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

[DN28]

Additions

Missing All-Star Teams
I´ve checked a few editions of Československý sport (8-page daily sport newspaper) to get some data I couldn´t find elsewhere and I´ve stumbled across the Czechoslovak All-Star teams from 1978 and 1979. Československý sport published the All-Star teams only for 1977-78, 1978-79 (no all-star teams in 1977 and 1980´ Československý sport editions have been published), so even though they don´t say it explicitly, it does seem like this initiative was a temporary substitute by the writers when the Gól magazine stopped publishing All-Star teams after 1977 for reasons unknown and since 1980, TIP magazine started to conduct a poll among coaches for their Best player-at-each-position award. One important distinction: unlike all the other All-Star teams, these from 1978 and 1979 are based solely on the domestic league performances.

1977-1978:


Journalists watching and reporting at each game were giving a vote for a player who showed “extraordinary or excellent performance”. Newspaper published the “Unit of the week” every Thursday. Two rounds have been played in one week, so these Units were based on the quality of play in two consecutive games. Article continues by listing players who appeared on the “Units of the week” at least once.

Goaltenders:
Holeček – 6 times named the best goalie of the week
Crha, Králík, Sakáč, Kapoun, Dzurilla – 2
Podešva, Plánička, Brož, Krása, Hovora – 1

Right Defensemen:
Bubla – 9
Suchý – 4
Kajkl, Zajíček, Figala – 2
Vejvoda, Kaberle – 1

Left Defensemen:
Pospíšil – 7
Dvořák – 6
Chalupa, Lyčka – 2
Horáček, Horešovský, Vlček, Kužela – 1

Right Wingers:
M. Šťastný – 5
V. Lukáč, E. Novák – 4
Veith – 2
Caldr, Martinec, Slavík, Černík, Ulrych, Richter – 1

Centers:
P. Šťastný – 6
Hlinka – 4
Nový – 3
Kokrment, J. Novák – 2
Havlíček, Mařík, Augusta, Holáň – 1

Left Wingers:
Pouzar – 6
Ebermann – 3
Jiří Holík, Pěnička, Svozil – 2
Bauer, Neuwirth, Augusta, Richter, Pavlík, A. Šťastný – 1

Number of appearances at the “Units of the week” has not been a determining factor of the All-Star teams however. Československý sport chose instead the second possible criteria, that is the number of times a player´s performance being declared as “extraordinary or excellent” after the game over the course of season that contained 44 rounds. Using this method, article then lists the Československý sport´ official 1st, 2nd and 3rd All-Star Teams of the 1977-78 season.

1st All-Star Team:
Holeček (26 votes out of 44 max. possible) – Bubla (26), Pospíšil (24) – M. Šťastný (23), Hlinka (26), Pouzar (27)

2nd All-Star Team:
Kapoun (21) – Kajkl (22), Dvořák (19) – E. Novák (18), P. Šťastný (22), Ebermann (24)

3rd All-Star Team:
Crha (20) – Zajíček (16), Lyčka (11) – V. Lukáč (15), Nový (21), Richter (18)

1978-1979:


The system is the same. All-Star teams are based on a number of “extraordinary or excellent performance”. Article this time does not list the number of a player´s appearances at “Units of the week”. Three All-Star teams are listed again. Anomaly is that the 1st team actually has 7 players – both Vladimir Martinec and Marian Stastny had 34 extraordinary league performances recorded, which was the best record of all players that season (and also significantly better than any player´s record previous season), so the Československý sport proceeds by saying that to prefer one would be unjust to the other. Hence two RWers in the 1st All-Star team. Unfortunately, only Martinec and Stastny here are listed with their amount of extraordinary performances, the rest of players are not.

1st All-Star Team:
Králík – Kužela, Dvořák – M. Šťastný and Martinec, P. Šťastný, A. Šťastný

2nd All-Star Team:
Sakáč – Bubla, Bukovinský – Fryčer, Nový, Pouzar

3rd All-Star Team:
Hrabák – Kaberle, Ďuriš – V. Lukáč, Svozil, Jaško

Missing Save Percentages
I went through game reports of WHC 1979 and 1976 where the number of saves of each goalie each game is written. Subsequently, I calculated SV% of every goalie who played. In theory, I should be able to gather this data from every 70s championship, possibly further down into early 60s.. but it will definitely take some time.

WHC 1979 Goalies:
1. Jim Craig (USA): 5 G / 11 GA / 133 S / 0.9236 %
2. Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 7 G / 12 GA / 140 S / 0.9211 %
3. Vladimir Myshkin (USSR): 2 G / 2 GA / 21 S / 0.9130 %
4. Sigmund Suttner (W. GER): 7 G / 21 GA / 210 S / 0.9091 %
5. Jorma Valtonen (FIN): 4 G / 11 GA / 103 S / 0.9035 %
6. Jiří Králík (CSSR): 6 G / 17 GA / 126 S / 0.8811 %
7. Antero Kivelä (FIN): 4 G / 16 GA / 110 S / 0.8730 %
8. Henryk Wojtynek (POL): 8 G / 40 GA / 270 S / 0.8710 %
9. Jim Rutherford (CAN): 6 G / 24 GA / 162 S / 0.8710 %
10. Sune Ödling (SWE): 2 G / 8 GA / 54 S / 0.8710 %
11. Erich Weishaupt (W. GER): 2 G / 10 GA / 62 S / 0.8611 %
12. Marcel Sakáč (CSSR): 4 G / 15 GA / 89 S / 0.8558 %
13. James Warden (USA): 4 G / 17 GA / 100 S / 0.8547 %
14. Pelle Lindbergh (SWE): 6 G / 38 GA / 220 S / 0.8527 %
15. Ed Staniowski (CAN): 3 G / 19 GA / 85 S / 0.8173 %
16. Henryk Buk (POL): 1 G / 2 GA / 5 S / 0.7143 %

