Hockey in Czechoslovakia and Europe from 1968 to 1990 (some awards and stats)

[VMBM]

Other:
1) Hlinka, Ebermann, Pospisil
Claude Bédard, sport journalist and commentator for “Le Journal de Québec” and Montreal Television Company TVA, shared his thoughts about certain Czech players and Canadian National Team after WHC 1977 for Gól magazine. He said:

“Hlinka is unique to me, he is the ‘superstar’ reminding me with his elegance for us legendary Jean Beliveau. Ebermann is excellent, I am willing to bet that he would manage to score regularly 40 – 45 goals per season in NHL. Pospíšil would probably be a member of NHL All-Star Team. I genuinely like your team and in a lot of ways it reminds me Montreal Canadiens. It has a spirit. I will never understand what happened to them in the last game… I hope that next year I will arrive to Prague and that I will be commenting even better championship than this year´s. I am optimist, I assume that Canada now is going to understand how difficult tournament the World Championship is, that they are going to prepare long-term and that to Prague – with this point I am sure – they are going to send significantly better, more competitive, more responsible and more intelligent team…”

I think one can see a little bit of the difference between North American evaluation and European one there, although both Hlinka (especially) and Ebermann had a very good tournament.
Hlinka was certainly among the best Czechoslovak players especially from mid to late '70s, but Canadians particularly seemed to appreciate him; Ken Dryden, who was a color commentator at the 1976 Canada Cup, I think called Hlinka CSSR's "best individual player" during the 2nd game of the CC 1976 final, although he was critical of his overall performance in that tournament.
Ebermann was arguably the fastest (aesthetically, though, an 'ugly' skater imo) and flashiest Czech player, but he never quite became a superstar à la Martinec. Interesting that he is one of the three players being singled out.

 

[Theokritos]

All-Stars Teams were voted by a group of 40+ individuals (coaches and journalists) and both international and domestic performances of players were taken into account. It was voted and announced at exactly same time (and even the same page in the magazine) as the Golden Stick award. You can find these All-Star Teams from 1969 to 1977 here. In this thread, I will be posting the whole voting record of every position (I have full voting record of these for most seasons, but not for all).


Goaltenders:
1. Vladimír Dzurilla – 41 votes
2. Jiří Holeček – 1

Right Defensemen:
1. Jiří Bubla – 27
2. Oldřich Machač – 14
3. Milan Chalupa – 1

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 39
2. Milan Kajkl – 2
3. Jan Zajíček – 1

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 22
2. Marián Šťastný – 20

Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 24
2. Ivan Hlinka – 18

Left Wingers:
1. Bohuslav Ebermann – 31
2. Jiří Holík – 5
3. Marián Šťastný – 2
4. Ivan Hlinka, Vladimír Martinec, Milan Nový, Jaroslav Pouzar – 1

Save percentage of ‘top 10 goalies’ of the season:
1. Jiří Králík (Jihlava): 32 games / 63 goals allowed / 786 saves / 0.9258 %
2. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 20 games / 48 goals allowed / 578 saves / 0.9233 %
3. Jiří Holeček (Sparta): 38 games / 99 goals allowed / 1084 saves / 0.9163 %
4. Vladimír Plánička (Č. Budějovice): 28 games / 88 goals allowed / 914 saves / 0.9122 %
5. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 43 games / 118 goals allowed / 1212 saves / 0.9113 %
6. Miroslav Krása (Kladno): 23 games / 61 goals allowed / 619 saves / 0.9103 %
7. Ivan Podešva (Vítkovice): 25 games / 80 goals allowed / 807 saves / 0.9098 %
8. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 41 games / 123 goals allowed / 1160 saves / 0.9041 %
9. Vladimír Dzurilla (Brno): 38 games / 138 goals allowed / 1253 saves / 0.9008 %
10. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 32 games / 117 goals allowed / 1042 saves / 0.8991 %
View attachment 96555

Pure gold! Thanks so much for these.

Starting from this season, Gól magazine was publishing annual Czechoslovak All-Stars Team up to 1969
.

Huh?

 

[DN28]

I think one can see a little bit of the difference between North American evaluation and European one there, although both Hlinka (especially) and Ebermann had a very good tournament.
Hlinka was certainly among the best Czechoslovak players especially from mid to late '70s, but Canadians particularly seemed to appreciate him; Ken Dryden, who was a color commentator at the 1976 Canada Cup, I think called Hlinka CSSR's "best individual player" during the 2nd game of the CC 1976 final, although he was critical of his overall performance in that tournament.
Ebermann was arguably the fastest (aesthetically, though, an 'ugly' skater imo) and flashiest Czech player, but he never quite became a superstar à la Martinec. Interesting that he is one of the three players being singled out.

Yes, Ebermann is always described as the fastest skater of this successful Czechoslovak 70s era generation. Entertaining player to watch, "Express train" I recall he was once called... He never achieved the '1st rate star' status, for which he probably had enough raw talent, but his overall career was very likely negatively influenced by his weak team that he was playing for. Škoda Plzeň was one of those clubs always on the edge of 1st and 2nd CSSR League. 1978-1979 could have been his best season, when he won CSSR´ scoring at the Championship and finished 7th in overall scoring... but he played the whole domestic season in the 2nd League!

Pure gold! Thanks so much for these.



Huh?

The sentence looks a bit weird because I look at this retrospectively, so 'from 1977 up to 1969', but then the word 'starting' is probably misleading. I have re-phrased it now.

 

[DN28]

Anyway, I have now read all Góls between 1968-1980, it´s just the matter of time of posting all the data and information here.

What am I still missing are: SV% of Vlado Dzurilla for 1972-73 (played only 13 games), all stats for 1973 playoffs (Gól ´73 didn´t bother to publish it), and complete stats for 1968-69 (I have everything for just the 1st half of this season, then they stopped gathering data because of quite understandable reasons, Soviet invasion and everything that came with it moved the attention away from this - at the time - complicated and exhausting effort of tracing domestic statistics).

I intend to check the other magazines for missing data, namely TIP, Stadion, Československý sport and Kopaná-hokej (which was just a predecessor of Gól between 1963-68). I am shocked of how far back these stats like +/- and SV% were recorded. Karel Gut wrote in 1975 (or 1974) that these things (along with points) were first recorded and published in 1959! So I am really interested how far back in history I am able to track down all of this.

 

[Theokritos]

Keep it up, you've got eager followers here.

 

[RageQuit77]

Keep it up, you've got eager followers here.

This thread have significant historical and hockey cultural importance. Awesome job in gathering, editing and publishing the stuff, DN28!

As hardcore as it can go in this site! In good way!

 

[DN28]

1975-1976

All-Star Team (41 voters):
Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 40 votes
2. Vladimír Dzurilla – 1

Right Defensemen:
1. Jiří Bubla – 28
2. Oldřich Machač – 9
3. Milan Kajkl – 3
4. František Kaberle – 1

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 39
2. Oldřich Machač, Milan Kajkl – 1

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 40
2. Peter Šťastný – 1

Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 26
2. Ivan Hlinka – 9
3. Jiří Novák – 6

Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 37
2. Bohuslav Šťastný – 3
3. Eduard Novák – 1

Save percentage of ‘top 12 goalies’ of the season:
1. Vladimír Dzurilla (ZKL Brno): 30 games / 84 goals allowed / 1014 saves / 0.9235 %
2. Jiří Holeček (Sparta): 28 games / 79 goals allowed / 940 saves / 0.9225 %
3. Miroslav Krása (Kladno): 27 games / 64 goals allowed / 738 saves / 0.9202 %
4. Pavel Bakus (Jihlava): 22 games / 55 goals allowed / 568 saves / 0.9117 %
5. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 27 games / 71 goals allowed / 701 saves / 0.9080 %
6. Pavol Svitana (Košice): 31 games / 94 goals allowed / 904 saves / 0.9058 %
7. Jaroslav Jágr (Č. Budějovice): 28 games / 92 goals allowed / 847 saves / 0.9020 %
8. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 27 games / 94 goals allowed / 865 saves / 0.9020 %
9. Luděk Brož (Vítkovice): 23 games / 79 goals allowed / 652 saves / 0.8919 %
10. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 26 games / 94 goals allowed / 764 saves / 0.8904 %
11. Josef Hovora (Plzeň): 28 games / 111 goals allowed / 875 saves / 0.8874 %
–. Roman Lelek (Ingstav Brno): 6 games / 16 goals allowed / 204 saves / 0.9273 %


WHC 1976 All-Star Team (determined by 192 journalists):
Jiří Holeček (159 votes) – Mats Waltin (56), František Pospíšil (111) – Vladimír Martinec (112), Milan Nový (71), Valeri Kharlamov (124)

OG and WHC 1976 Save percentage:
Stats of CS goalies as usual from here

Olympics:
Jiří Holeček: 6 games / 293 min. / 9 goals allowed / 127 saves / 0.9338 %
Jiří Crha: 3 games / 67 min. / 2 goals allowed / 14 saves / 0.8750 %

Championship:
Jiří Holeček: 8 games / 480 min. / 13 goals allowed / 214 saves / 0.9427 %
Vladimír Dzurilla: 2 games / 120 min. / 1 goal allowed / 41 saves / 0.9762 %

Couldn´t find stats of the rest of goalies anywhere. Does anyone have them?

