron mold, and also that they couldn't handle antics & cynicism.

In hockey they play as Great Britain though.

Did they always play as Great Britain though in hockey?

I have some vague memories of coming across some early British papers talking about Scottish/English hockey teams, but it may not have been national teams.

 

[Theokritos]

Always when I think about the English "kick and run" game today I can't escape the fact that a young Xavi Hernandez apparently was fascinated with Matthew Le Tissier. It just cracks me up a little that the guy who would become a center piece/regista when Spain's golden generation finally got over that hump, and won multiple international tourneys, used to obsess over Southampton highlights as a youngster.

I didn't know that. Pretty funny and ironic.

In hockey they play as Great Britain though.

Did they always play as Great Britain though in hockey?

I have some vague memories of coming across some early British papers talking about Scottish/English hockey teams, but it may not have been national teams.

They were referred to as England at the first European Championship in 1910, which is not surprising considering it was a club from London (Prince's Club) that participated and that the British Ice Hockey Association had yet to be founded (1914). I guess from 1914 on they were Great Britain, but in contemporary accounts they simultaneously kept being referred to as England. Apparently that changed with the 1924 Olympics. At this tournament (and in subsequent years), they were sporting shirts with the Union Jack on it.



The book "Lion in Winter" by Martin Harris and David Gordon (presented here on HFBoards last year) has several such pictures from the 1924 Olympics.

 

[Theokritos]

The WM system which I talked about was brought in mid 20´s (by Arsenal and Herbert Chapman) and I believe most of countries played variants of that system when Arkadyev started to coach.

That's exactly right.

The established setup was 2-3-5:



In some places, clever managers figured out that there were better ideas than to have all five fowards in one line. The inside forwards dropped back to turn the 2-3-5 into something of an 2-3-2-3.

The next tweak was made in England in the mid-1920s, as you rightfully point out. The center halfback dropped back to become a center fullback, which turned the 2-3-2-3 into 3-2-2-3 – the "WM" system:



Says Wikipedia: "The formation became so successful that by the late 1930s most English clubs had adopted the WM." And it was also adopted abroad.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was isolated from international soccer for ideological reasons. There was barely any exchange with non-Communist soccer teams at all. The Socialist clubs from abroad that the Soviets played against were very mediocre if not downright bad. Interestingly, the Soviet sport observers were painfully aware of this and didn't shy away from publicly voicing their displeasure. In 1927, the popular newspaper Sovietsky sport wrote: "We are stewing in our own juice. We have no one to study from, and no one teaches us the newest tactics and techniques. There are no games with the strongest of opponents who can enliven our play." (Quote from Robert Edelman's book Serious Fun: a History of Spectator Sports in the USSR.)

That changed in the 1930s. The political leadership of the USSR embraced the idea of competing with the "bourgeoisie" in sport and "bring worldwide glory" to the USSR with medals and records. From 1934 on, Soviet soccer teams had the opportunity to play against strong foreign teams from various European countries. Particularly influential was a squad from the Basque Country that toured the USSR in June-July 1937. This squad featured six players who had represented Spain at the 1934 World Cup (where Spain had dominated Brazil and it took the coming world champion Italy a replay to eliminate Spain in the QF). They used the "WM" formation while the Soviets still played 2-3-5.

The Basques won seven out of their nine games in the USSR. The other two games were a draw and a win by the Soviets (Spartak Moscow), the latter with the help of the referee. The Soviets were very impressed by the touring squad and in the following years most of their top clubs switched to the "WM" formation. Boris Arkadyev took it further than the others though. He didn't simply adopt the formation, but made it even more flexible by having the forwards switch position. And in order for his players to grasp where to move and when, he spent hours discussing tactics with them.

Arkadi Chernyshov, by the way, had not only played against the touring Basque team himself as a member of Dinamo Moscow (not yet under Arkadyev), but he literally experienced the switch to the "WM" system first-hand: Having played as one of two fullbacks in the 2-3-5 system, he was now used in the newly created position of the center fullback in the 3-2-2-3. As such, he was not only a destroyer, but he also contributed with his passes (in hockey we would say he had a good first pass) – albeit he didn't yet venture beyond the half-way line, as opposed to later center fullbacks.

 

[Sanf]

Yep I have read quite a lot about the Soviet teams that played against Finnish Workers union team several times during 20´s and 30´s (often it wasn´t Soviet NT so to speak). I do believe that for example Pishcheviki Moscow (future Spartak) struggled (lost 3-2) against Turun Weikot (Workers union team from Turku) while they played in 1927 which really is bad. Workers newspapers often praised Soviets as the best possible mentors in world and how they are in the top of the world (One Swedish workerspaper reporter even called them European Uruguay IIRC). But well... that migh be bit coloured opinions.

To bring it bit back to hockey there were quite many players on those Finnish workers football teams that were in the early group of soccer/bandy players that played organized hockey in here.

 

[kaiser matias]

Lawrence Martin also notes the influence of Soviet football on early hockey, as well as the overlap between players (Bobrov being the most prominent example, of course). That and bandy clearly impacted the Soviet style, especially in those early years.