WHC 1976 Goalies:
1. Vladimír Dzurilla (CSSR): 2 G / 1 GA / 41 S / 0.9762 %
2. Jiří Holeček (CSSR): 8 G / 13 GA / 214 S / 0.9427 %
3. Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 10 G / 19 GA / 257 S / 0.9312 %
4. Mike Curran (USA): 5 G / 15 GA / 177 S / 0.9219 %
5. William Löfqvist (SWE): 4 G / 9 GA / 102 S / 0.9189 %
6. Erich Weishaupt (W. GER): 8 G / 24 GA / 235 S / 0.9073 %
7. Göran Högosta (SWE): 6 G / 20 GA / 188 S / 0.9038 %
8. Andrzej Tkacz (POL): 10 G / 39 GA / 339 S / 0.8968 %
9. Jorma Valtonen (FIN): 10 G / 41 GA / 326 S / 0.8883 %
10. Peter LoPresti (USA): 5 G / 27 GA / 177 S / 0.8676 %
11. Wolfgang Kraske (E. GER): 6 G / 27 GA / 156 S / 0.8525 %
12. Roland Herzig (E. GER): 6 G / 25 GA / 124 S / 0.8322 %
13. Anton Kehle (W. GER): 2 G / 17 GA / 76 S / 0.8172 %
14. Henryk Wojtynek (POL): 1 G / 8 GA / 25 S / 0.7576 %
15. Alexandr Sidelnikov (USSR): 1 G / 4 GA / 8 S / 0.6667 %

Other bits and pieces that I didn´t know previously
- Famous game Poland vs. USSR with one of the most shocking results in history (6:4) at WHC 1976 was partially caused by weak goaltending from Sidelnikov. He got 4 goals and then, at 24th minute, was exchanged for Tretiak who finished the rest of the game. Sidelnikov did not play a single minute after and Russian media commentary, cited by Československý sport, implied that no option other than playing Tretiak in all the remaining games is valid and feared of possible Tretiak´s overwork. Playing Sidelnikov again was apparently not given much thought, considering that he couldn´t even stop the Polish forwards.

- Quite disappointing finding about Milan Novy at WHC 1979: played only 5 games, recorded 2 assists, no goal. I thought for sure that he was injured but apparently not. CSSR´s lines were set, Hlinka as a captain and best player previous season led the 1st line with Havlicek and Pouzar, 2nd line was all three Stastny brothers coming of their League title with Slovan Bratislava, and 3rd line was again bet on chemistry – Jiri Novak centering Martinec (both from Pardubice) and Ebermann. Novy could not probably play wing so he remained out the regular lineup as the 10th forward ready to step in. Of all 5 games he was on the ice, he still played only 1 or 2 periods, never full game (mostly on the 3rd line with Martinec and Ebermann). It only surprised me that Novy in the middle of his prime did not have a stable spot in the National Team lineup...

- Swedish Cup ended the 1979-1980 season. Coaches Bukac and Nevesely comments before the tournament revealed some problems with Vincent Lukáč again. Despite winning the goal-scoring race in the League, he was discarded from the National Team until the end of 1980 for “behaviour incompatible with the member of the National Team.” I could not find anything about the incident per se, however even Kosice, Lukac´s domestic team, did not let him play in the last game of the season. Ludek Bukac also said about Lukac that he is in a way the ideal forward whom he wants to coach, says Lukac has perfect technique, is a “weasel on the ice”, but on the other hand Lukac allegedly has not yet found a way to counter the physical play on him and his defensive play lacks more effort: “…when he faces the toughness of an opponent, he´s barely average, and when he´s supposed to backcheck, he´s downright bad.” Lukac indeed missed the WHC 81 and CC 81 but played every major tournament solidly between 1982-1985 and he did win the Golden Stick in 1983. So I guess he eventually made some progress in his overall game.

- Review of the Czechoslovak First League, season 1979-1980, by Československý sport entirely confirms downtrend trend in quality of Czechoslovak hockey. Having read most of 60s and 70s post-season league reviews myself, I can attest that writers generally always expressed positive remarks on increasing quality of the League. But this 1980´ review was the first one where the media wrote their concerns and worries. In the opening paragraph, journalist Pavel Novotný writes that the overall play of the 79-80 League mirrors the results of the Czechoslovak team on international scene (5th place at Olympics, no medal for the 1st time in 13 years). “…the League with its lowering quality only increased the failure that we had encountered in Lake Placid.” And in the last paragraph of the article, Novotný wrote: “What was certainly not good, is as if the results of some games hinted that our top league has been losing its credibility…”

- Finally, I´ve picked up a few Czech newspapers of 50s. In Československý sport, March 1959, I found a few articles reporting about Maurice Richard´s arrival to Prague´s World Hockey Championship. People were ‘all ears’ on Richard, listening and asking him questions about hockey in NHL and Canada for a few hours when the public meeting was set up. Richard could not even answer all the questions due to lack of time. Richard´s generousity and modesty was greatly appreciated by the Czech hockey public, he showed no ‘primadonna manners’ in any way. Perhaps the most interesting part of the article was Richard´s evaluation of the Soviet players. He mentions Sologubov, Alexandrov and Groshev as NHL quality players. Precise citation would be:

M. Richard, march 1959:
“He [Richard] thinks that Sologubov, Alexandrov and Groshev would find a job even in the professional teams.”

 

[Killion]

Wow! Quite the post. Nice work @DN28 ... Thank you.
My poor Buddy, Lil Jimmy Rutherford... Didnay' fare well.

... oh well. Ex-Aurora Tiger, Hamilton Red Wing, one of the hardest working goalies all-time, great work-ethic, never quit never say die... held him in good stead throughout his life & certainly career as a GM & Executive.

 

[DN28]

1972-1973

All-Star Team (34 voters):
Goaltenders:
1. Jiří Holeček – 30 votes
2. Jiří Crha – 3
3. Marcel Sakáč – 1

Right Defensemen:
1. Milan Kužela – 14
2. Oldřich Machač – 12
3. Karel Vohralík – 4
4. František Pospíšil – 3
5. Jiří Bubla – 1

Left Defensemen:
1. František Pospíšil – 25
2. Karel Vohralík – 8
3. Oldřich Machač – 1

Right Wingers:
1. Vladimír Martinec – 25
2. Jiří Kochta – 8
3. Bohuslav Šťastný – 1

Centers:
1. Václav Nedomanský – 18
2. Jiří Kochta – 8
3. Richard Farda – 3
4. Jaroslav Holík – 2
5. Ivan Hlinka, Jiří Novák, Jiří Holík – 1