Other:
1) Dzurilla
As you can see, Dzurilla´s return at the international competition didn´t come out of nowhere. He had amazing season with Brno as is evidenced by not only his save percentage, but also by Karel Gut´s summary above the goalie table. He wrote: “After several years, the name of the winner at the top has changed. Among the 28 goaltenders, Dzurilla has become the winner, who seemingly caught the ‘second breath’ in ZKL Brno. At the same time, he is also the oldest among goalies, by which he proved again that a date of birth is not always deciding.”

2) Holecek
1976 Winter Olympics hockey tournament left Czechoslovaks facing more than just other opponents on ice. Some may have already heard that flu epidemic affected almost all CSSR players including coaches. Therefore CSSR´s performances at this tournament were certainly below their standard, as they struggled to outplay every team against which they played. Strong goaltending really became a crucial factor this time for Czechoslovaks and indeed Jiri Holecek made a huge impression by his play, saving his team from some embarrassing losses by inferior opponents. Just a couple of reports, quotes demonstrating that:

Miloslav Charouzd: “I highly appreciate the moral and willpower attributes of the game of our team. They were much bigger in the first games than playing-technical [attributes]. Only one player has showed in a truly peak form so far – goaltender Holeček. He decided both difficult games with Finland and USA by a significant amount. Most of other players, as if they weren´t in their normal ‘hockey skin’. Most of the team did not play fully effective offensive part of the game, power-plays continued to be unproductive, our players made a lot of mistakes in front of Holeček at the game against Finns. And so we had to worry for a long time in every of these games about the result. It was not in power of the players to decide of their victories sooner. Though the most important fact for us remains that we´re winning! (…) Today, our collective has this moral power! Victory [against Finns] was literally grinded in the end.”

Quido Adamec (President of the CSSR hockey association referee commission): “Otherwise I appreciate that even though our players did not play well they did not ‘succumb’ to it and in an honest fight they battled for victory in a good sense of the word until the end. Jirka Holeček was fantastic!”

Bobby Hull (honoured guest of the Olympics): “In my opinion, Jiří Holeček is the best goalie in the world. Better than Tretyak, Dryden or Parent. He´s almost invincible even in the biggest pressure. The way he eliminated Finnish shots and breakaways was unique.”

Otto Trefný (CSSR National Team doctor): “Flu is our new adversary. It starts with dry cough, body pain, and continues with steep increase of body temperature. The first-aid kit got emptied through the last two days. Goalie Crha is also among threatened so we decided to completely isolate Holeček. He is covered up to the forehead in order to avoid of flying virus, and his room reminds the cell of a nun.”

Karel Gut: “We crashed on the Finns, difficult and ambitious opponent who played us without any barriers, with ease, they could only gain in the match, not to lose anything. The game also evolved favourably to Finns. We had to turn back the result, and thus to take a risk in the game. Through risky game we committed mistakes. Good luck that outstanding Holeček was standing in our goal – played greatly in the following games too, for 3 years of my tenure at the National Team that was his best performance.”

3) P. Stastny
That one all-star vote for young Peter Stastny as RW does not seem to be an accident. I found a mention that he played as Milan Novy´s right wing at the ´76 World Championship, when Peter debuted on the international scene.

4) Pospisil
One of downsides of the Gól magazine is that they did not publish game reports of every league game that was played, it would then provide me even greater insight into CS domestic hockey of the 1970s. Still, there were some reports and I found one that really caught my attention due to importance of the game.

At Gól, Issue 12, March 18, 1976, You can find summary of the key deciding game of this season´s title – basically “The Final” of 1975-1976 – between SONP Kladno and Tesla Pardubice, 29th round of the season, only 3 rounds were left to play after this one. Pardubice won the title in 1973 and their primary weapon was their famous top line B. Stastny – J. Novak – V. Martinec that often played together even at international level. Jihlava won in 1974 and Kladno won rather comfortably in 1975. Kladno relied heavily on the cohesion of their 1st unit F. Pospisil – F. Kaberle, L. Bauer – M. Novy – E. Novak, as you can see, 4 of 5 players of this unit were regular NT members. Kladno tended to play more defensively (albeit not as much as Jihlava), while Pardubice due to prevalence of high quality offensive players even beyond the 1st line and lack of top blueliners tended to play more offensively (albeit not as much as Slovan Bratislava for instance).

This season was marked as close ongoing battle between forementioned Pardubice and Kladno. They had the same amount of points going into this game and tight intense match-up was expected to happen…

…Which did not. Kladno won in rather dominating fashion 6:2. Stastny-Novak-Martinec struggled to gain possession in the offensive zone and as the game progressed they became increasingly frustrated with the result, leading to some silly penalties. Frantisek Pospisil received the biggest share of credit for shutting down the most dangerous Czechoslovak forward line at the time. Miloslav Charouzd´s observations:

“The quickness of thinking about choosing the best solution of a game situation is quite often more effective than actual skating speed of a hockey player. Especially defenseman, who can capture the most advantageous opportunity for a vertical pass, is highly beneficial everywhere and thus valuable player. Exactly at these moments, Kladno´s defenseman Pospíšil developed quick counter-attacks of his team with remarkable view over the ice in the game with Tesla Pardubice. Particularly fourth goal of Kladno documented in a convincing way his fast mental evaluation of the situation and decision-making. During one of Tesla´s attacks, when quite chaotically and all at the same time Martinec, Jiří Novák and Sekera went for the puck along the boards, Pospíšil brilliantly understood the situation, released himself from all three forchecking rivals, pulled the puck inside in the rink and thus suddenly created great starting position for the counter-attack. He did not rush, neither hesitate anything. He made the decision quickly and accurately. He waited until Eda Novák skated into free space and then [Pospíšil] sent a perfect pass onto the stick of his teammate up to the red line. Kladno´s right wing then finished the next phase of counter-attack not-any-less perfectly – beautiful goal. This and other similar actions confirmed again, that the quickness of thinking and passing has its effective power even in current hockey.”

After the penultimate round, i. e. 31th, Kladno finally secured their defense of the League championship from previous season. Gól wrote on that “František Pospíšil has been dressing up the first-league Kladno´s jersey since 1961-62 season and as a captain of the team has led his boys to two championship titles. He is the soul of the whole collective and he even caused that a series of excellent hockey players grew up next to him.”

 

[Batis]

WHC 1976 All-Star Team (determined by 192 journalists):
Jiří Holeček (159 votes) – Mats Waltin (56), František Pospíšil (111) – Vladimír Martinec (112), Milan Nový (71), Valeri Kharlamov (124)

Very interesting that Kharlamov actually may have a case for best forward at the 1976 WHC after all even if Martinec won the Directorate award. I wonder if the Directorates vote was as close as this one.

Also what a season from Holeček and the high praise from Bobby Hull really is a feather in the cap for him.

 

[DN28]

Very interesting that Kharlamov actually may have a case for best forward at the 1976 WHC after all even if Martinec won the Directorate award. I wonder if the Directorates vote was as close as this one.

Also what a season from Holeček and the high praise from Bobby Hull really is a feather in the cap for him.

Seems like Kharlamov was lone bright spot on otherwise dissapointing Soviet team. Only Kharlamov and Michailov finished in top 10 scoring of the tournament, and Zluktov plus Balderis in top 20. That´s all.

