Czechoslovak Players against the USSR

[DN28]

For a long time, I have been interested in complete stats of elite Czechoslovak players against their fiercest rival – Soviet Union. @Robert Gordon Orr has been kind enough to run through the records and provided me exactly what I was looking for. All the credit belongs to him.

To have a larger sample, stats include CSSR-USSR matches not only from the major international tournaments (WHC, OG, CC) but also from the exhibition games and smaller-scale tournaments such as Izvestia Cup and so on.

Only NON-included stats come from games of:
· Any CSSR “B” team versus USSR
· Any CSSR “junior” team versus USSR
· Any Czechoslovak league team or a mixture of league teams versus USSR

Czechoslovak forwards against USSR ranked by the number of points (1948-1992):

Name	Games played	Goals	Assists	Points	Points per game
1. Vladimír Martinec	56	22	19	41	0.73
2. Ivan Hlinka	43	16	12	28	0.65
3. Vladimír Růžička	40	17	8	25	0.63
4. Jiří Holík	54	11	12	23	0.43
5. Václav Nedomanský	35	15	7	22	0.63
6. Milan Nový	44	11	9	20	0.45
7. Vlastimil Bubník	22	13	3	16	0.73
8. Bohuslav Ebermann	33	12	4	16	0.48
9. Jiří Kochta	22	5	10	15	0.68
10. Jiří Lála	39	9	5	14	0.36
11. Jaroslav Pouzar	38	9	4	13	0.34
12. Josef Černý	33	7	6	13	0.39
13. Jozef Golonka	18	9	3	12	0.67
14. Jiří Novák	28	8	4	12	0.43
15. Vladimír Zábrodský	10	9	2	11	1.10
16. Eduard Novák	20	8	3	11	0.55
17. Dušan Pašek	38	8	3	11	0.29
18. Bohuslav Šťastný	34	7	4	11	0.32
19. Jaroslav Jiřík	18	6	4	10	0.56
20. Marián Šťastný	25	6	4	10	0.40
21. Pavel Richter	32	4	6	10	0.31
22. Igor Liba	35	3	7	10	0.29
23. Vincent Lukáč	27	9	0	9	0.33
24. Jindřich Kokrment	17	6	3	9	0.53
25. Stanislav Prýl	18	6	3	9	0.50
26. Jan Klapáč	20	6	3	9	0.45
27. Darius Rusnák	26	4	5	9	0.35
28. Richard Farda	23	3	6	9	0.39
29. Václav Pantůček	18	7	1	8	0.44
30. František Černík	32	5	3	8	0.25
31. Petr Rosol	21	4	4	8	0.38
32. Jiří Kučera	23	4	4	8	0.35
33. Jaroslav Holík	25	4	4	8	0.32
34. Miroslav Vlach	18	5	2	7	0.39
35. Josef Augusta	23	3	4	7	0.30
36. Jiří Šejba	29	3	4	7	0.24
37. Jiří Hrdina	38	3	4	7	0.18
38. Richard Žemlička	9	0	7	7	0.78
39. Stanislav Konopásek	5	6	0	6	1.20
40. Jiří Dolana	12	5	1	6	0.50
41. Vladimír Caldr	16	4	2	6	0.38
Peter Šťastný	16	4	2	6	0.38
43. Bronislav Danda	13	2	4	6	0.46
44. Oto Haščák	14	2	4	6	0.43

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Click to read more...

 

[DN28]

Czechoslovak forwards against USSR ranked by PPG (min. 10 games played):