Left Wingers:
1. Jiří Holík – 27
2. Bohuslav Šťastný – 5
3. Jiří Kochta – 2

Save percentage of the regular season:
1. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 36 games / 92 goals allowed / 1060 saves / 0.9201 %
2. Vladimír Nadrchal (Brno): 30 games / 78 goals allowed / 803 saves / 0.9115 %
3. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 31 games / 81 goals allowed / 816 saves / 0.9097 %
4. Miroslav Kapoun (Litvínov): 27 games / 94 goals allowed / 942 saves / 0.9093 %
5. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 26 games / 78 goals allowed / 761 saves / 0.9070 %
6. Josef Hovora (Plzeň): 30 games / 99 goals allowed / 937 saves / 0.9044 %
7. Vladimír Plánička (Č. Budějovice): 33 games / 104 goals allowed / 930 saves / 0.8994 %
8. Vladimír Dzurilla (Slovan): 12 games / 38 goals allowed / 335 saves / 0.8981 %
9. Pavel Wohl (Sparta): 26 games / 69 goals allowed / 608 saves / 0.8981 %
10. Jiří Holeček (Košice): 26 games / 92 goals allowed / 785 saves / 0.8951 %
11. Miroslav Krása (Jihlava): 34 games / 90 goals allowed / 726 saves / 0.8897 %


- I went through the game reports of Československý sport and calculated Vlado Dzurilla´s stats too, as he was missing in the Gól table above due to relative lack of games played. He played a total of 13 games, I found reports of all of these games, however the report of his last, 13th game of the season (Slovan Bratislava vs. Motor Č. Budějovice – 8:1) does not list the number of saves of both goalies. Therefore 72-73 SV% of Vladimír Dzurilla still remains incomplete (and I must say it´s quite frustrating after the effort I put into it, I´ll try to find the complete report of this game in the future but I´m sceptical that it will be written somewhere else).

- Gól magazine did not present any goaltending statistical summary of the ´73 League playoffs, so I decided to calculate the playoffs stats too.

Save percentage of the playoffs:
1. Jiří Crha (Pardubice): 12 games / 29 goals allowed / 337 saves / 0.9208 %
2. Marcel Sakáč (Slovan): 8 games / 23 goals allowed / 247 saves / 0.9148 %
3. Vladimír Dzurilla (Slovan): 5 games / 13 goals allowed / 119 saves / 0.9015 %
4. Miroslav Krása (Jihlava): 10 games / 28 goals allowed / 249 saves / 0.8989 %
5. Miroslav Termer (Kladno): 8 games / 25 goals allowed / 191 saves / 0.8843 %
6. Zdeněk Vojta (Kladno): 3 games / 8 goals allowed / 52 saves / 0.8667 %
7. Jan Ráca (Pardubice): 1 game / 2 goals allowed / 3 saves / 0.6000 %

WHC 1973 Save percentage (per game reports of Československý sport):
1. Jiří Crha (CSSR): 2 G / 3 GA / 51 S / 0.9444 %
2. Antti Leppänen (FIN): 6 G / 10 GA / 149 S / 0.9371 %
3. William Löfqvist (SWE): 7 G / 13 GA / 182 S / 0.9333 %
4. Jiří Holeček (CSSR): 8 G / 17 GA / 212 S / 0.9258 %
5. Alexandr Sidelnikov (USSR): 3 G / 4 GA / 48 S / 0.9231 %
6. Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 7 G / 14 GA / 163 S / 0.9209 %
7. Christer Abrahamsson (SWE): 4 G / 10 GA / 89 S / 0.8990 %
8. Walery Kosyl (POL): 10 G / 58 GA / 344 S / 0.8557 %
9. Robert Merkle (W. GER): 4 G / 27 GA / 158 S / 0.8541 %
10. Anton Kehle (W. GER): 9 G / 55 GA / 314 S / 0.8509 %
11. Jorma Valtonen (FIN): 4 G / 29 GA / 151 S / 0.8389 %
12. Henryk Wojtynek (POL): 2 G / 18 GA / 38 S / 0.6786 %

Other:
I´ve gathered the most information from this season due to my effort of finding out missing domestic and international SV%. Over the last few months I´ve checked at least 4 different newspapers/magazines, including the League and WHC game reports over the course of entire season. That gave me great insight and knowledge but also heavily increased the volume of information. So this 1972-1973 presentation will be divided into several smaller parts which will be continuously posted and focusing on just 1 or 2 topics/players.

I´ll start with Miloslav Charouzd´s overview of basic types of forwards that you could mostly find in the League at the time, some descriptions may be interesting or useful to know. The first article bears the title: DOES THE IDEAL TYPE OF FORWARD EXIST?


“Just as every sporting collective game, hockey is also based not only on mutual cooperation of individuals but also on balance of different lines – of forwards and defensemen. That is why today, strictly one-way type of forward or defenseman is almost an extinct species. More and more a player is sought – the one who meets these tasks [offense and defense] according to team´s conception of the game. There are multiple ways to look at a hockey player. Technical and physical fundamentals are of course taken into account, but moreover a player´s age, nature, personal and moral qualities and all this is necessary to combine in order for a player to be advantageous to his team at all of its aspects. At least in the hint, let´s have a look at some of the most important evaluating factors of a forward, as one member of a hockey team.

The same uniform does not mean the uniformity of forwards. Should the forward line fulfill all of its duties, it has to have a constructive player setting up the pace, he could be named as a sort of on-ice thinker. Next forward must be the type of a shooter and both should be complemented by forward who has constantly on his mind an opportunity of effective defense. Representative of a constructive player who gives a pattern to the offensive game, who develops playing situations, who can release himself and his teammates – is without a doubt, Jaroslav Holík. He has excellent stickhandling technique, he does not avoid physical encounters, while he still maintains the view over the situation in the game and at the same time he´s being an important contributor and director of an active defense of the team. For this type of forward, it is typical having a much larger number of passes on goal than the actual realizations of goals by himself, which is also apparent on [players such as] Farda or Jiří Novák from Pardubice and Otte from Plzeň.

Forward–shooter should have primarily an innate sense for goal-scoring opportunities, sufficient self-confidence associated with a certain amount of aggressiveness and above all, he should never avoid responsibility of finishing offensive actions. From all of our top teams, Tesla Pardubice is the best of them at these accounts. Four shooters – Šťastný, Martinec, Paleček and Prýl – make each of Pardubice´s offensive lines extremely dangerous. Klapáč and Nový fulfills this function of distinctive finishing players in Dukla Jihlava, Slovan Bratislava relies on Haas in this regard, and Pouzar plays a similar role in Motor Č. Budějovice, and Eduard Novák with Nedvěd in Kladno.

‚Defender‘ is usually a good skater, as he covers comparatively large space in offensive and defensive zones. The player is usually well-built physically, has an advantage in continuous control of the puck, at the same time he acts as an ‚forward-playing antenna‘ of active defense of the team. Outstanding representatives of this type of forward – Jiří Holík and Martinec – have almost even ratio of goals scored and assists and their collective and responsible style of play for the team needs to be highly appreaciated. Ševčík can calmly be measured with these players when it comes to work in defense. However today, we have started to require big effort, immediate counter-attacking skills even from a player securing defense in order for him to get into the scoring areas by himself or to selflessly create the shooting positions for his teammates.