I also saw Robert Edelman's book Serious Fun, and want to recommend it here. While it mostly looks at soccer, it does touch in hockey a bit, and gives some good insight into the development of Soviet sports. It is a little dated now (published in 1993) but Edelman is the leading scholar in Soviet sports, and far as I'm aware it's still the only book on the subject in English.

 

[Sanf]

This is overall interesting angle and I haven´t really thought of it before. Bandy and Football had similarities and adapting football tactics via Bandy is interesting idea.

It kind of bothers me that I do have quite little information of Russian bandy. We talked about it few years ago in here. It had quite of different rules than "Nordic bandy". I have read since writings of Niilo Tammisalo (pioneer of Finnish team sports, key founder of Ilves, NT football coach etc. etc.) and Yrjö Tuhkunen (sport writer, referee, called Bandy professor). In 1930´s Both talked about how Swedish bandy adapted lot from hockey tactics after they started to play it in early 20´s. Even the hold of the stick was adapted partly from hockey (in which Finns struggled lot.) Niilo Tammisalo was disapointed how little Finnish bandy had adapted from tactics of hockey and football.

But Russian bandy was even more isolated than Russian football. Even more because it was game variant that was only played in Russia. What kind of influences it sucked over the years.

 

[Theokritos]

Lawrence Martin also notes the influence of Soviet football on early hockey, as well as the overlap between players

I really need to read his book one day.

I also saw Robert Edelman's book Serious Fun, and want to recommend it here. While it mostly looks at soccer, it does touch in hockey a bit, and gives some good insight into the development of Soviet sports. It is a little dated now (published in 1993) but Edelman is the leading scholar in Soviet sports, and far as I'm aware it's still the only book on the subject in English.

It's very interesting indeed and provided me with some important basics on the popularity and development of Soviet soccer in the 1920s and 1930s.

ADDITION:

Worth noting one of the fans watching that 1945 Soviet tour was a Canadian army officer named Clarence Campbell. He was also at some hockey matches in London where he saw Soviet football officials, and later noted that it "was the time when the Russians got the idea for their hockey team. The Russian soccer players were more interested in watching Canadian players play hockey than in soccer." (quoted from Lawrence Martin's The Red Machine, pp. 25-26)

Interestingly, the Soviet soccer players already watched Canadian hockey prior to WW2 when they visited Paris for a soccer bout in December 1935.

 

[Theokritos]

Workers newspapers often praised Soviets as the best possible mentors in world and how they are in the top of the world (One Swedish workerspaper reporter even called them European Uruguay IIRC). But well... that migh be bit coloured opinions.

That's definitely propaganda. There were no comparisons between Soviet soccer teams and strong European teams prior to 1934, so those statements have no base in reality.

To bring it bit back to hockey there were quite many players on those Finnish workers football teams that were in the early group of soccer/bandy players that played organized hockey in here.

Those workers players were actual amateurs who only trained and played in their spare time, right?

It kind of bothers me that I do have quite little information of Russian bandy. We talked about it few years ago in here. It had quite of different rules than "Nordic bandy". I have read since writings of Niilo Tammisalo (pioneer of Finnish team sports, key founder of Ilves, NT football coach etc. etc.) and Yrjö Tuhkunen (sport writer, referee, called Bandy professor). In 1930´s Both talked about how Swedish bandy adapted lot from hockey tactics after they started to play it in early 20´s. Even the hold of the stick was adapted partly from hockey (in which Finns struggled lot.) Niilo Tammisalo was disapointed how little Finnish bandy had adapted from tactics of hockey and football.

But Russian bandy was even more isolated than Russian football. Even more because it was game variant that was only played in Russia. What kind of influences it sucked over the years.

Yes, I wish I knew a bit more about Russian bandy. What we do know about rule differences compared to Nordic bandy is that smaller goals and a heavier ball was used.

 

[Sanf]

That's definitely propaganda. There were no comparisons between Soviet soccer teams and strong European teams prior to 1934, so those statements have no base in reality.



Those workers players were actual amateurs who only trained and played in their spare time, right?



Yes, I wish I knew a bit more about Russian bandy. What we do know about rule differences compared to Nordic bandy is that smaller goals and a heavier ball was used.

Yes those where biased opinions. Well ofcourse that Swedish reporter may have seen Soviet teams in their own games and other European teams in Olympics and such... but it would be hard to make such claims because Soviet did face poor competition in their own games.

Yes those were amateurs. Besides Paavo Nurmi (runner) and Gunnar Bärlund (boxing) and maybe few others there weren´t really professional or full time athletes in Finland during 20´s and 30´s. Though after getting kicked out of Workers union lot of those worker union players did form big part of Finnish NT (in football). But that goes far oftopic.

 

[Theokritos]

Yes those where biased opinions. Well ofcourse that Swedish reporter may have seen Soviet teams in their own games and other European teams in Olympics and such... but it would be hard to make such claims because Soviet did face poor competition in their own games.