Yeah, I am glad that I found Hull´s quote. I´ve seen it on this forum in the past but now we know the context and time when he made this claim.

 

[VMBM]

Very interesting that Kharlamov actually may have a case for best forward at the 1976 WHC after all even if Martinec won the Directorate award. I wonder if the Directorates vote was as close as this one.

I wonder if this (Kharlamov got slightly more All-Star votes) is also the reason why some Kharlamov bios etc erroneously have Kharlamov winning the Directorate Best Forward award in 1976.

BTW, what a season by Pospisil, both domestically and internationally.

 

[Theokritos]

Regarding the Czechoslovak all-star voting, it's interesting to draw a comparison with the Golden Stick voting.

1975-1976:

Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 40 votes
2. Vladimír Dzurilla – 1

Golden Stick voting (goaltenders only):
Holeček 2nd overall (840 points), Dzurilla 9th overall (262 points). Next goaltender was 20th overall.

No surprise here.

Right Defensemen:
1. Jiří Bubla – 28
2. Oldřich Machač – 9
3. Milan Kajkl – 3
4. František Kaberle – 1

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 39
2. Oldřich Machač, Milan Kajkl – 1

Golden Stick voting (defencemen only):
Pospíšil 5th overall (418 points), Machač 7th (314), Bubla 10th (203), Dvořák 13th (111), Šíma 17th (59), Kajkl 18th (47) etc.

In Golden Stick voting, Oldřich Machač was clearly considered the second-best defenceman that season. But in All-star voting, the positional split – for whatever reason – put Jiří Bubla ahead.

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 40
2. Peter Šťastný – 1

The source for the Golden Stick voting results that I have doesn't give specific forward positions. Regardless, Martinec is the clear winner here: he was 1st overall with 908 points. 19-year-old Peter Šťastný got a honourable vote in the AS poll and was 15th overall in GS voting with 84 points. (Question to DN28: Didn't Eduard Novák also play RW? He was 11th in Golden Stick voting with 157 points.)

Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 26
2. Ivan Hlinka – 9
3. Jiří Novák – 6

Golden Stick voting (centers only)
Nový 3rd overall (582), Hlinka 4th (424), Jiří Novák 6th (360), Jaroslav Holík 14th (86).

Both Ivan Hlinka and Jiří Novák were among the best 4 forwards in Golden Stick voting. But in all-star center voting, the two of them finished clearly behind Milan Nový. Tough luck for them with the positional split.

Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 37
2. Bohuslav Šťastný – 3
3. Eduard Novák – 1

Golden Stick voting, LWs only:
Jiří Holík 8th overall (288), Eduard Novák [did he split time between LW and RW?] 11th (157), Bohuslav Šťastný 12th (140).

E. Novák slightly ahead of B. Šťastný in AS voting. In GS voting it's the other way round in. Could be coincidence (there were only 4 voters in the AS poll who picked one of them anyway), or perhaps Eduard Novák did split time between both LW and RW?

1976-1977:

Goaltenders:
1. Vladimír Dzurilla – 41 votes
2. Jiří Holeček – 1

Golden Stick voting (goaltenders only):
Dzurilla 6th overall (488), Holeček 8th (316). Next goaltender was 17th overall.

Right Defensemen:
1. Jiří Bubla – 27
2. Oldřich Machač – 14
3. Milan Chalupa – 1

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 39
2. Milan Kajkl – 2
3. Jan Zajíček – 1

Golden Stick voting (defencemen only):
Pospíšil 3rd overall (686), Bubla 7th (381), Machač 16th (108), Dvořák 19th (96), Kajkl 20th (54).

The same duo as in the year before, but this time Bubla actually is considered the #2 defenceman in GS voting too over Machač. Also, as in the year before, Milan Kajkl seem to have had a few fans among the AS voters – moreso than e.g. Miroslav Dvořák.

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 22
2. Marián Šťastný – 20

Golden Stick voting (RWs only):
Martinec 4th overall (575), M. Šťastný 5th overall (528), etc.

A close call between Martinec and the oldest of the three Šťastný brothers from Bratislava in both GS and AS voting.

Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 24
2. Ivan Hlinka – 18

Golden Stick voting (centers only):
Nový 1st overall (1030), Hlinka 2nd overall (775).

Hlinka with another very good season, but again Nový is even better.

Left Wingers:
1. Bohuslav Ebermann – 31
2. Jiří Holík – 5
3. Marián Šťastný – 2
4. Ivan Hlinka, Vladimír Martinec, Milan Nový, Jaroslav Pouzar – 1

Golden Stick voting (LWs only):
Ebermann 9th overall (245), Jiří Holík 10th (187).

Clear advantage for Ebermann over Holík (who is now past his prime), although GS voting has them closer than AS voting. Even more than in the year before, depth at LW appears more shallow than at the RW and especially at the center position. The few remaining votes mostly go to players who didn't even play LW primarily and whose names you wouldn't expect here (Hlinka, Nový, Martinec, M. Šťastný).

 

[DN28]

The source for the Golden Stick voting results that I have doesn't give specific forward positions. Regardless, Martinec is the clear winner here: he was 1st overall with 908 points. 19-year-old Peter Šťastný got a honourable vote in the AS poll and was 15th overall in GS voting with 84 points. (Question to DN28: Didn't Eduard Novák also play RW? He was 11th in Golden Stick voting with 157 points.)

Yes, E. Novak was RW. Though it is possible that he played LW few times. I believe I saw somewhere the notion about his defensive play which was generally associated with LW at the time. But I would guess that one vote was just a mistake by a voter.

Thank you for analysis! Bubla-Machac swap in 1976 is interesting.

 

[Theokritos]

Thank you for analysis! Bubla-Machac swap in 1976 is interesting.

I assume Gól magazine didn't publish the full voting record of the Golden Stick poll (how many 1st to 10th place votes each player received) as opposed to just the overall results?

 

[DN28]

I assume Gól magazine didn't publish the full voting record of the Golden Stick poll (how many 1st to 10th place votes each player received) as opposed to just the overall results?

No, they were not publishing that. But they were publishing separate voting rounds too, i.e. results of the voting after 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarter of League season + the final (5th) voting round after whole season was over.

I didn´t take pictures of these of GS voting rounds because I didn´t find it that important or interesting. With one exception:

It caught my attention because it is 4th round of voting in 1971-1972 (28th-36th round of the League - after the League was finished and WHC 72 was yet to be played) and it again proves how relatively strong Suchy came into the 2nd part of the season after he was released from custody (voted as 4th best player at this time frame).

 

[Theokritos]

No, they were not publishing that. But they were publishing separate voting rounds too, i.e. results of the voting after 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarter of League season + the final (5th) voting round after whole season was over.

Did the 5th & final voting round carry the same weight as the four quarter rounds before? Or did it carry more weight?

 

[DN28]

Did the 5th & final voting round carry the same weight as the four quarter rounds before? Or did it carry more weight?

It carried the same weight (meaning that the system of 10 to 1 points for top 10 players on every ballot remained the same) but difference was that only coaches were among voters during the first 4 rounds of voting and they voted always only for the particular part of the season (in 1971-72 it would be 1st-9th round, 10th-18th round, 19th-27th round, 28th-36th round). International play during these time frames such as Izvestia Cup was taken into account as well.

Then, after whole season was over (generally after the end of WHC, but sometimes last rounds of the League or playoffs in 1971, 1973 were played after WHC), the fifth round came in where both coaches and all the media, which was covering hockey news to at least some degree, voted while taking into account the season as a whole. That´s why the fifth round was the most important one because the biggest amount of points to be gained concentrated there.

Continuing with 1972 season as an example, Pospisil achieved one of the most dominant victories in this award through winning all of 5 voting rounds. 118 points, then 138, 125, 122 and 353 points in the fifth round which makes 856 points for him:


On this picture, you can see the sole 5th round above, and then the final results of the award which summed up all points from all round for each player:


Two additional points: I remember you asked in the past why such an increase in points (and presumably increase in voters) occured precisely at this ´72 season compared to voting in previous 69, 70, 71 seasons (Pospisil won now with 800+ points, while in previous three seasons winners Pospisil and Suchy always won with just 300+ points)? I found out that for the first 3 seasons of the Golden stick award, there was only classic one round of voting after the end of season, five round voting system was introduced in 1971-72 for reason of "not forgetting" strong starts or generally stronger 1/2 halfs of player´s season. The actual number of voters before and after 1972 stayed more or less the same.