Peaceful ones are the base – hotheaded ones are the spark. Do all the skillful types of forwards fit together temperamentally too? Could there play next to each other temperamentally the same players, such as for example Jaroslav Holík and Golonka? Every coach would probably suffer from a headache soon from this duo! But even these hotheads are needed for the team to a certain extent. No need to remind very much, just how much excitement prevailed or still prevails on the ice, when Golonka, Huck, Sterner or Esposito stepped in. What a constant source of tension are these heated characters. They all usually have a notable amount of playing ‚insolence‘, they do not suffer in no matter how important games they´re playing from a feeling of overly excessive commitments and they play without any hindrance, regardless of an opponent´s level of play.

Although necessarily, a calm stable player who doesn´t get irritated, must be next to them [i. e. next to ‚hotheads‘]. You can read these traits of the game of Klapáč, Brunclík or Paleček, players who easily adjust, submit and do not look for a conflict, rather look to avoid heated situations on ice.

Old and young. The eternal problem of the circle of life projects itself into the hockey team too. The inevitable exchange of players should be proceeding naturally, continuously, without deep swingings in performance of the team. Young players mean undeniably a certain part of unrest and excitement in the team. They are ambitious, they want to excel. Perhaps that´s why they´re more subjected to influence of the environment and their performances are imbalanced. I have seen indisputably gifted forwards Nový, Pouzar, Čížek, [Marián] Šťastný from Slovan playing outstanding games, only so that then immediately after they fail to play up to even the league average level. I believe that a good team should have in its core both hockey ‚rookies‘, as well as players around 30, whereas the ‚golden‘ hockey age is within the range of 24 – 26 years. The best in this regard are undoubtedly Tesla Pardubice and Dukla Jihlava where older players such as Prýl, Andrt, Klapáč and even Holíks with their routine and experience lead younger teammates – Veith, Čížek, Nový, Beránek, while the core of the team is made by the players from the ‚golden‘ middle age.

The team, in which the one generation of players has sustained itself for a long time – like the case of ZKL Brno – plays stereotypically over time, no new stimulus comes into their game and performance of the team has to stagnate. I don´t want to claim by this that a young player has to play at whatever cost. Firsov and Gordie Howe were great even after their 30, and for instance Maltsev, Tumba Johansson or Bobby Orr on the other hand were great already at 18 years. Decisive factor always has to be performance not an age of a player!

As we can see, the ideal type of forward or forward line, considering all the viewpoints, cannot even exist! To grab a certain type of player useful for the team is the big craft of a coach. Although often times even here, it is a necessary to deal with some compromise. Character of player cannot be restricted or suppressed, but to streamline and make of perfect use of his features to the one goal – success of the collective.“

Now the second Charouzd´s article which caught my attention, again coming from March 1973 Gól magazine, with the title: DO WE HAVE ENOUGH QUALITY PLAYERS?; provides the author´s critical view of the depth of 1st league teams, complaining about the fact that teams tend to depend too much on their 1 or 2 star players.


„There used to be the times when our hockey ancestors handled playing the whole game comfortably in the starting line-up and alternating players were in fact literally substitutes. By gradual progress, a team stabilized with two forward lines, later with three, up to today´s requirement when even three complete 5-man units should have an option to play. A principle in contemporary hockey has been realising, that hockey team is an organized unit where individuals know exactly their duties, each unit has solidified certain inner relations and can cooperate collectively as a group on the ice. A team created and jointed this way is then able to overcome a regress of the form or momentary setbacks of which no team can avoid over the course of long season much easier. If we look at the composition of our league teams from this perspective, we will see how sharply difficulties come to the surface which coaches have with the integrity of particular units, not to mention with balance and uniformity of the whole team at all.

Three units only sometimes in the line-up. Three complete units have theoretically today a possibility to be applied, but practically…? I´m coming namely from the fact that not even a single team has played out all its games in the League with full number of players. It cannot even be mentioned all the games where it went to reducing the team to two forward lines and three defensemen from originally listed complete line-up. And how many teams haven´t even skate onto the ice with permitted number of players!

VSŽ Košice is the worst in this regard. At the end of the League, they started with merely two defensemen Štěrbák and Kiss, without Gregor, Metelka, Faith, Šándrik and so willy-nilly, forwards Koláth and Šupler had to clog the catastrophically leaky defense of the Eastern-Slovak team. Everyone then, who was able to and could at least just hold the stick, played in the offense. Similar, although not as drastic situation, occured also in Kladno where they were starting with only four men in the defense – Pospíšil, Čermák, Neliba, Vinš, and when the lastly named injured in the decisive game with Plzeň for a play-off spot, they [Kladno] played out only in three. Similar situation is in other teams as well. Škoda Plzeň does not have an equivalent replacement for injured Bednář, Bratislava also has played lately with only two defense-pairs Kužela-Mišovič and Ujváry-Bukovinský, same as Brno, Litvnínov, Sparta or Motor Č. Budějovice. Solely the Jihlavian soldiers and Tesla Pardubice have had full number of six defensemen at their disposal throughout the season. Dukla played the beginning of the League without Suchý, and the Pardubician team replaced long-term injured Andrt with Slavík, without noticeable dips in the game of both of our best teams.

Everybody is replaceable! But not immediately and not by anybody! And there lies the hitch for most of our teams. The absence of Nedomanský was really markedly seen in Bratislava at the start of the season when Slovan was even closing off the league table. Kladno took a deep swing during Pospíšil´s injury too, in Dukla there is no suitable center who would replace Jaroslav Holík during injury.

It follows only from this short summary how tedious is the situation with replenishment of the playing squad. Even in Jihlava, where although they have the opportunity to regularly annually supplement the collective with promising players, they don´t have so much quality players to the extent, that they could reach into their reserves at any time and decently replace anyone on a given level. And how about yet the other teams. All the more so, the surprising experiment was when the SONP Kladno played in Plzeň with four forward lines. It has remained only as an experiment which is surely avant-garde but it requires not only enough quality players but also their efficient rotation, so that some won´t sit on the bench more than actually play. Especially with us, we now have to deal with the fact that the hunger for players is going to be increasing with the upcoming enlargement of the league competition. Although on the other hand, teams are going to have to realize much more so that only one´s own massive player foundations can overcome this unfavorable phenomenon haunting down all of our hockey teams.

