Yakushev 72
The 1979 Challenge Cup was, in my opinion, Soviet hockey's finest hour! The 1979 Soviet Challenge Cup team was the Canadian/NHL hockey executive's worst nightmare! It was the answer to the question "What would happen if you took a Soviet national team that trains 1,300 hours a year at a ridiculously intense pace, and when the mood strikes, is capable of beating any team in the World with some degree of ease, but which often lacks intensity, desire, and the will to fight for victory, and clone it with the Canadian trait of being willing to run through a wall, if that's what it takes to win?" What happens if you create a hybrid of Valery Kharlamov and Mark Messier, Sergei Makarov with Bobby Clarke? For one time only in the history of Soviet hockey, the 1979 Challenge Cup provided a glimpse into "what if" looks like in the flesh.
What you had was the consummate Soviet skill in skating, passing, and setting up beautiful combination plays effortlessly combined with an intense desire to win and a willingness to pay any physical price to achieve that win. Don't take my word for it -check out what the Canadian players had to say about the Soviets after the series. Bobby Clarke, Bob Gainey, Guy LaFleur, Bryan Trottier - all said basically the same thing, that "we have never seen a Soviet team that hungry, that willing to fight for the puck, willing to give as much as take in the form of body checks, and having a greater will to win than us." It showed what would happen when a team that was intensely trained also had an intense desire to win.
Unfortunately for the Soviets, whatever it was that prompted such a remarkable transformation proved to be short-lived. In spite of all the hue and cry in Ottawa to totally revamp Canadian hockey, Soviet teams came back less than a year later and stunk up the ice in Super Series performances against NHL teams (CSKA lost to Buffalo 6-1), and lost the gold medal to the USA at Lake Placid. I never saw evidence of that Soviet zeal after the Challenge Cup.