1974-1975 is the only season where GS voting was for some reason completely different. I will expand on that soon (74-75 is the next one in this "series").

 

[Theokritos]

It carried the same weight (meaning that the system of 10 to 1 points for top 10 players on every ballot remained the same) but difference was that only coaches were among voters during the first 4 rounds of voting and they voted always only for the particular part of the season (in 1971-72 it would be 1st-9th round, 10th-18th round, 19th-27th round, 28th-36th round). International play during these time frames such as Izvestia Cup was taken into account as well.

Then, after whole season was over (generally after the end of WHC, but sometimes last rounds of the League or playoffs in 1971, 1973 were played after WHC), the fifth round came in where both coaches and all the media, which was covering hockey news to at least some degree, voted while taking into account the season as a whole. That´s why the fifth round was the most important one because the biggest amount of points to be gained concentrated there.

Continuing with 1972 season as an example, Pospisil achieved one of the most dominant victories in this award through winning all of 5 voting rounds. 118 points, then 138, 125, 122 and 353 points in the fifth round which makes 856 points for him:
View attachment 101795

On this picture, you can see the sole 5th round above, and then the final results of the award which summed up all points from all round for each player:
View attachment 101797

Two additional points: I remember you asked in the past why such an increase in points (and presumably increase in voters) occured precisely at this ´72 season compared to voting in previous 69, 70, 71 seasons (Pospisil won now with 800+ points, while in previous three seasons winners Pospisil and Suchy always won with just 300+ points)? I found out that for the first 3 seasons of the Golden stick award, there was only classic one round of voting after the end of season, five round voting system was introduced in 1971-72 for reason of "not forgetting" strong starts or generally stronger 1/2 halfs of player´s season. The actual number of voters before and after 1972 stayed more or less the same.

1974-1975 is the only season where GS voting was for some reason completely different. I will expand on that soon (74-75 is the next one in this "series").

Thanks a lot for the detailed breakdown.

Juding by the example of Pospíšil in 1971-72, the large number of voters meant that the fifth round of voting accounted for about 40% of the total points while each of the prior four rounds only accounted for about 15% (pre-WCH rounds overall: about 60%). So WCH performances would surely have a disproportionally great weight (which is arguably fair when you consider the importance of the WCH) – but with 60% of the points already awarded before the WCH, the weight would not be as great as in the All-star voting which was conducted after the WCH (so 100% of the points were awarded under the fresh impression of the WCH). This difference could help to explain differences between the GS results and the AS results. If, for example, Oldřich Machač was the clear-cut #2 defenceman in Golden Stick voting in 1975-1976 behind only Pospíšil, but the AS voting had Machač clearly behind Jiří Bubla among right defencemen, then perhaps a particularly strong performance by Bubla in the 1976 World Championship or a relatively weak performance there by Machač could be the reason behind this. (I haven't really looked into the tournament, I'm just talking in hypothetics. My explanation might not always work, but it's a starting point.)

 

[DN28]

Thanks a lot for the detailed breakdown.

Juding by the example of Pospíšil in 1971-72, the large number of voters meant that the fifth round of voting accounted for about 40% of the total points while each of the prior four rounds only accounted for about 15% (pre-WCH rounds overall: about 60%). So WCH performances would surely have a disproportionally great weight (which is arguably fair when you consider the importance of the WCH) – but with 60% of the points already awarded before the WCH, the weight would not be as great as in the All-star voting which was conducted after the WCH (so 100% of the points were awarded under the fresh impression of the WCH). This difference could help to explain differences between the GS results and the AS results. If, for example, Oldřich Machač was the clear-cut #2 defenceman in Golden Stick voting in 1975-1976 behind only Pospíšil, but the AS voting had Machač clearly behind Jiří Bubla among right defencemen, then perhaps a particularly strong performance by Bubla in the 1976 World Championship or a relatively weak performance there by Machač could be the reason behind this. (I haven't really looked into the tournament, I'm just talking in hypothetics. My explanation might not always work, but it's a starting point.)

Yes, that would be my interpretation as well.

As for Bubla-Machac, I thought about the same explanation. We can´t know it for sure, there aren´t even full voting all-star voting data of ´76 WHC, but idea that Bubla outplayed Machac particularly at this championship does not look off (at least from an offensive perspective):

Oldřich Machač: 10 games / 0 g / 2 a / 2 points / 4 PM
František Pospíšil: 10 games / 0 g / 4 a / 4 points / 2 PM
Jiří Bubla: 10 games / 4 g / 3 a / 7 points / 2 PM
Milan Kajkl: 10 games / 0 g / 0 a / 0 points / 0 PM
Milan Chalupa: 7 games / 1 g / 4 a / 5 points / 2 PM
Miroslav Dvořák: 7 games / 0 g / 0 a / 0 points / 4 PM
František Kaberle: 8 games / 0 g / 0 a / 0 points / 6 PM

 

[DN28]

1974-1975

All-Star Team (42 voters):
This time, Gól listed only first place players with number of votes, and with reasoning that this season there was almost no competition in voting. Consensus on the best player at each position was nearly complete among voters, with one exception – LD position, where Miroslav Dvorak´s voting result is listed too, on the virtue of being the only non-all-star player receiving decent amount of votes.

Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 41 votes
- 1 vote left

Right Defensemen:
1. Oldřich Machač – 38
- 4 votes left

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 28
2. Miroslav Dvořák – 12
- 0 votes left

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 42
- 0 votes left

Centers:
1. Milan Nový – 35
- 7 votes left

Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 36
- 6 votes left

Save percentage:
1. Jiří Holeček (Sparta): 40 games / 98 goals allowed / 1193 saves / 0.9241 %
2. Pavel Bakus (Jihlava): 21 games / 46 goals allowed / 510 saves / 0.9173 %
3. Miroslav Krása (Kladno): 27 games / 61 goals allowed / 659 saves / 0.9153 %
4. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 42 games / 104 goals allowed / 1123 saves / 0.9152 %
5. B. Pavlík (Vítkovice): 31 games / 115 goals allowed / 1185 saves / 0.9115 %
6. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 18 games / 45 goals allowed / 458 saves / 0.9105 %
7. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 43 games / 151 goals allowed / 1431 saves / 0.9046 %
8. Vladimír Dzurilla (Brno): 38 games / 111 goals allowed / 1047 saves / 0.9041 %
9. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 44 games / 149 goals allowed / 1375 saves / 0.9022 %
10. Jaroslav Jágr (Č. Budějovice): 42 games / 132 goals allowed / 1193 saves / 0.9004 %
11. Jiří Svoboda (Jihlava): 23 games / 63 goals allowed / 569 saves / 0.9003 %
12. Josef Hovora (Plzeň): 37 games / 130 goals allowed / 1092 saves / 0.8936 %
13. Pavol Svitana (Košice): 37 games / 129 goals allowed / 1055 saves / 0.8910 %
14. Jiří Králík (Gottwaldov): 35 games / 135 goals allowed / 1051 saves / 0.8862 %
15. Luděk Brož (Vítkovice): 13 games / 47 goals allowed / 365 saves / 0.8859 %
___________________
Vladimír Plánička (Č. Budějovice): 3 games / 6 goals allowed / 73 saves / 0.9241 %
Jaroslav Radvanovský (Sparta): 5 games / 16 goals allowed / 166 saves / 0.9121 %
Michal Orenič (Košice): 8 games / 21 goals allowed / 204 saves / 0.9067 %
Čechura (Plzeň): 3 games / 12 goals allowed / 107 saves / 0.8992 %
Jan Ráca (Pardubice): 2 games / 8 goals allowed / 64 saves / 0.8889 %
Petr Ševela (Brno): 6 games / 21 goals allowed / 159 saves / 0.8833 %
Šott (Plzeň): 4 games / 17 goals allowed / 121 saves / 0.8768 %
Horst Valášek (Gottwaldov): 9 games / 54 goals allowed / 290 saves / 0.8430 %
Melíško (Slovan): 1 game / 4 goals allowed / 21 saves / 0.8400 %
Petr Brokeš (Plzeň): 1 game / 8 goals allowed / 37 saves / 0.8222 %
Jaroslav Rozsypal (Jihlava): 1 game / 6 goals allowed / 26 saves / 0.8125 %
Vlastimil Březina (Litvínov): 1 game / 7 goals allowed / 23 saves / 0.7667 %
Vladimír Nadrchal (Brno): 1 game / 6 goals allowed / 15 saves / 0.7143 %