Combinations in the National team. These problems of chemistry and integrity of a hockey unit are carrying into the National team too. It is composed from players from nine clubs and it´s based off only of the club team´s pairs, trios of forwards at maximum, while every one of defense partners dress different league jersey. Although we do have undeniably high-level balanced competition, we still miss a distinctive top team. Individuals excel in the teams – Holeček, Machač, Pospíšil, Farda, Hlinka, Kochta, Brunclík, but rarely the two like Holík brothers or Nedomanský-Haas, and exceptionally the whole forward line like the Pardubician Martinec-Novák-Šťastný, while there can´t even be a debate about the whole 5-man team unit suitable for the National team yet. Considering these conditions, the previous year´s success of the National team at the World Championship excels so much more. But we all know that by improving and thus increasing of the healthy competition for spots at the club teams would surely only benefit to our hockey and would support the effort for maintaining of those highest honours for our National colours.”

 

[member 305909]

Just like the water-polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union in the Melbourne-olympics was a heated affair to put it mildly as emotions still ran high as the Hungarian uprising had been defeated few weeks earlier the hockey-match between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia at the 1969 championships was unique as Czechoslovakia won it.

It was similarly politically highly charged event as just like in Hungary 12 years earlier the attempts at reform in Czechoslovakia were brutally crushed by the Warsaw-pact tanks.

 

[Theokritos]

1972-1973
(...)

Tremendous work! Thanks for going through all the game reports.

“Should the forward line fulfill all of its duties, it has to have a constructive player setting up the pace, he could be named as a sort of on-ice thinker. Next forward must be the type of a shooter and both should be complemented by forward who has constantly on his mind an opportunity of effective defense. Representative of a constructive player who gives a pattern to the offensive game, who develops playing situations, who can release himself and his teammates – is without a doubt, Jaroslav Holík. He has excellent stickhandling technique, he does not avoid physical encounters, while he still maintains the view over the situation in the game and at the same time he´s being an important contributor and director of an active defense of the team. For this type of forward, it is typical having a much larger number of passes on goal than the actual realizations of goals by himself, which is also apparent on [players such as] Farda or Jiří Novák from Pardubice and Otte from Plzeň.

Forward–shooter should have primarily an innate sense for goal-scoring opportunities, sufficient self-confidence associated with a certain amount of aggressiveness and above all, he should never avoid responsibility of finishing offensive actions. From all of our top teams, Tesla Pardubice is the best of them at these accounts. Four shooters – Šťastný, Martinec, Paleček and Prýl – make each of Pardubice´s offensive lines extremely dangerous. Klapáč and Nový fulfills this function of distinctive finishing players in Dukla Jihlava, Slovan Bratislava relies on Haas in this regard, and Pouzar plays a similar role in Motor Č. Budějovice, and Eduard Novák with Nedvěd in Kladno.

‚Defender‘ is usually a good skater, as he covers comparatively large space in offensive and defensive zones. The player is usually well-built physically, has an advantage in continuous control of the puck, at the same time he acts as an ‚forward-playing antenna‘ of active defense of the team. Outstanding representatives of this type of forward – Jiří Holík and Martinec – have almost even ratio of goals scored and assists and their collective and responsible style of play for the team needs to be highly appreaciated. Ševčík can calmly be measured with these players when it comes to work in defense. However today, we have started to require big effort, immediate counter-attacking skills even from a player securing defense in order for him to get into the scoring areas by himself or to selflessly create the shooting positions for his teammates.

Peaceful ones are the base – hotheaded ones are the spark. Do all the skillful types of forwards fit together temperamentally too? Could there play next to each other temperamentally the same players, such as for example Jaroslav Holík and Golonka? Every coach would probably suffer from a headache soon from this duo! But even these hotheads are needed for the team to a certain extent. No need to remind very much, just how much excitement prevailed or still prevails on the ice, when Golonka, Huck, Sterner or Esposito stepped in. What a constant source of tension are these heated characters. They all usually have a notable amount of playing ‚insolence‘, they do not suffer in no matter how important games they´re playing from a feeling of overly excessive commitments and they play without any hindrance, regardless of an opponent´s level of play.

Although necessarily, a calm stable player who doesn´t get irritated, must be next to them [i. e. next to ‚hotheads‘]. You can read these traits of the game of Klapáč, Brunclík or Paleček, players who easily adjust, submit and do not look for a conflict, rather look to avoid heated situations on ice.”

These are great insights on the players mentioned!

 

[Theokritos]

Miloslav Charouzd: “ ‚Defender‘ is usually a good skater, as he covers comparatively large space in offensive and defensive zones. The player is usually well-built physically, has an advantage in continuous control of the puck, at the same time he acts as an ‚forward-playing antenna‘ of active defense of the team. Outstanding representatives of this type of forward – Jiří Holík and Martinec – have almost even ratio of goals scored and assists and their collective and responsible style of play for the team needs to be highly appreaciated.”

This, BTW, is another quote that highlights the two-way qualities of Vladimír Martinec.

 

[DN28]

1972-1973 part 2:

These are great insights on the players mentioned!

Right. There is a some information from which we can expand on. Let´s start with goalies:

1) Jiri Holecek
How his season 72-73 looked like? At first, I was surprised at how low his League SV% was (10th best, below 0.900), but the second Charouzd´s article from above describes the state of Kosice´s defense as truly disadvantageous, to say the least:

"VSŽ Košice is the worst in this regard. At the end of the League, they started with merely two defensemen Štěrbák and Kiss, without Gregor, Metelka, Faith, Šándrik and so willy-nilly, forwards Koláth and Šupler had to clog the catastrophically leaky defense of the Eastern-Slovak team. Everyone then, who was able to and could at least just hold the stick, played in the offense."

- Not exactly boosts your save percentage when your defensemen are an actual forwards... However, it was still probably the weakest Holecek´s domestic season during his prime. Reading through game reports, Holecek started the season strong, he was praised as usual in the newspaper until 1st half of the season and subsequent League pause for the Izvestia tournament in December and Ontario cup that followed immediately after in January. At the end of the year 1972, Holecek SV% was 0.9055 - fairly descent. First round of the Golden Stick voting after the 1st quarter of the season: Holecek finished 2nd (149 points). Second round of Golden Stick voting after the 2nd quarter: Holecek finished 5th (86 points).

So no real problem here, but Holecek injured himself right at the half of season which caused him to miss the Izvestia Cup. Although Holecek apparently healed enough so that he could play the subsequent Ontario Cup in January 73, the League game reports from January onwards start to mention deteorating play, weak goals and several occasions when Holecek was pulled back from ice. GS voting followed the pattern, Holecek after the 3rd round: 16 points and well outside the top 10. Holecek after the 4th round (right before the WHC 1973 when regular season ended): a mere 4 points and 22nd spot.