Name	Games played	Goals	Assists	Points	Points per game
1. Vladimír Zábrodský	10	9	2	11	1.10
2. Vladimír Martinec	56	22	19	41	0.73
3. Vlastimil Bubník	22	13	3	16	0.73
4. Jiří Kochta	22	5	10	15	0.68
5. Jozef Golonka	18	9	3	12	0.67
6. Ivan Hlinka	43	16	12	28	0.65
7. Václav Nedomanský	35	15	7	22	0.63
8. Vladimír Růžička	40	17	8	25	0.63
9. Jaroslav Jiřík	18	6	4	10	0.56
10. Eduard Novák	20	8	3	11	0.55
11. Jindřich Kokrment	17	6	3	9	0.53
12. Stanislav Prýl	18	6	3	9	0.50
13. Jiří Dolana	12	5	1	6	0.50
14. Bohuslav Ebermann	33	12	4	16	0.48
15. Bronislav Danda	13	2	4	6	0.46
16. Milan Nový	44	11	9	20	0.45
17. Jan Klapáč	20	6	3	9	0.45
18. Václav Pantůček	18	7	1	8	0.44
19. Jiří Novák	28	8	4	12	0.43
20. Oto Haščák	14	2	4	6	0.43
21. Jiří Holík	54	11	12	23	0.43
22. Marián Šťastný	25	6	4	10	0.40
23. Josef Černý	33	7	6	13	0.39
24. Richard Farda	23	3	6	9	0.39
25. Miroslav Vlach	18	5	2	7	0.39
26. Petr Rosol	21	4	4	8	0.38
27. Vladimír Caldr	16	4	2	6	0.38
Peter Šťastný	16	4	2	6	0.38
29. Jiří Lála	39	9	5	14	0.36
30. Jiří Kučera	23	4	4	8	0.35
31. Darius Rusnák	26	4	5	9	0.35
32. Jaroslav Pouzar	38	9	4	13	0.34
33. Vincent Lukáč	27	9	0	9	0.33
34. Bohuslav Šťastný	34	7	4	11	0.32
35. Jaroslav Holík	25	4	4	8	0.32
36. Pavel Richter	32	4	6	10	0.31
37. Josef Augusta	23	3	4	7	0.30
38. Dušan Pašek	38	8	3	11	0.29
39. Igor Liba	35	3	7	10	0.29
40. František Černík	32	5	3	8	0.25
41. Jiří Šejba	29	3	4	7	0.24
42. Jiří Hrdina	38	3	4	7	0.18

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Other interesting forwards but with too small of a sample of games or points:

· Stanislav Konopásek (5 games / 6 points (6+0) / 1.20)
· Petr Klíma (5 games / 4 points (2+2) / 0.80)
· Michal Pivoňka (5 games / 4 points (1+3) / 0.80)
· Richard Žemlička (9 games / 7 points (0+7) / 0.78)
· Anton Šťastný (8 games / 5 points (2+3) / 0.63)
· Miroslav Fryčer (10 games / 5 points (2+3) / 0.50)
· František Ševčík (14 games / 4 points (2+2) / 0.29)
· Ladislav Svozil (16 games / 4 points (2+2) / 0.25)
· David Volek (14 games / 2 points (1+1) / 0.14)
· Jan Havel (7 games / 1 point (1+0) / 0.14)

 

[DN28]

Elite Czechoslovak defensemen against USSR listed alphabetically:

Name	Games played	Goals	Assists	Points	Points per game
Jiří BUBLA	40	6	5	11	0.28
Miroslav DVOŘÁK	47	3	7	10	0.21
Oldřich MACHAČ	50	4	6	10	0.20
František POSPÍŠIL	42	1	7	8	0.19
Jan SUCHÝ	23	4	3	7	0.30

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[DN28]

Czechoslovak goaltenders against USSR ranked by SV% (min. 9 games played):

Name	Games played	W-D-L	Goals allowed	GAA	SV%
1. Dominik Hašek	26 (1756 min.)	5-1-17	80	2.73	0.894
2. Jiří Králík	20 (1037 min.)	2-5-11	65	3.76	0.885
3. Jiří Holeček	39 (2128 min.)	15-4-15	125	3.52	0.883
4. Karel Lang	10 (491 min.)	1-2-6	36	4.40	0.880
5. Vladimír Dzurilla	20 (960 min.)	7-1-9	53	3.31	0.869
6. Jaromír Šindel	14 (734 min.)	3-3-7	44	3.59	0.864
7. Petr Bříza	9 (493 min.)	2-2-4	30	3.65	0.854
8. Vladimír Nadrchal	11 (462 min.)	2-1-5	36	4.68	0.836
9. Jiří Crha	11 (532 min.)	1-0-5	44	4.96	0.735