It's interesting that Soviet athletes and sports journalists themselves were well aware of this and did in fact complain about it in public. I haven't studied it systematically, so I can't tell you how much frank talk there was in Soviet sports papers (primarily Sovietsky Sport) compared to how much propaganda there was. But there were quite a few prominent voices who were openly discussing the poor competition and that Soviet teams had to learn from the best even if that meant initial defeat. It's the same attitude that Chernyshov, Tarasov & Co carried into Soviet hockey.

Yes those were amateurs. Besides Paavo Nurmi (runner) and Gunnar Bärlund (boxing) and maybe few others there weren´t really professional or full time athletes in Finland during 20´s and 30´s.

Right. I guess genuine amateurs would indeed have had reason to look up to the Soviet players. They were de-facto professional athletes (formally they were soldiers and physical education instructors etc) who trained and played year round in a not-so-well concealed commercial environment. While some Soviet papers criticized this as being against Socialist ideals, the desire of the political leadership for the USSR to have elite athletes meant those complaints lead to nothing.

 

[Kshahdoo]

One thing, that should be pointed out... especially nowadays, when so many fans are obsessed with skating... Soviet "hockey with ball" was all about skating. You couldn't become a good player, if you couldn't skate, because, you know, big pitch. And when the first generation of Russian hockey players appeared, they couldn't do a lot of things, but they could skate for sure. And then skating became really important for Soviet hockey. So you can say, Soviet players' skating abilities, that amazed Canadians so much in 70s-80s, came from hockey with ball/bandy.

As far as I understand, games vs Soviet teams were crucial in establishing skating as one of the most important hockey skill in Canada. And then it's pretty logical to say, that bandy had a certain impact on Canadian hockey as well. Even if Canadians don't know/understand it.

 

[VanIslander]

Still looks like Bobrov & noise.

Bobrov, a marginal NHL prospect, ...
who never was.

There's a lot of concrete evidence of Soviet hockey development in the 1960s, in becoming more than they were.

 

[Batis]

One thing, that should be pointed out... especially nowadays, when so many fans are obsessed with skating... Soviet "hockey with ball" was all about skating. You couldn't become a good player, if you couldn't skate, because, you know, big pitch. And when the first generation of Russian hockey players appeared, they couldn't do a lot of things, but they could skate for sure. And then skating became really important for Soviet hockey. So you can say, Soviet players' skating abilities, that amazed Canadians so much in 70s-80s, came from hockey with ball/bandy.

As far as I understand, games vs Soviet teams were crucial in establishing skating as one of the most important hockey skill in Canada. And then it's pretty logical to say, that bandy had a certain impact on Canadian hockey as well. Even if Canadians don't know/understand it.

Great post. Harry Sindens comments after the 1979 Challenge Cup suggests that you are correct about that "the games vs Soviet teams were crucial in establishing skating as one of the most important hockey skills in Canada".

Harry Sinden of Boston Bruins and Cliff Fletcher of Atlanta Flames were members of the general managers' panel that was in charge of the all-star club. They're two of the brightest young executives in the game and they're concerned about where hockey is sitting these days in North America.
"What this series should do is bring recognition to Soviet hockey for what it's done - and that's to produce the world's best hockey players." Sinden said after Sunday's game.
"It should also drive home to us very emphatically that some changes are needed in our hockey, especially in the development of young players."
"There's a question I have to ask - and I don't have an answer for it. How come the Soviet players, who are absolutely superb skaters, all skate the same way with the same style? And how come our players all skate the same way and, as a group, not as well as the Soviets? I haven't got the answer but I'd certainly like to know."
"That great skating by the Soviets is a big reason why they appear to pass the puck so well. To pass that well you have to skate well. We lag behind them in both areas. The Soviets not only make a pass better than we do, but they take it much better, too, and skating skill is a big difference."

 

[Theokritos]

One thing, that should be pointed out... especially nowadays, when so many fans are obsessed with skating... Soviet "hockey with ball" was all about skating. You couldn't become a good player, if you couldn't skate, because, you know, big pitch. And when the first generation of Russian hockey players appeared, they couldn't do a lot of things, but they could skate for sure.

That's definitely true. Skating was the reason the Soviets were able to keep up with one of the leading European hockey clubs, LTC Prague, as early as 1948. At some point in the 1950s Tarasov actually started to complain that the young hockey players weren't skating as well as the prior generation because not all of them had a bandy background anymore. So as hockey with the puck became established in Russia, skating seems to initially have declined before countermeasures were taken. But the idea that skating is crucial was indeed very arguably something of a bandy-legacy in Soviet hockey.

Ironically, it might have been a Canadian who helped Tarasov & Co get over these growing pains of the 1950s. In his Hockey Handbook (1950), Lloyd Percival placed great emphasis on skating and presented a plethora of drills to improve agility. We know that Tarasov was handed a copy of that book in March 1953. And when he took the Soviet national team to training camp in autumn 1953, he implemented skating drills that lasted 40-50 minutes. See: SIHR Blog - Lloyd Percival and Soviet Hockey (Part 2)