WHC 1975 All-Star Team (determined by 92 journalists):
Vladislav Tretiak (42 votes) – Valeri Vasiliev (69), Pekka Marjamäki (40) – Vladimír Martinec (38), Vladimir Petrov (60), Alexander Yakushev (73)

WHC 1975 Save percentage (Czech goalies):
Jiří Holeček: 9 games / 526 min. / 14 goals allowed / 200 saves / 0.9346 %
Jiří Crha: 2 games / 75 min. / 5 goals allowed / 20 saves / 0.8000 %

Other:
1) Golden Stick Award
Hold your hats because this is going to be a bit complicated. As I have mentioned briefly in one of my previous posts, this season sparked a one-off change in the voting for a best Czechoslovak player in the season. This time, there were 3 rounds or phases: 1. Point evaluation of all 29 players participating at the Izvestia Cup and the World Championship 1975. 2. Point evaluation of these 29 players based on their League performances. 3. Voting from 40 experts (coaches + journalists) – again from limited group of 29 players. Point evaluation happened to be derived mechanically by Karel Gut´s “Canadian scoring”. “Canadian scoring” formula for this season was following: goal = 5 points, assist = 3 points, on ice when goal is scored = 1 point, on ice at ES or PP when goal is allowed = -2 points, player at the penalty box whose penalty led to a goal = -4 points, penalty killer for each PK minute without goal allowed = 1 point. “Canadian scoring” for goalies remains a mystery but apparently Gut thought he has a formula for reasonably fair point evaluation and comparison across all positions.

´75 Izvestia Cup point evaluation according to Gut:
1. Holecek – 137, 2. Pospisil – 97, 3. Martinec – 96, 4. J. Holik – 95, 5. Machac – 91, 6. Crha – 82, 7. Nový – 77, 8. Kochta – 59, 9. Augusta – 50, 10. Hlinka – 49, 11. Dvorak – 47, 12. Ebermann – 43, 13. M. Stastny – 40, 14. E. Novak – 37, 15. Bubla – 36, 16. B. Stastny – 33, 17. Pouzar – 31, 18. J. Novak – 24, 19. Kaberle – 22, 20. Kostka – 8, 21. Kajkl – 3, 22. Veith – 2, 23. Horacek – 0, 24. Neubauer, Sterbak – -1, 26. Haas, Chalupa, Kuzela – -2, 29. Sykora – -4.

´75 World Championship point evaluation according to Gut:
1. Holecek – 110, 2. E. Novak, B. Stastny – 57, 4. Martinec – 55, 5. Machac – 51, 6. Pospisil – 48, 7. J. Holik – 47, 8. Kochta – 44, 9. Novy – 42, 10. Dvorak – 39, 11. Augusta – 33, 12. Kaberle, J. Novak – 32, 14. Bubla – 31, 15. Ebermann – 24, 16. M. Stastny – 21, 17. Hlinka – 18, 18. Kajkl – 5, 19. Kostka – 4, 20. Crha – 3.

Raw point evaluations combined:
1. Holecek – 247, 2. Martinec – 151, 3. Pospisil – 145, 4. J. Holik, Machac – 142, 6. Novy – 119, 7. Kochta – 103, 8. E. Novak – 94, 9. B. Stastny – 90, 10. Dvorak – 86, 11. Crha – 85, 12. Augusta – 83, 13. Bubla, Ebermann, Hlinka – 67, 16. M. Stastny – 61, 17. J. Novak – 56, 18. Kaberle – 54, 19. Pouzar – 31, 20. Kostka – 12, 21. Kajkl – 8, 22. Veith – 2, 23. Horacek – 0, 24. Neubauer, Sterbak – -1, 26. Haas, Chalupa, Kuzela – -2, 29. Sykora – -4.

Gut then comments the difficulty or unfairness to take these points at face value and proceeds to adjust these evaluations to more balanced representation of the quality of one player´s international performances.

Adjusted point evaluations and the final results of the first phase of the Golden Stick voting:
1. Holecek – 90 points, 2. Pospisil – 87, 3. Machac – 84, 4. Martinec – 81, 5. J. Holik 78, 6. Novy – 75, 7. Dvorak – 72, 8. Kochta – 69, 9. E. Novak – 66, 10. B. Stastny – 63, 11. Augusta – 60. 12. Bubla – 57, 13. Ebermann, Hlinka – 52.5, 15. Kaberle – 48, 16. M. Stastny – 45, 17. Crha – 42, 18. J. Novak – 39, 19. Pouzar – 36, 20. Kostka – 33, 21. Kajkl – 30, 22. Veith – 27, 23. Horacek – 24, 24. Neubauer – 21, 25. Sterbak – 18, 26. Sykora – 15, 27. Kuzela – 12, 28. Haas – 9, 29. Chalupa – 6.

Gut writes that he notices high placements of Holecek and defending players in general. He adds information into the bracket (perhaps as to explain his logic when doing this mathematics?) that his team allowed the least amount of goals at the championship despite not winning gold. I have to assume that same thing happened at the Izvestia Cup given the fact that CSSR won the tournament over Soviets this year. So comparatively lower placements of forwards in this phase of voting do not look too unreasonably.

Unfortunately, I don´t have results of the 2nd and 3rd voting phases. I do remember that Martinec had won the coaches/journalist voting part which promoted him to victory. Final results of GS 1975 are known. You can compare it with the 1st phase:

1. Martinec – 229, 2. Holeček – 225, 3. Jiří Holík – 208, 4. Nový – 205, 5. Pospíšil – 203, 6. Machač – 200, 7. Dvořák – 186, 8. Hlinka – 166½, 9. Eduard Novák – 165, 10. Jiří Novák – 141, 11. Ebermann – 139½, 12. Bohuslav Šťastný – 138, 13. Marián Šťastný – 131, 14. Crha – 125, 15. Kochta – 123, 16. Bubla – 117, 17. Augusta – 114, 18. Kaberle – 109, 19. Kajkl – 98, 20. Pouzar – 92, 21. Kostka – 33, 22. Veith – 27, 23. Horáček – 24, 24. Neubauer – 21, 25. Šterbák – 18, 26. Sýkora – 15, 27. Kužela – 12, 28. Haas – 9, 29. Chalupa – 6.

Kostka, Veith, Horacek, Neubauer, Sterbak, Sykora, Kuzela, Haas and Chalupa received their points only thanks to their international performances at Izvestia Cup and/or World Championship which were given in the 1st phase of the voting. Rest of only 20 players gathered their points also thanks to their domestic performance and thanks to the coaches and/or journalists who voted for them in their top 10 ballots.

2) Hlinka
I think I more or less figured out why Ivan Hlinka finished so low in the GS voting this season despite him winning the League scoring with significant margin:

1974-1975 (6.48 GPG; Source: Official game records)
1. Ivan Hlinka - 79 points (36+43) / 44 games
2. Milan Nový - 67 points (45+22) / 44 games
3. Marián Šťastný - 61 points (36+25) / 41 games
4. Josef Ulrych - 60 points (34+26) / 44 games
5. Jiří Novák - 51 points (24+27) / 44 games
6. Bedřich Brunclík - 44 points (24+20) / 42 games
7. Vladimír Martinec - 42 points (29+13) / 40 games
8. Eduard Novák - 41 points (29+12) / 44 games
9. Václav Mařík - 40 points (19+21) / 44 games
10. Jan Hrbatý - 40 points (17+23) / 44 games

1974-1975 (6.48 GPG; Source: Gól magazine scoring tables)
1. Ivan Hlinka - 78 points (36+42)
2. Milan Nový - 68 points (46+22)
3. Marián Šťastný - 63 points (36+27)
4. Josef Ulrych - 55 points (33+22)
5. Jiří Novák - 53 points (24+29)
6. Vladimír Martinec - 45 points (27+18)
7. Eduard Novák - 44 points (28+16)
8. Bedřich Brunclík - 43 points (24+19)
9. Miroslav Klapáč - 42 points (23+19)
10. Petr Vrabec - 39 points (22+17)

Hlinka seems to underperform internationally this season and this year´s voting system didn´t help him either. That´s the first thing.