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[DN28]

Couple of comments:

· The most surprising thing about all of this? IMO Dominik Hasek´s outstanding stats versus the Soviets, and even better than Holecek´s. I knew beforehand that Hasek tended to be the best CSSR player in these games more often than not, but I am still impressed by his 0.894 compared to his 0.900 from all of his 53 games from major international tournaments (1983-1990) before his NHL career started. Hasek performed almost exactly as well against the Soviets as against other national teams (statistically at least).

· I wouldn´t hold Jiri Holecek´s good-but-not-great 0.883 vs. Soviets (compared to his overall 0.922 from all 76 games of major international tournaments) against him. For one, I´m positive that Holecek´s SV% strictly from WHCs, OGs and Canada Cup versus USSR would have been much closer to his 0.922 career SV%. I did read almost all of the game reports of CSSR-USSR games from the championships that Holecek participated in, and the praise coming from all possible parties was significant. Also Holecek´s balanced wins-to-loses ratio jumps out as well (15 W-15 L compared to, for example, Hasek´s 5 W-17 L).

· No d-man really stands out points-wise which is to be expected. Even Jan Suchy had to play more conservatively against the “Red Machine”.

· Finally back to forwards. Again not surprising that Vladimir Martinec (from more “modern” era) and Vladimir Zabrodsky (from older era) stand out. Notwithstanding all the concerns about 40s/50s European hockey, Zabrodsky being the sole player from Czechoslovakia with >1.00 ppg with at least 10 gp against the Soviet team deserves a nod.

· With regards to the rest of forwards, I think some context is needed. I recall @VMBM counting the stats for all the star CSSR forwards vs. USSR from major international tournaments ONLY (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3). So…

o Milan Novy looks weak with 20 points in 44 games and 0.45 ppg but if you notice VMBM´s stats count, Novy recorded higher ppg (0.67 at major int. tournaments) than Martinec, Hlinka, Nedomansky etc. So Novy scored against Soviets primarily at high-pressure championship games. All in all, Novy does NOT stand out in any negative way in my opinion.

o Vaclav Nedomansky is something of an opposite of Novy. In my head, Nedo used to have somewhat of a “black mark” thanks to VMBM´s stats count of underwhelming 0.47 ppg against USSR at major int. tournaments. But we now see that Nedo had an overall respectable 0.63 ppg in all the games he played with the Soviets. Majority of his points came in from lesser match-ups such as Izvestia Cup etc. though.

o Vladimir Ruzicka is even more extreme than Nedomansky and his results are to me perhaps the 2nd most surprising fact after Hasek. Stats of Ruzicka, Lala and Liba from the Link 3 unfortunately disappeared but I had saved them writing them down in my notebook. Ruzicka had mediocre 0.13 ppg from the WHCs, OGs and CCs but his carrer ppg versus the Soviets was very good 0.63! So we now know that Ruzicka didn´t play poorly against the Tikhonov´s squad, in fact him even scoring at a similar rate as Nedomansky or Hlinka vis-à-vis the stronger 1980s Soviet teams is very impressive, but his downside is that he just didn´t score when it mattered more.

o Jiri Lala follows the Milan Novy pattern. His scoring rate vs. Soviets at major int. tournaments was very solid 0.43 – much higher than his fellow 80s Czechoslovaks Ruzicka and Liba (again, based on what VMBM wrote in the past). But Lala also didn´t add much to this from non-WHC, non-OG games bringing his overall ppg vs. USSR down to 0.36.

o Otherwise Jiri Holik´s stats vs. the Soviets are little better (0.54 at major int. tournaments / 0.43 overall). Also especially when one accounts for Holik´s great two-way qualities, he doesn´t stand out in a negative way compared to rest of the field in any way. Similar thing applies for Josef Cerny (0.46 ppg at major int. tournaments with the Soviets if I counted that correctly many years ago / 0.39 overall).

o Lastly, Jozef Golonka´s statistical record against the Soviet Union still remains outstanding and he remains pretty much the only 1960s CSSR forward who performed well above the mean (0.88 at major int. tournaments / 0.67 overall ppg vs. USSR).. Well, at least if you consider Vlastimil Bubnik more of a 50s guy and Jiri Holik more of a 70s guy.

