Do you think Canada were 'Bad Boys' in Canada vs USSR Summit Series during 1970's?

[JackSlater]

Absolutely. The Soviets played an advanced style of hockey, similar to what we see today. The NHLers weren't able to match with speed and skill, so they went with physicality, for better or worse.

The way the Soviets played hockey from 1972 is very, very different from how hockey is played at the highest levels today. There has been an increase in horizontal play since then, yes, but I can't think of another noteworthy similarity. Teams don't pass as much, centres and defencemen certainly play very differently today. Goaltenders don't play how Tretiak played anymore.

I'd be more inclined to say that today hockey is played like the old Montreal teams used to play than how either USSR or Canada played in 1972.

 

[Overrated]

The way the Soviets played hockey from 1972 is very, very different from how hockey is played at the highest levels today. There has been an increase in horizontal play since then, yes, but I can't think of another noteworthy similarity. Teams don't pass as much, centres and defencemen certainly play very differently today. Goaltenders don't play how Tretiak played anymore.

I'd be more inclined to say that today hockey is played like the old Montreal teams used to play than how either USSR or Canada played in 1972.

Do you think Soviet hockey style would do well in the modern day climate? Maybe not the 70s but the green line type of hockey?

 

[JackSlater]

Do you think Soviet hockey style would do well in the modern day climate? Maybe not the 70s but the green line type of hockey?

I don't think that any style of hockey before 2010 could be directly transported to today. Adjustments would be necessary and usually more of them the further back you go. I do think that the 1980s Soviets stylistically would fit in significantly better than the 1972 Soviets. Even just things like activating defencemen offensively a lot more make it a lot more modern. I do think that the passing attack of the Soviets would be pretty effective today, though it's not easy to transport such a thing. I don't think that the way the centres played (like Larionov in the green unit) would work well, but it's probably an easy adjustment to fix that. Fedorov obviously did very well in a pseudo green unit setting with Detroit for a while.

 

[Shakeywalton]

I don't recall the 72 Summit series but I vividly remember watching the 76 Flyers vs. the Soviet Red Army game and being disgusted by the play of the Flyers. They knew they couldn't beat the Soviet team with skill so they resorted to brutality. It was embarrassing.

 

[NyQuil]

I don't recall the 72 Summit series but I vividly remember watching the 76 Flyers vs. the Soviet Red Army game and being disgusted by the play of the Flyers. They knew they couldn't beat the Soviet team with skill so they resorted to brutality. It was embarrassing.

To be fair, they played that way against everyone, NHL or not.

 

[Hanji]

I don't recall the 72 Summit series but I vividly remember watching the 76 Flyers vs. the Soviet Red Army game and being disgusted by the play of the Flyers. They knew they couldn't beat the Soviet team with skill so they resorted to brutality. It was embarrassing.

What gets my head shaking, even more than the mauling on the ice, are the Philly fans. They collectively loved that disgusting stuff.

I suppose to some degree it's a product of the times. The style thrived at lower level of that era, but for the pinnacle athletes of the sport? Obviously success breeds popularity, but you'd think the average sports fan who filled the Spectrum would have a little more sportsmanship self-awareness like everybody else in the league. And it's not like Philly is more blue collar than Boston or Detroit either.
Even the contemporary movie 'Slapshot' contained an undercurrent that thoroughly mocked this style of hockey.

 

[Shakeywalton]

To be fair, they played that way against everyone, NHL or not.

I know they did and I'm a huge fan of the physicality of the game back in then but they Flyers were over the top that day.

It made me a huge fan of Soviet Hockey back then. They were the best in the World. I never understood the hatred of the Soviet hockey players. They weren't 'The Soviet Government'. They were simply hockey players and had no control over their government.

It made me probably one of few North American hockey fans back then who openly rooted for the Soviet hockey teams every time I had the pleasure of watching them. Yes, even in the Olympics. They were a joy to watch!

 

[NyQuil]

What gets my head shaking, even more than the mauling on the ice, are the Philly fans. They collectively loved that disgusting stuff.

I suppose to some degree it's a product of the times. The style thrived at lower level of that era, but for the pinnacle athletes of the sport? Obviously success breeds popularity, but you'd think the average sports fan who filled the Spectrum would have a little more sportsmanship self-awareness like everybody else in the league. And it's not like Philly is more blue collar than Boston or Detroit either.
Even the contemporary movie 'Slapshot' contained an undercurrent that thoroughly mocked this style of hockey.

That common saying "I went to see the fights and a hockey game broke out" was fairly reflective of the times.

 

[sdf]

Filthy barbaric Hockey was what that was. The world was a different place.

Ironically 42 years later a Canadian team walked into Russia and showed the most elegant clean Hockey ever played on its way to becoming the Greatest Hockey Team ever assembled.

Great story, but i afraid that it's the only case in whish they can showed a clean hockey, when there is no real competition for them anymore

 

[Dingo]

International hockey was played on big ice, involved no fighting and little physicality. Its straight Darwinian Fitness that had smaller, faster, more skilled players reach the top in that environment.

NHL hockey was on smaller ice, involved fighting, intimidation and driving shots on net quickly. That environment produced a different type of fitness for athletes.

Then the two met, and, when faced with losing to the smaller athletes the larger bent the game to their strengths.

Yes, they were dirty, and physical, and nearly as good at clean hockey when one looks atcause and effect and removes nationalities.

 

[VanIslander]

Is the op serious?
Or is it flamebait? (like asking "Were the Broad Street Bullies really dirty?"

Dunno which but that thread title looks insincere or at least jarringly counterfactual, based on incidents (maybe a naive youngster is asking? op "User 1992" has been an HfBoards member for 6 years, so the newbie approach doesn't fly).

 

[VanIslander]

The way the Soviets played hockey from 1972 is very, very different from how hockey is played at the highest levels today. There has been an increase in horizontal play since then,...

:0 Except for that EXCEPTIONAL OVERTIME 3-on-3 puck control relay we saw between the Rags and the Leafs this week!!! Up and down, passing back to maintain control. I was a teenager in the 1980's and recall thinking, dang, the Olympic-SIZED ice gives those guys room to pass, pass, pass up a storm! Likewise this week with 3 skaters aside on the smaller NHL rinks.

(Here's hoping the NHL grandfather's in a rule that new rinks be engineered to be capable of adapting to Olympic-sized surfaces to set up a broadcast-focused big-ice passing heralded spectacular by 2040 or so.)

 

[JackSlater]

:0 Except for that EXCEPTIONAL OVERTIME 3-on-3 puck control relay we saw between the Rags and the Leafs this week!!! Up and down, passing back to maintain control. I was a teenager in the 1980's and recall thinking, dang, the Olympic-SIZED ice gives those guys room to pass, pass, pass up a storm! Likewise this week with 3 skaters aside on the smaller NHL rinks.

(Here's hoping the NHL grandfather's in a rule that new rinks be engineered to be capable of adapting to Olympic-sized surfaces to set up a broadcast-focused big-ice passing heralded spectacular by 2040 or so.)

There is no way that the NHL would do that just given economic reasons. Even the IIHF is trending the other way toward increasingly using the smaller ice, as will be seen at the 2022 Olympics in China. The larger ice makes for a more boring product with more dead ice and more room for perimeter players to hide.