Holecek then completely redeemed himself at Moscow´s World Championship. Struggling Czechoslovak team that finished 3rd and was dominated by both Soviets and Swedes was severely hampered by half of the roster being injured and by inability of CSSR players to adjust to physical game of Soviets and Swedes (more on that later). Only three Czech players received positive recognition for their WHC play from the Czech sporting press, Holecek arguably the most. His WHC All-Star honour and Directoriate´s Best goalie award seemed to be a "sure thing" halfway through the tournament. It was not just the Czech media, after 1st half of WHC has been played out, coaches of USSR, Sweden and Finland (Bobrov, Svensson, Lunde) all answered that Holecek has been so far the best goalie of the tournament. CSSR goes from 1st place in 1972 to 3rd and Holecek still gets all the recognition... Ultimately, I think his overall 5th place at the Golden Stick voting 1973 seems appropriate - not the best season of his career, but still a strong season nevertheless.

2) Jiri Crha
1972-1973 was Crha´s career year, never before or after he came close to the same level of play. Winning the League reg. season and playoffs SV% by comfortable margin, winning the League title for Pardubice for the first time, beating the dynasty Dukla Jihlava in the finals, also winning the WHC 73 SV% (albeit of course with very limited number of games played)... Reportedly Crha also delivered strong performance at Izvestia Cup and Ontario Cup with the National team mid-season. Arguably the best player of 1973 League playoffs (more on that later)... by the look of all this, I am very much surprised that even in this season, Crha finished outside the top 10 CSSR players (11th in GS voting).

3) Marcel Sakac and Vladimir Dzurilla
I was interested whether Dzurilla (temporarily) retired from internatinal competition after 1972 voluntarily or whether he just became an afterthought because other goalies were better. Turns out that he was still considered one of the 4 best CSSR goalies suitable for the National team. In fact, I found a great article from Tip magazine (soccer-hockey magazine for Slovak audience) called Hopes and Reality of the Goaltending Four that explicitly proclaims Holecek, Crha, Sakac and Dzurilla the top tier of Czechoslovak goalies at the time of then ongoing 1972-73 season. The author (Ivan Ďurišin) mentions the amount of experience that Holecek and Dzurilla provides as their advantages; mentions Holecek´s ability to instill confidence into his teammates - something that Dzurilla at the time seemed to lost. The author also confirms decreased level of play of Holecek in the League compared to previous 71-72 season and expressed his concerns about whether Holecek will be able to get back on track at the World Championship. Comments about Crha are written in a way that his this year´s rise was expected since he had already made a positive reputation in previous seasons when he was playing for Dukla Jihlava.

But most importantly, Slovan Bratislava goalie controversy was something I´ve heard of in the past but didn´t know much about it until now. Background is this: Marcel Sakac is relatively forgotten goalie, made it to National team on the "big stage" only twice: WHC 1971 and 1979 - without much success, however he was frequently an unofficial member of the National team as the 3rd goalie. Thus Sakac "secretly" or unofficially won the gold medal with CSSR at WHC 1972, WHC 1977 where he acted as a 3rd goalie and I believe he had the same role at WHC 1973 also. His talent was recognized early in 1969, 1970 when he was drafted to Jihlava and won 2 League titles. Sakac then returned to Slovan Bratislava for 1970-71 when Dzurilla, as then still a number one Czechoslovak goalie, played there regularly. This created tension as they both had been competing for the goalie spot in Slovan AND in CSSR for 3 seasons. As the article continues, during 1972-73 this tension culminated into an open conflict when both goalies stood up and basically told the Slovan management: "Pick one of us, or we won´t play." But since the clubs in CSSR at the time had full control over transfers of players, Slovan did not want to listen anything from their goalies´ complaints and punished them both (unspecified how...). Ďurišin: "Slovan officials assumed that the problem is solved. Not even close, the issue is not solved to this day to satisfaction of both, as one and the other lost what they so much desired: the uniform of the National team. One played, the other sat on the bench and secretly wished for the 'fall' of his comrade because he himself wanted to go on ice." The author then expressed his criticism of Slovan management and how basically greedy and short-sighted they are. According to author, it´s obvious that the situation is unhealthy to development of goalies and to the Slovan´s lockerroom but Slovan´s objective is primarily not to enhance other league teams by giving away National team quality goaltender.

Drama continued when shortly before the regular season was over, information came up that Dzurilla "secretly" let himself to be drafted into the Czechoslovak army with vision of him playing for Dukla Jihlava. Jan Starsi, coach of Slovan, said at the time for Československý sport that Dzurilla is done playing for the team for the rest of season. Now I have no idea how exactly this action played out afterwards, we know that Dzurilla never played for Dukla in his career. But I suppose he eventually reached some kind of agreement with Slovan because Dzurilla was back into the Slovan´s lineup for a few games at the end of reg. season and as you can see, he also played in playoffs too. Eventually after this season, dispute was solved by letting Dzurilla go to play for ZKL Brno.

Other than that, Dzurilla began the season as Slovan´s starting goalie, I believe he played 6-7 games in the 1st quarter of the season when Slovan found himself at the bottom of the League, losing almost all of its first 10 games of the season. Before the start of the season, Slovan lost their coach Jan Starsi (who quickly came back after horrible start), missed Nedomansky for these first 10 games as a result of another internal conflict with Slovan management (more on that later), and also missed Grandtner (former National team player) for some "disciplinary reasons". These initial games were very rough for Dzurilla as far as his statistics are concerned but game reports clearly paint the picture that he was the only Slovan player who was holding his team "above water". His goaltending was still highly appreaciated. Approximately after this 10-game period, Vlado went through minor short-term injury, Slovan coach, Nedomansky and Grandtner were back and Slovan with Sakac in net went on to successful streak that led the team to the 3rd place and playoffs. Despite not playing much in December, Dzurilla was still considered to play at Izvestia Cup. Because of Holecek´s injury, CSSR coaches actually stated - when releasing the nomination for the tournament - that "Crha and one of the two Slovan´s goalies will be playing. We´ll make a decision after this league round." They picked up Sakac, Slovan meanwhile with Dzurilla in net and without Nedomansky and Haas was going to win the Spengler Cup in early January.

 

[DN28]

1972-1973 part 3:

This, BTW, is another quote that highlights the two-way qualities of Vladimír Martinec.