· I´m not going to make any proper ranking, I´ll just leave you with my individual assesment that Martinec, Zabrodsky appear to be the best performers against the Soviets with Hasek, Holecek, Kralik, all the 5 d-men, Hlinka, Golonka, Nedomansky, Novy, Ruzicka, Jiri Holik (and Jiri Kochta + Vlastimil Bubnik) roughly grouped together in some order on the imaginary 2nd tier.

 

[GMR]

It's a crime that Martinec and Holecek are not in the HHOF yet. Hopefully, after last year with Nedomansky getting in, that opens the door for these players.

I never realized Hasek had such a poor win/loss record against the Soviets. That's pretty one-sided.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Awesome research.

What kind of goal support to Hasek get (not get) that he won 5 of 26 giving up well under 3 per game...even adjusting for era compared to guys like Holecek and Dzurilla, that's a pretty tidy sum. Was he subject to some untimely/unkempt goals in big spots?

 

[Staniowski]

Ruzicka is interesting...it's tough to compare him to the other top scorers (Martinec, Hlinka, Nedomansky, Holik, Novy, etc.) because, unlike them, Ruzicka didn't get an opportunity to play many of his best years against the Soviet Union. He was basically done playing them at age 25.

 

[Orange Dragon]

I never realized Hasek had such a poor win/loss record against the Soviets. That's pretty one-sided.

I guess that's what happens when you play Soviets in the 80's.

If I understand this list correctly Czechoslovakia went W11-T6-L48 against Soviets. Counting major tournaments only, Czechoslovakia managed to defeat Soviets once in the whole 80's!

 

[Kshahdoo]

I guess that's what happens when you play Soviets in the 80's.

If I understand this list correctly Czechoslovakia went W11-T6-L48 against Soviets. Counting major tournaments only, Czechoslovakia managed to defeat Soviets once in the whole 80's!

Yeah, Soviet teams continued being great in 80s, while Czechoslovakia lost a lot in its power.

Martinec was the best their player in 70s by far.

 

[DN28]

Awesome research.

What kind of goal support to Hasek get (not get) that he won 5 of 26 giving up well under 3 per game...even adjusting for era compared to guys like Holecek and Dzurilla, that's a pretty tidy sum. Was he subject to some untimely/unkempt goals in big spots?

Let´s have a look at major international tournaments (only games played by Hasek in the 1983-1990 period).

WHC 83 - CSSR vs. USSR 1:5
CC 84 - CSSR vs. USSR 0:3
WHC 86 - CSSR vs. USSR 2:4
WHC 87 (1st game) - CSSR vs. USSR 1:6
WHC 87 (2nd game) - CSSR vs. USSR 1:2
CC 87 - CSSR vs. USSR 0:4
OG 88 - CSSR vs. USSR 1:6 (Hasek entered in the 28th minute when the score was already 0:4 for the Soviets)
WHC 89 (1st game) - CSSR vs. USSR 2:4
WHC 89 (2nd game) - CSSR vs. USSR 0:1
WHC 90 (1st game) - CSSR vs. USSR 1:4
WHC 90 (2nd game) - CSSR vs. USSR 0:5

So the average goal support Hasek had from his team with the Soviets was 0.82 (9 goals out of 11 games).

Untimely/unkempt goals? I can´t really answer to that, I´ve studied the 1970s much more closely... I´m sure there were weaker games and softer goals but like I´ve said upwards, Hasek was generally considered a strong, if not the strongest, piece of the Czechoslovakian puzzle at the ´80s games with the Soviet Union.