Second thing, As far as his domestic record goes, there wasn´t a “vibe” that Hlinka is having a special season because those Gól scoring tables produced rankings based on points and +/- together. Novy was 1st and right above Hlinka sitting on the 2nd most of the season. After the end of the season, Novy was +78, Hlinka was +47. Here is the list of 12 best +/- forwards for 1974-75:

1. B. Stastny (Pardubice) +91
2. Martinec (Pardubice) +83
3. E. Novak (Kladno) +80
4. Novy (Kladno) +78
5. J. Holik (Jihlava) +69
6. Ulrych (Litvinov) +59
7. Prazak (C. Budejovice) +54
Pouzar (C. Budejovice) +54
9. J. Novak (Pardubice) +53
10. Palecek (Pardubice) +51
11. Honc (Sparta) +48
12. Hlinka (Litvinov) +47

Third thing, of course Novy had dominant season when looking strictly at goal-scoring: 45 or 46 goals scored in 44 games played in this League season! Hlinka had 10-12 more points, but 9-10 goals scored less than Novy. It is also important to keep in mind that Kladno (Novy´s team) won the League title for the 1st time in this decade and jumped from the previous season´ 5th place. Although it should be noted that Hlinka´s Litvinov made a progress too, finishing 4th while in ´74 they ended the season at 8th place.

Fourth thing and perhaps the most important factor when discovering the perceived value of Hlinka´s 74-75: Hlinka probably wasn´t even the League leader in points throughout the majority of the season (Novy was). I found out that the League this time wasn´t finished before the WHC 1975. When the Championship ended, 7 rounds of League season remained to be played (38th – 44th round). In his regular league reviews, Gut wrote after 42th round that Hlinka has been “without question the best League forward since the return from the World Championship.” Concretely, Hlinka has accumulated 12 points (8g + 4a) during 5 games (38th – 42th round)! Conversely, while I don´t have precise number of points that Novy has scored at this time frame, Gut writes after the end of the season (i.e. after 44th round) that it is “a shame that in the last quarter [of the League season] Nový dropped from his ‘shooting spree’ (5 goals scored). Otherwise he could have created new goal-scoring record of the League. As of now, he only equaled the record.”

So that´s it. I have to say that usually, if you look deeper into a season, you´ll find more and more that the “MVP votings” make a lot of sense. More often than not.

3) Karel Gut and his interest in statistics
Gól magazine publications 1975 and 1974 published in the summer during off-season Gut´s more thorough stats and his own thoughts and comments about the matter (that´s why this time I listed above the SV% of every goalie that played at least a period of one game, not just the Top 10 or so…).

Goalies:

Here, Gut lists goalies based on their save percentage and compares it to his goalie ranking based on his own secret formula. “Everybody can make their own judgement, but it seems that the objectivity of ranking this constructed is ultimately hindered by the number of games played. Yet three years ago, it was still a routine for us to value performance and to determine the ranking according to so called save percentage. [See the Top 10 in the image, 3rd column is the save percentage]

You can reproach this way of evaluation even still a certain lack of objectivity and that is the correct judgement of a save. From experience, we can still see that opinion of what constitutes a save is different. At least from the comparison of number of saves publishing by Československý sport [daily 8 pages sports newspaper] with the records sending by the clubs. Until we reach completely accurate data, then perhaps the most objective evaluation of goaltenders will remain today´s, quite laborious scoring.”

Another information: 9 empty net goals have been scored this season.

Defensemen:

“Today´s League review is dedicated exclusively to defensemen whose role in modern hockey is becoming more and more prominent. It is now also a foregone conclusion that today, the defensive lines are involved in productivity of its teams. More than 40 % of goals scored in the League have been a result of participation of defensemen. 256 were scored on their own [by defensemen] and 458 were assisted to [by defensemen]. This table serves us for better overview:

	Goals	Assists	Points scored by d-men
1. Kladno	22	65	87
2. Sparta Praha	34	42	76
3. Plzeň	23	47	70
4. Č. Budějovice	26	38	64
5. Brno	20	44	64
6. Jihlava	24	34	58
7. Slovan Brat.	18	40	58
8. Košice	19	37	56
9. Litvínov	17	32	49
10. Pardubice	11	37	48
11. Gottwaldov	26	16	42
12. VŽKG Ostrava	16	26	42

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

To this overview, we can reveal yet that in this season defensemen scored 4 goals more than in previous season. Relatively, they have been even more successful because this time overall, there have been 104 goals scored less. Sparta defensemen rules in this shooting competition with 34 goals (last year 31). On the other side, the failure of Pardubice defensemen strikes you, they shot down the right target only 11 times for the entire season (last year 13 goals). They were a bit more successful in the productivity as a whole, so with 48 points they exceeded d-men of Gottwaldov and VŽKG (42). In spite of that, their productivity is definitely not in line with placement of the team. And so just the comparison between Spartan and Pardubician defensemen for instance is worthy to think about. 93 defensemen have played this year´s League. Seven more compared to last year.”

Power plays and penalty kills:

League finish:	PP goals scored	PP goals allowed	PK goals scored	PK goals allowed
1. Kladno	36	1	4	16
2. Pardubice	26	4	0	28
3. Jihlava	28	2	1	20
4. Litvínov	28	2	3	20
5. Slovan Brat.	13	3	1	18
6. Sparta Praha	20	1	2	17
7. Č. Budějovice	26	0	4	24
8. Brno	15	0	2	22
9. Plzeň	28	3	6	30
10. Košice	15	2	2	23
11. VŽKG Ostrava	12	2	3	27
12. Gottwaldov	17	8	0	19
	264	28	28	264

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Gut only nods that the League champion Kladno indeed had both special teams situations managed the best from all teams. Also mentions that 7 teams have negative ratios (more PK GA than PP GS).

Just as the defensemen table showed us disappointing weak offensive contributions by Pardubice´s blueliners, again by looking at this table, it indicates that Tesla Pardubice (though finishing as a 2nd best team in the League!) had surprisingly weak both PP and PK: negative PP/PK ratio and also one of only two teams who did not score a single shorthanded goal.

The League this season consisted of 264 games and 1711 goals (6.48 gpg). 264 power play goals means precisely one PP goal per one game and 15.43 % of all goals scored have been scored during a power play.

Penalties:

This table is a list of the most penalized players of this season. You can see that Jaroslav Holik is a clear “leader” with 87 penalty minutes (62 PIMs two-minutes + 15 PIMs five-minutes, 10 PIMs ten-minutes) in 1974-75. Of the well-known players, Marian Stastny at 4th place with 57 penalty minutes was somewhat surprise to me.

 

[DN28]

Vladimir Kostka about European hockey

General differences between European and North American hockey in the 60s, 70s, 80s have been well observed and documented at least to some extent. But how about differences between Soviet, Czechoslovak and Swedish hockey? I found a great article by Vladimir Kostka, written in the spring of 1975, dealing specifically with this issue. Quite accurate description in my opinion, definitely worthy of my translation here:

“Directions of Development of the World Hockey

In last issue, we have published first part of very interesting and enlightening article about development and problems of the world hockey. The author wrote about penetration of industrial technology into hockey, about ‘game revolution’ and about Canadian conception of the game. Today, we finish the article with no less interesting chapters…

Doc. Dr. Vladimír Kostka:

Soviet Hockey

Soviet hockey in its history recorded wholly unique performance onset which was followed up by phase of high-end stabilization in the world and European scale. World hockey public considered the Soviet entry as a sensation. Although at least partial knowledge of conditions, on which was the Soviet hockey entrée prepared for the world forum, changes this sensation into a case of thoughtful strategic preparation, using the knowledge of the game of present excellent teams, as well as knowledge even from other kinds of sports.

Soviet coaches went their own way in hockey from the beginning. They used everything which was known about ice hockey in Canada, Czechoslovakia and other countries. They did not fear to choose different methods and to further elaborate the game tactics. They increased the difficulty of physical conditioning of players at an unprecedented scale. They used the knowledge of scientific research in the area of sports training. In hockey, considered as a seasonal sport, they introduced yearlong training. They enriched the tactics of the game. They applied some elements of the Russian hockey [bandy?] on the conditions of ice hockey.