Yes, there have been a couple of quotes about this issue posted on this forum from my memory: Charouzd´s „Ideal Type of Forward“ article posted above, Czechoslovak hockey yearbook 1972, Finnish hockey book from mid-70s, also VMBM´s videoshowcase of Martinec´s defensive skills.

I have found several other quotes commenting and expanding on Martinec´s two-way qualities. Let´s take a look at this.

Gól magazine, post-WHC 1970, Martinec´s player description and evaluation:
"As a rookie of the team, he signaled that it´s possible to count on him in the National team. He´s calm enough when finishing offensive actions, also owns good defensive skills. He was injured so his performance had considerable fluctuations."

Nomination for WHC 1971 presented at Gól magazine, Martinec´s player description:
"Technical, creative player with great improvisational abilities and good defensive propensities."

Horymír Sekera, coach of Tesla Pardubice, december 1972, after his team was leading the League mid-season, said for Československý sport about Martinec:
"He is currently our player number one. He came to us literally from the pond from where he brought, besides talent, healthy ambitions and tenacity to catch up everything. He managed to learn everything. Not only he perfectly handles the stick and he´s fast, but he can fight in front of his own and opponent´s net - he just does it all."

Československý sport, April 1974, before the 2nd match-up of CSSR vs. USSR, interview with Vyacheslav Gavrilin, writer for “Krasivaya Zvezda” (Moscow).
Question: „To which Czechoslovak player would you grant the maximal attention?“
Vyacheslav Gavrilin: „The most dangerous player of the Czechoslovak team is Vladimír Martinec. Two days ago, I spoke with Firsov and Loktev over the phone, they watch the games on television, if broadcasted. They believe that Martinec is the best non-soviet player and if he´s going to play in such form till the rest of the Championship he should appear in the All-Star team. Martinec´s advantage lies in speed, agility and technique. Loktev added that in the 1966 forward line Loktev-Almetov-Alexandrov, Martinec would excel. It is well known that this trio earned respect in the whole hockey world and that´s why Loktev´s words are such high appraisal of Martinec´s game. This player is simultaneously also one of the few in CSSR team who is not afraid to fight in the space around the net. He reminds of our Michailov in this. Although he [Martinec] is not a center, he´s more courageous in physical battles than most centers.“

That´s quite something but does this mean that Martinec was in fact one of the best two-way all-round players of his era? I´m inclined to say no. Notice that all this praise comes from the first 5 or 6 years of Martinec playing international hockey. I haven´t found any quotes like that from late 70s. I´ve read a lot about Martinec in books written after he retired and I´ve seen no mentions about his superior defensive hockey. I don´t remember reading something like that in any of Karel Gut´s books and Gut certainly had a lot of positive to say about Martinec. Even for example the Slovakian hockey yearbook 1979, when Martinec just won his fourth Golden Stick, praised him a lot but still had nothing to say about his two-way play. Instead, key paragraph of Martinec´s profile written in the yearbook is following:

„Martinec is a type of player from ‚ballet‘ era of hockey when the prohibition to touch an opponent throughout the rink was yet in place. Elegant skater knows though, that he can´t complain about ill fortune, although he was not gifted with big physical strength. He is gifted with dexterity, acumen, intelligence so he knows how to assert himself even in contemporary physical hockey. [Martinec:] ‚I adjusted, though I know that future does not promise anything pleasant to the type that´s me. Nevertheless I still try [to play] the game above all else and even to smile in the heat of the game from time to time. While a spectator maybe thinks that I don´t care about anything, that´s not true. I need to get loose so I can play more relaxed.‘“

Moreover, I decided to take a look at Martinec´s results at CSSR´s own version of +/- statistics (eventually, I´ll post that all here at some point in the future). He has very strong +/-, one of the best among players, or at least among forwards between 1972-1977. I know that +/- obviously should not be counted as a definive measure of the quality of two-way play of a particular player. But if there is a pattern of consistently good/bad performing in +/-, it can possibly tell us something about a player. In our case with Martinec, it is to somewhat „prove“ the notion that he was a good two-way forward specifically during his peak.

Here is just a quick list of top 10-15 or so of players in CSSR elite league within seasons of 1971-1972 until 1976-1977. It is important to note that +/- during this time-frame in Czechoslovakia was counted differently from what is now known to be +/-. Today´s +/- purposefuly limits itself only on 5-on-5 situations. Whereas CSSR´s +/- intentionally rewarded players with high special-teams skills. If PP goal is scored, all PP players on ice would be rewarded with +1 point. While for every minute of PK that went without a goal allowed, all PK players would be rewarded with +1 point. Penalty killers would not get a -1 when a goal was allowed. Penalized player would get -4 points if a goal is allowed during the time of his penalty. This means that good special-teams players´ +/- would be boosted in their favour. On the other hand, frequently penalized players were in disadvantage compared to the other players. Forwards are italicized.

1971-1972 (+/- data for 45 players)
1. Horešovský (Sparta) +113
2. Vohralík (Pardubice) +108
3. Daněk (Litvínov) +100
4. Jiří Holík (Jihlava) +99
5. Pospíšil (Kladno) +98
6. Panchártek (Pardubice) +96
7. Tajcnár (Slovan) +94
8. B. Šťastný (Pardubice) +90
9. Eysselt (Jihlava) +88
10. Martinec (Pardubice) +87

1972-1973 (+/- data for 45 players)
1. Sekera (Pardubice) +158
2. Vohralík (Pardubice) +116
3. Pospíšil (Kladno), Dvořák (Jihlava) +97
5. B. Šťastný (Pardubice) +96
6. Martinec (Pardubice) +90
7. Machač (Brno) +85
8. Bukovinský (Slovan) +78
9. Masopust (Č. Budějovice), Bubla (Litvínov) +75
11. Jiří Holík (Jihlava) +73

1973-1974 (+/- data for 120 players)
1. Suchý (Jihlava) +182
2. Sekera (Pardubice) +178
3. Pospíšil (Kladno) +156
4. Dvořák (Jihlava) +147
5. Panchártek (Pardubice) +133
6. Sýkora (Kladno) +131
7. Martinec (Pardubice), B. Šťastný (Pardubice) +122
9. Vejvoda (Kladno) +113
10. Bubla (Litvínov) +109
11. Šíma (Sparta) +105
12. Horešovský (Sparta), Rykl (Litvínov), Jiří Holík (Jihlava) +104