Hasek became the 'big name' back in 1984. That season peaked earlier with February Olympic tournament and it then finished with the Swedish Cup held in Göteborg and Karlstad (sometime in April? or early May?). Czechoslovaks won the tournament defeating Sweden (3:2), Finland (9:3) and most surprisingly the Soviet Union 7:2. Here Hasek got some goal support.. It was the biggest win of Czechoslovaks over Soviets during the 80s. 19 year-old Hasek, who was still just about to finish high school, had been declared as "the best player of the game against USSR and probably the best player of the whole tournament."

A problem with the 1980s Czechoslovak team was ongoing emigration of the most talented players. Results vs. USSR wouldn´t have been as lopsided if the entire Stastny line continued to play home. Fine long-time NHLers such as Petr Svoboda, Frantisek Musil, Petr Klima, Michal Pivonka and a few others all emigrated to NA when they were 18-20 y/o. The team lacked the young blood and Hasek plus a handful of remaining outstanding forwards (Ruzicka, Pasek, Liba) held the honor of what used to be prime hockey power through the 2nd half of 1980s.

 

[Theokritos]

Hasek became the 'big name' back in 1984. That season peaked earlier with February Olympic tournament and it then finished with the Swedish Cup held in Göteborg and Karlstad (sometime in April? or early May?).

April 9-12th, the French hockeyarchives say.

 

[DN28]

Ruzicka is interesting...it's tough to compare him to the other top scorers (Martinec, Hlinka, Nedomansky, Holik, Novy, etc.) because, unlike them, Ruzicka didn't get an opportunity to play many of his best years against the Soviet Union. He was basically done playing them at age 25.

Yes, Ruzicka is underrated, "wrong" era he had to play in.. Unlike many others, he didn´t get to spend his entire prime years in Europe and then go to NHL at later age. Ruzicka instead went to Edmonton only during the 1990 season, I think it was after more than half of NHL reg. season was done, so he didn´t even get to train and prepare properly with new teammates and to adjust to new environment. Still, if I remember correctly he had great last month before the playoffs, but then he was scratched and didn´t play a single game in the Oilers´ run to 1990 Stanley Cup. I´ve read Ruzicka had trouble getting along with Messier who wanted him out of lineup.. don´t know if true, just saying it´s written in one hockey book I´ve read..

Biggest problem with Ruzicka is that through his undeniable offensive talent, he never really learnt a proper two-way game, he was a lazy backchecker but at the same time a leader who required things in the club going his way and nothing else.. I can easily see that Messier story being true but not in the sense of Ruzicka being a victim but rather Messier seeing this "Euro primadonna" not willing to subordinate to whatever team needs.

Next year, Ruzicka goes to Boston where meets with Mike Milbury - coach who didn´t allow his players to play more of a European east-west game. Ruzicka was forced to play basic dump and chase hockey while being buried in bottom 6. I think he also struggled with some injuries.

Next year, Bruins are coached by Rick Bowness who gives Ruzicka some freedom and he suddenly scores 75 points in 77 games (the most out of Bruins forwards). He was 28 years old and looked like he´d finally adjusted to the whole NHL circus.. But then something broke down again, Ruzicka scores only 41 in 60, after that 18 in 42 in Ottawa and he´s done as NHL player. At 30 y/o he goes back to Czechia. Puts up some good seasons in the Extraleague, Ivan Hlinka pulls him up out of nowhere for the 1998 Nagano Olympics and even named him a captain.. 34 y/o Ruzicka developed good chemistry on the 1st line with Jagr and wins the tournament..

Weird and unusual career arc. Guy had certainly way more in him than what showed in his NHL stint.

 

[VMBM]

Great stuff, thank you. And of course I'm glad, heh heh, that 'my man' Martinec looks pretty good here, which I sort of knew anyway, based on his reputation among the Soviets and his WHC/Olympic/Canada Cup record. I suspected that Hlinka would too, and so it was. Nedomansky and Milan Novy were a bit surprising, naturally, since their overall numbers differ from their record in so called big tournaments. Peter Stastny is disappointing, but he was only 23 when he defected, so there's no telling what kind of a monster he would have become in the 1980s. On the other hand, the 1980s was the time when Czechoslovakia usually couldn't truly challenge the USSR like in the previous decade. Speaking of which, Dusan Pasek's numbers are a little disappointing (a personal CSSR favourite from the 1980s), but it's not like his contemporaries did much better either.