These circumstances have created a certain character of the game of Soviet players. Great pace of the game is at the first sight noticeable. It is conditioned by high state of functional and mental preparation of the players. Soviet hockey players play the whole game in full speed without manifesting such signs of fatigue which would have influenced the accuracy of rehearsed combinations. Training with maximum load has been applied in preparations of the best hockey teams. Big skating speed and agility of all players is typical. Moreover, the skating speed has yet been intensified by the quick puck-handling and effective use of combination game. Collective cooperation is built on the first place of importance in the game of Soviet teams. It´s been based on a consistent application of the collective game, in which independent activity of individual players is effectively implemented.

Soviet hockey players´ very efficient weapon is the use of entire space of the rink. Constant movement of all players, acceleration of this movement, and calm at the same time, with which the Soviet players pass the puck in order to force the opponent to make a mistake – those are the weapons which ever escalates the effectiveness of Soviet conception of ice hockey. Soviet players shoot relatively less frequently, but effectively because the speed, the strength and technique allows them another maneuvering with the puck and thus searching for proper shooting position. Forwards are constantly active, durable enough against opponent´s defense, and able from their own will to choose the way of finishing the play.

With Soviet hockey, there has been acknowledged the fact that the players are able to impose to the opponent their fast style of play, in which rehearsed systems have an important place. Mastering of these systems creates positive conditions for players, even for the solutions of randomly originated situations. Rehearsed system excels particularly during a power play of the Soviet National Team, in which the speed of players is connected with abnormally quick short passes that disrupts the opponent´s defensive system, which is unable to react on such speed with properly organized defense.

Stress on high technique of the stick that has been applying in full speed brings to Soviet players a success in one-on-one situations and at entering into the offensive zone – even despite an opponent´s close defense.

Soviet game has very well thought out order. It builds on the cooperation of the whole units, in which different concepts of the game are to be respected. Cyclic rotation of these variously oriented units brings ever changing situations, on which the opponent with just one defensive system does not hold up most of the time.

Soviet hockey builds on mass base and on high level of youngster and junior teams too. They take over the basic playing systems of the National Team and are a guarantee of continuity of success of the Soviet hockey in the years to come.

Czechoslovak Hockey

Czechoslovak conception of ice hockey bears the signs of a general idea of sports games, which are mostly founded on tactics, using the individual technique and creative abilities of players. This style of play requires great sensitivity at assembling the teams that are built on collective conception of active defense as a foundation for offensive actions. Defensive activities are tightly organized, whereas at offensive actions a bigger space for individual intentions of players is given.

Czechoslovak hockey players traditionally employ advanced skating technique and puck-handling. Their attacks are more complicated and Czechoslovak forwards need relatively more shoot attempts to score a goal than their opponents. Increased toughness in the game over last years has been occurring, and not just in the game of defensemen but also of forwards, whose participation in the active defense has been growing. Organization of the game in defense is expressed by an effective system, while still a lot of spontaneity is seen in offense, especially at setting up and finishing the attacks. Defensive game is supported by traditionally good level of goaltenders, whose trainings has been granted by a special attention.

Czechoslovakia does not have so much favourable natural conditions for ice hockey as its competitors. If it wants to maintain at the top of the world, it will have to build its conception of the game with high economics of controlled / directed preparation of coaches and players. That´s why it has been building a united training system from pupils´ teams to the National Team, and united coaching qualifications which should help the training of coaches and their effect on teams in order to realize this central system. Relatively small players´ base requires systematic scouting of talents and League players, which are, or prospectively can make, the top of Czechoslovak hockey. This scouting is together with using theoretical and scientific findings the way to overcome unfavourable conditions, coming from the fact that Czechoslovakia is, of countries which are highly involved in the development of ice hockey, geographically situated the southernmost. Ice hockey still belongs to the most popular sports in Czechoslovakia and its attractiveness for youth is going to be a guarantee of prospective growth of this fastest and most technical game.

Swedish Hockey

Outstanding level of Swedish hockey stems from good conditions, tradition and mentality of the Swedes. Sweden has the biggest number of rinks with artificial ice in Europe and more, it has enough natural ice. Enormous interest of the viewers is encouraged by popularization [of hockey] in the press, in the radio and in the television. Mentality of Swedish players makes them tough, self-confident fighters, resistant against difficult game situations.

Swedish players are predisposed physically for the game and they try to apply it mostly at individual battles with opposing players, which they intentionally cause, knowing that won individual battle is the starting point for founding own offensive action. Their stickhandling technique with solid grip and using the whole stick as a lever, into which they transmits their personal strength, is the Swedish advantage at individual battles. When looking for free space with the puck, they change the rhythm of the movement according to the game situation, and so they gain advantage against an opponent who reacts belatedly on the change of the rhythm.

Collective concept comes from an individual decisiveness at solving the game situations, and therefore is characterized by very good skating, technical maturity of forwards and traditional distinctive positional game of defensemen. Height advantage of Swedish players enables them the individual covering of bigger space and at the same time, players are sufficiently skillful skating-wise in order for them to realize needed offensive and defensive actions at those spaces.

Swedish game is relatively simple but well thought out. Team fulfills defensive duties – and even at the moment when someone of the teammates goes into risky action. Swedish attacks are directed right towards the opponent´s goal. Players attempt to shoot after comparatively small number of passes. Noticeable is an effort to transport the puck as quickly as possible into the offensive zone. If the right shooting position is not achieved, game is slowed down in order for some teammate to make free of himself for the shot. The space behind the opponent´s goal has been used effectively, the team gains the opportunity to organize attack in the nearness of this goal.

Swedish hockey is an attractive model for the Nordic countries, and thus Sweden is along with Czechoslovakia the only European state, which maintains at the forefront of hockey more than half a century.”

 

[Theokritos]

They applied some elements of the Russian hockey [bandy?] on the conditions of ice hockey.

"Russian hockey" is definitely referring to bandy.

1) Golden Stick Award
Hold your hats because this is going to be a bit complicated. As I have mentioned briefly in one of my previous posts, this season sparked a one-off change in the voting for a best Czechoslovak player in the season. This time, there were 3 rounds or phases: 1. Point evaluation of all 29 players participating at the Izvestia Cup and the World Championship 1975. 2. Point evaluation of these 29 players based on their League performances. 3. Voting from 40 experts (coaches + journalists) – again from limited group of 29 players. Point evaluation happened to be derived mechanically by Karel Gut´s “Canadian scoring”. “Canadian scoring” formula for this season was following: goal = 5 points, assist = 3 points, on ice when goal is scored = 1 point, on ice at ES or PP when goal is allowed = -2 points, player at the penalty box whose penalty led to a goal = -4 points, penalty killer for each PK minute without goal allowed = 1 point.

Here's a rare picture of Gól magazine's head statistician calculating the point totals for the 1975 Golden Stick Award:

 

[DN28]

Here's a rare picture of Gól magazine's head statistician calculating the point totals for the 1975 Golden Stick Award:

Karel Gut certainly liked to play with numbers.

Anyway, I remember that Izvestia Cup structure changed for 1974-75 and that may be the reason why the Golden stick voting system adjusted to it. Usually, Izvestia was just a one-time thing (in December?), but in this season, it was an ongoing serious of games throughout the season and the Czechoslovakia won it rather decisively... I can see that perhaps Gut, as NT coach, wanted to take pride of it?

Here are the results of CSSR vs. USSR in 1975:

December: USSR x CSSR 6:3, USSR x CSSR 3:3, USSR x CSSR 3:4
March: USSR x CSSR 1:6, USSR x CSSR 2:4, USSR x CSSR 3:9

But then the World Championship ´75 came:
USSR x CSSR 5:2, USSR x CSSR 4:1

And Soviets took gold and Czechs silver again...

 

[VMBM]

WHC 1975 All-Star Team (determined by 92 journalists):
Vladislav Tretiak (42 votes) – Valeri Vasiliev (69), Pekka Marjamäki (40) – Vladimír Martinec (38), Vladimir Petrov (60), Alexander Yakushev (73)

Surprisingly big difference between Marjamäki and Vasiliev, to latter's advantage, considering that Marjamäki got the Directorate Best Defenseman award.
I reckon it was a fairly tight race for the RW position, Mikhailov and Shalimov being Martinec's main competition.