BTW, if anyone thinks that the numbers of Czechoslovak players suck, it could be noted that only few Soviet players had a PPG above 1 in games vs CSSR, at least in the big tournaments, and that concerns most of the top line players too.

Man, someone just has to write a book about the rivalry between the USSR and Czechoslovakia - a really underrated theme in hockey history! I'd be glad to help too, although my expertise is somewhat limited (mostly 1970s).

 

[Jeff McVay]

Great stuff, thank you. And of course I'm glad, heh heh, that 'my man' Martinec looks pretty good here, which I sort of knew anyway, based on his reputation among the Soviets and his WHC/Olympic/Canada Cup record. I suspected that Hlinka would too, and so it was. Nedomansky and Milan Novy were a bit surprising, naturally, since their overall numbers differ from their record in so called big tournaments. Peter Stastny is disappointing, but he was only 23 when he defected, so there's no telling what kind of a monster he would have become in the 1980s. On the other hand, the 1980s was the time when Czechoslovakia usually couldn't truly challenge the USSR like in the previous decade. Speaking of which, Dusan Pasek's numbers are a little disappointing (a personal CSSR favourite from the 1980s), but it's not like his contemporaries did much better either.

BTW, if anyone thinks that the numbers of Czechoslovak players suck, it could be noted that only few Soviet players had a PPG above 1 in games vs CSSR, at least in the big tournaments, and that concerns most of the top line players too.

Man, someone just has to write a book about the rivalry between the USSR and Czechoslovakia - a really underrated theme in hockey history! I'd be glad to help too, although my expertise is somewhat limited (mostly 1970s).

Great post and the Book idea sounds fantastic!!

 

[VMBM]

I forgot to ask this...

I believe that secondary assists weren't awarded in the World Championships before the early 1970s, and at least once not after that too (1978 WHC). Does this trend also apply to lesser international tournaments/cups/exhibition games?

The players who played exclusively or mostly pre-1970s might suffer a bit here, but probably not massively, at worst it might be a few assist points.

 

[DN28]

I forgot to ask this...

I believe that secondary assists weren't awarded in the World Championships before the early 1970s, and at least once not after that too (1978 WHC). Does this trend also apply to lesser international tournaments/cups/exhibition games?

The players who played exclusively or mostly pre-1970s might suffer a bit here, but probably not massively, at worst it might be a few assist points.

Tough to answer with certainty, but my understanding is that secondary assists at major international tournaments weren´t usually awarded even in the late 1970s. I´m pretty sure the same applies to lesser games and tournaments as well.

Even 1979 WHC game reports - at least the Czech ones that I have - do not appear to grant very many assists either.

So I wouldn´t say pre-1970 players suffered in this. From what I know at the moment, I´d think that only 1980s players get a slight boost up compared to the rest of the field roughly being on equal footing (well the 70s and 60s that is..).

 

[VMBM]

Tough to answer with certainty, but my understanding is that secondary assists at major international tournaments weren´t usually awarded even in the late 1970s. I´m pretty sure the same applies to lesser games and tournaments as well.

Even 1979 WHC game reports - at least the Czech ones that I have - do not appear to grant very many assists either.

So I wouldn´t say pre-1970 players suffered in this. From what I know at the moment, I´d think that only 1980s players get a slight boost up compared to the rest of the field roughly being on equal footing (well the 70s and 60s that is..).

It's hard for me to check it right now, but having studied the box-scores from many old World Championships/Winter Olympics a few years ago, I remember seeing secondary assists being recorded from about 1973-74 on (at least based on some sources), but maybe they were still awarded quite stingily during this time, especially when compared to modern times.

BTW, one interesting name I noticed on the list is Frantisek Cernik. I mean, IIRC, the guy scores 3 goals and 1 assist in the first round game against the Soviets at the 1978 WHC; that's half of his total production in 32 games versus the USSR! No prizes for guessing what the most memorable game of his career was.

 

[DN28]

It's hard for me to check it right now, but having studied the box-scores from many old World Championships/Winter Olympics a few years ago, I remember seeing secondary assists being recorded from about 1973-74 on (at least based on some sources), but maybe they were still awarded quite stingily during this time, especially when compared to modern times.

BTW, one interesting name I noticed on the list is Frantisek Cernik. I mean, IIRC, the guy scores 3 goals and 1 assist in the first round game against the Soviets at the 1978 WHC; that's half of his total production in 32 games versus the USSR! No prizes for guessing what the most memorable game of his career was.

I think it´s very likely that there were various versions of stats of each tournament and some did include secondary assists. If I had to guess though, only the papers coming from country the tournament was playing in would have more thorough statistical records.

Haha, and also the most memorable tournament as well.. Frantisek Cernik is no big name but the media voted him 2nd AST at ´78 WHC.

WHC 1978 All-Star Teams:
118 journalists participated with their ballots. I have the number of votes for the 1st team but only list of names of the second team without votes.

1st Team: Jiří Holeček (79 votes) – Jiří Bubla (39), Vyacheslav Fetisov (69) – Alexander Maltsev (23), Ivan Hlinka (58), Sergei Kapustin (60)
2nd Team: Daniel Bouchard – Valeri Vasiliev, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov – Boris Michailov, Marcel Dionne, František Černík

 

[Staniowski]

Yes, Ruzicka is underrated, "wrong" era he had to play in.. Unlike many others, he didn´t get to spend his entire prime years in Europe and then go to NHL at later age. Ruzicka instead went to Edmonton only during the 1990 season, I think it was after more than half of NHL reg. season was done, so he didn´t even get to train and prepare properly with new teammates and to adjust to new environment. Still, if I remember correctly he had great last month before the playoffs, but then he was scratched and didn´t play a single game in the Oilers´ run to 1990 Stanley Cup. I´ve read Ruzicka had trouble getting along with Messier who wanted him out of lineup.. don´t know if true, just saying it´s written in one hockey book I´ve read..

Biggest problem with Ruzicka is that through his undeniable offensive talent, he never really learnt a proper two-way game, he was a lazy backchecker but at the same time a leader who required things in the club going his way and nothing else.. I can easily see that Messier story being true but not in the sense of Ruzicka being a victim but rather Messier seeing this "Euro primadonna" not willing to subordinate to whatever team needs.

Next year, Ruzicka goes to Boston where meets with Mike Milbury - coach who didn´t allow his players to play more of a European east-west game. Ruzicka was forced to play basic dump and chase hockey while being buried in bottom 6. I think he also struggled with some injuries.

Next year, Bruins are coached by Rick Bowness who gives Ruzicka some freedom and he suddenly scores 75 points in 77 games (the most out of Bruins forwards). He was 28 years old and looked like he´d finally adjusted to the whole NHL circus.. But then something broke down again, Ruzicka scores only 41 in 60, after that 18 in 42 in Ottawa and he´s done as NHL player. At 30 y/o he goes back to Czechia. Puts up some good seasons in the Extraleague, Ivan Hlinka pulls him up out of nowhere for the 1998 Nagano Olympics and even named him a captain.. 34 y/o Ruzicka developed good chemistry on the 1st line with Jagr and wins the tournament..

Weird and unusual career arc. Guy had certainly way more in him than what showed in his NHL stint.

Yeah, I wasn't even implying that he was underrated, but maybe he was.

He certainly had a boatload of raw talent. I remember first seeing him play at the WJC in the early '80s.

It does seem like perhaps his career was interrupted when he came to the NHL, and he really didn't reach his potential during his career.

 

[Namba 17]

Yes, Ruzicka is underrated

In my thread "Best non-NA centers of all time" I had him as #12. That's probably a little bit high, though, but I remember him as a perfect offensive machine