 

[Jablkon]

Seriously, what you doing here is pure gold and I have nothing but big respect for effort you made with all of these translations. For about three years I, as a fan, have been criticizing czech hockey for not having braintrust as they used to have, kind of low standart crap behaviour and poor ability to go deep into issues. But this was based mostly about my unproven feelings/perceptions as a fan who has been following czech hockey for almost 30 years, plus you see that even current Ludek Bukac work is not much respected here despite he still appears to be one year ahead of any other czech hockey person. I grew up on that year books of czech teams and czech hockey from 70s, early 80s which my dad had in his library, but never got to that coaches opinions.The way how he described czechoslovak hockey in 1975 is incredibly valid even nowadays.This all just confirms my opinion. Proper scientific and high education approach is missed here and such a great persons disappeared at least in one entire generation of coaches. Even lot of current “learning by doing” changes would never be made under Kostka, Bukac etc. because they were simply able to discuss it and made proper analysis before they adapted it. Its sad to see what kind of approach was set up as standart in czech hockey. Bukac wrote 16 pages critical analysis of czech hockey development 2 years ago. I, probably being entirely naive, expected that somebody from association responds in similar academic way. Nothing happened to my surprise. But work you did here really put even my opinions into broader perspective and it shows that what I was naturally used to and took for granted is not here anymore. I was always like “hey, you dont see it? This is not normal”....

 

[DN28]

1973-1974

All-Star Team (46 voters):
Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 45 votes
2. Jiří Crha - 1

Right Defensemen:
1. Oldřich Machač – 38
2. Milan Kužela, Jiří Bubla – 3
4. Jan Suchý - 2

Left Defensemen:
1. Milan Kužela – 15
2. Jiří Bubla – 12
3. Jan Suchý – 7
4. František Pospíšil, Jaroslav Šíma – 4
6. Jiří Neubauer – 3
7. Miroslav Dvořák – 1

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 46

Centers:
1. Václav Nedomanský – 30
2. Ivan Hlinka – 7
3. Richard Farda – 5
4. Jaroslav Holík, Jiří Holík - 2

Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 43
2. Bohuslav Šťastný – 3

Save percentage:
1. Jiří Holeček (Sparta): 40 games / 91 goals allowed / 1311 saves / 0.9351 %
2. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 43 games / 119 goals allowed / 1247 saves / 0.9129 %
3. Jiří Svoboda (Jihlava): 43 games / 88 goals allowed / 913 saves / 0.9121 %
4. Jaroslav Jágr (Č. Budějovice): 22 games / 76 goals allowed / 749 saves / 0.9079 %
5. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 42 games / 148 goals allowed / 1431 saves / 0.9063 %
6. Pavol Svitana (Košice): 41 games / 123 goals allowed / 1187 saves / 0.9061 %
7. Vladimír Dzurilla (Brno): 36 games / 116 goals allowed / 1066 saves / 0.9019 %
8. Miroslav Krása (Kladno): 26 games / 85 goals allowed / 745 saves / 0.8976 %
9. Vladimír Plánička (Č. Budějovice): 23 games / 92 goals allowed / 801 saves / 0.8970 %
10. B. Pavlík (Vítkovice): 32 games / 114 goals allowed / 972 saves / 0.8950 %
11. Josef Hovora (Plzeň): 34 games / 124 goals allowed / 1054 saves / 0.8947 %
12. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 19 games / 60 goals allowed / 506 saves / 0.8940 %
13. Luděk Brož (Vítkovice): 12 games / 42 goals allowed / 346 saves / 0.8918 %
14. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 34 games / 129 goals allowed / 981 saves / 0.8838 %
15. Melíško (Slovan): 11 games / 48 goals allowed / 341 saves / 0.8766 %
16. Hoznourek (Chomutov): 23 games / 104 goals allowed / 711 saves / 0.8724 %
17. Slánský (Chomutov): 19 games / 121 goals allowed / 645 saves / 0.8420 %
_________________
Petr Hnídek (Jihlava): 1 game / 1 goal allowed / 19 saves / 0.9500 %
Jan Ráca (Pardubice): 2 games / 5 goals allowed / 56 saves / 0.9180 %
Vlastimil Březina (Litvínov): 3 games / 8 goals allowed / 85 saves / 0.9140 %
Vladimír Nadrchal (Brno): 9 games / 23 goals allowed / 228 saves / 0.9084 %
Jaroslav Radvanovský (Sparta): 5 games / 16 goals allowed / 153 saves / 0.9053 %
Šott (Plzeň): 7 games / 27 goals allowed / 176 saves / 0.8670 %
Jaroslav Rozsypal (Košice): 3 games / 14 goals allowed / 83 saves / 0.8557 %
Herceg (Plzeň): 4 games / 17 goals allowed / 93 saves / 0.8455 %
Primas (Chomutov): 3 games / 14 goals allowed / 76 saves / 0.8444 %
Ligeti (Košice): 1 game / 1 goal allowed / 4 saves / 0.8000 %
František Reiner (Č. Budějovice): 1 game / 1 goal allowed / 3 saves / 0.7500 %


WHC 1974 Save percentage (Czech goalies):
Jiří Holeček: 6 games / 340 min. / 14 goals allowed / 138 saves / 0.9079 %
Jiří Crha: 5 games / 260 min. / 11 goals allowed / 93 saves / 0.8942 %

Other:
1) Holecek
I´m always glad when newly revealed set of data and stats confirms the previous assumptions based on award voting that has been known for some time. Jiri Holecek won his only Golden Stick for the best Czechoslovak player in this season and someone in the past could wonder why now given that Holecek had not win – unlike most of other years of his prime – neither Directoriate´s best goalie award, nor had been honoured as a member of WHC All-Star team. Closer look on his League performance shows that Holecek arrived to Sparta Prague team before the start of the season and his team suddenly finished 2nd, while in previous seasons Sparta without Holecek finished 8th in 1973, 7th in 1972, 7th in 1971. Holecek seemingly dominated the goaltending field with outstanding 0.9351 save percentage. Gut´s summary above the goalie table mentions that he´d already ‘set the pace’ right from the beginning when he recorded 3 shutouts in the first 3 games of the season. This was the peak of Holecek on a domestic level of his career.

Holecek´s WHC performance was negatively affected by playing through injury, concretely torn abdominal muscle which, according to the man himself, strangled the mobility of his right leg. 3 injuries of his face by being hit by the puck also contributed to having his job more difficult. Holecek mentioned this as the reason for not quite playing up to his league level in an article devoted to celebration of the end of the season and to handover of the Golden Stick to him.

2) Defensemen; from Gut´s post-season summary:
From 1813 goals scored in the season, 252 goals were scored by defensemen (13.9 %).

Best in goals scored by d-men:
Dukla Jihlava – 33
Sparta Praha – 31

Worst:
Chomutov – 13
Plzeň – 13
Č. Budějovice – 13
Pardubice – 13

Best in assists recorded by d-men:
Jihlava – 57
Kladno – 43
Pardubice – 35

3) Penalties

	Defensemen PIMs	Forwards PIMs	Game penalties	PIMs combined
1. Plzeň	270	213	1	483
2. Pardubice	256	226	0	482
3.-4. Chomutov	222	198	0	420
3.-4. Košice	148	272	0	420
5. Č. Budějovice	213	188	2	401
6. Sparta	175	218	3	393
7. Brno	232	153	0	385
8. Jihlava	146	237	0	383
9. Slovan Brat.	184	185	2	369
10. Kladno	123	189	0	312
11. Vítkovice	153	148	1	301
12. Litvínov	157	131	0	288
Total:	2279	2358	9	4637

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

This re-written table from the picture above shows how much penalties each team receives. Plzeň and Pardubice are clear “leaders” when it comes to penalties. On the other hand, Litvínov recorded remarkably low amount of penalty minutes compared to the rest of the League.

Following 2 tables in the article reveals the most penalized defensemen and forwards of the season. Just as in the 74-75 season, Jaroslav Holík with his 98 PIMs (48 two-minutes, 10 five-minutes, 40 ten-minutes) was penalized way more than any other player of the season (Bedřich Brunclík from Košice was 2nd with 80 PIMs). If the numbers are correct, Jar. Holík was responsible of 25.6 % of his team´s penalty minutes (98 PIMs out of 383 Jihlava´s PIMs in total).