1974-1975 (+/- data for 100 players)
1. Suchý (Jihlava) +135
2. Pospíšil (Kladno) +120
3. Bezdíček (Pardubice) +109
4. Kaberle (Kladno) +105
5. Panchártek (Pardubice) +93
6. B. Šťastný (Pardubice) +91
7. Vohralík (Pardubice) +89
8. Martinec (Pardubice) +83
9. E. Novák (Kladno) +80
10. Nový (Kladno) +78
11. Dvořák (Č. Budějovice) +73
12. Šíma (Sparta) +72
13. Bubla (Litvínov) +71
14. Jiří Holík (Jihlava) +69

1975-1976 (+/- data for 45 players)
1. Bubla (Litvínov) +98
2. Chalupa (Jihlava), Panchártek (Pardubice) +90
4. Suchý (Jihlava) +85
5. Kajkl (Plzeň) +84
6. Machač (Brno) +83
7. Hlinka (Litvínov) +80
8. Mráz (Brno) +74
9. B. Šťastný (Pardubice) +71
10. Vopat (Litvínov) +68
11. Sekera (Pardubice), E. Novák (Kladno) +67
13. Nový (Kladno), Brunclík (Košice) +63
15. Martinec (Pardubice) +62

1976-1977 (+/- data for 45 players)
1. Pospíšil (Kladno) +116
2. Bubla (Litvínov), Chalupa (Jihlava) +95
4. Kaberle (Kladno) +92
5. M. Šťastný (Slovan) +76
6. Štěrbák (Košice), Hlinka (Litvínov) +72
8. Adamík (Jihlava), Čermák (Kladno) +71
10. Bačo (Košice) +67
11. Suchý (Jihlava) +60
12. Šíma (Sparta) +59
13. Tajcnár (Slovan) +58
14. Horáček (Jihlava) +57
15. Jiří Holík (Jihlava) +56
16. P. Šťastný (Slovan) +55
17. Vinš (Kladno) +48
18. Nový (Kladno) +47
19. Pouzar (Č. Budějovice), Honc (Sparta) +45
21. Dvořák (Č. Budějovice) +43
22. Kajkl (Plzeň), Křiváček (Kladno) +42
24. Martinec (Pardubice) +40

Before 71-72 and after 76-77, Martinec´s +/- is average or below average.

It would be worthwile to look deeper into his post-peak career. I´d speculate whether the late 70s Martinec turned himself more into goal-scoring winger with less focuse on two-way play. His only goal-scoring league title came in 1978-1979 (42 goals in 45 games in one of the lower GPG season). He never came close to this amount of goals in any other of his domestic seasons.

Also, if Martinec all-round play deteriorated over time, it would explain the lack of any meaningful mentions of this in any of Martinec´s post-career bios. Assuming this all so far makes some sense, I would add that his numerous brain concussions during his career may stole from him the required capabilities for noticeable defensively conscious game later in his career. And apart from this, one other less favourable explanation is possible. From link upward mentioned, Czechoslovak hockey yearbook 1972 hints that Martinec still had room for improvement when it comes to physical conditioning. Other finding dealing with the same issue: „Martinec himself (in his autobiography) said that he hated the physical training…“

Fact that Martinec may had an issue with endurence and conditioning confirmed the man himself in an interview for Československý sport, April 1975, at the time of ongoing World Championship in Munich and Düsseldorf.

Writer: „What shortcomings do you think you still have?“
Vladimír Martinec: „Many. Primarily physical conditioning. Even though I train a lot, it is still not what is needed to be. However, my biggest insufficiency is shooting, I realize that practically in every game. And that is the reason why I am not satisfied with what I´ve been playing so far. Because a good hockey player has to be above all a good shooter.“
Writer: „You are talking about physical conditioning. Do you think you still have this shortcoming because you would anyhow train less than what is needed, or is it connected to your medium height? If you measured 1.90 m and weighed 90 kg, you´d surely have different options?
Vladimír Martinec: „I don´t need to consider that height and weight, I simply grew up the way I did and nothing can be done about it now. Those tall players conversely don´t have the required finesse so it all balances out somehow in the end. When it comes to training though, I could definitely train even more. But a season lasts for 10 months, when I count to the league games some of those tournament games and then games with the National team, in sum it´s close to 100 games, sometimes even more. That´s why it´s necessary to take a rest too, otherwise a man would likely not sustain this heavy workload…“
____________________

And finally, what about Martinec´s 1972-73 season per se?

Won his 1st Golden Stick, won his 1st and last scoring title and League title. But then he recorded just 6 points (1+5) in 8 games at WHC 1973. What happened?

I found out that Martinec suffered from torn ligament in the knee in the exhibition game against Poland right before the Championship (apparently some meaningless dirty hit at the end of the game by Polish defenseman Kopczynski). Martinec would play the whole tournament through serious injury.

And that´s not the whole story. During the first CSSR x USSR game, Martinec would get a concussion in 36th minute of the game after bodycheck of one of Soviet defenseman. Game report specifically regrets what happened to him – only in this game he finally looked like he´d overcome his busted knee as he was showing a „truly great performance“ up to that hit. After this game, Martinec did not come close the form he had been previously showing in the League and the whole Stastny-Novak-Martinec line from the same team entirely lost their power and chemistry since it was Martinec who acted as „the initiator of most of actions of his line“.

 

[Theokritos]

Thanks a lot for this highly informative post.

 

[VMBM]

Lovely stuff.

The most interesting thing for me is the mention of Martinec's physical play, the comparison with Mikhailov being especially notable! I have never thought about those two being very close to each other style-wise. However, I've never considered Martinec particularly soft either.

I've previously suspected that Martinec's maybe-less-than-stellar physical conditioning (and injuries) affected his domestic scoring, which was more inconsistent than one would think. The theory of that also affecting his defensive play later on is certainly plausible. But based on the Team CSSR games that I've seen, I think he was still among the best and most used penalty killers in the latter part of the 1970s too.

 

[DN28]

Lovely stuff.

The most interesting thing for me is the mention of Martinec's physical play, the comparison with Mikhailov being especially notable! I have never thought about those two being very close to each other style-wise. However, I've never considered Martinec particularly soft either.

I've previously suspected that Martinec's maybe-less-than-stellar physical conditioning (and injuries) affected his domestic scoring, which was more inconsistent than one would think. The theory of that also affecting his defensive play later on is certainly plausible. But based on the Team CSSR games that I've seen, I think he was still among the best and most used penalty killers in the latter part of the 1970s too.

Yeah, that quote surprised me too and it´s even more 'persuasive' since it was a Russian writer who made the comparison with Michailov.

It is in contrast with 1979 hockey yearbook quote about Martinec being probably more suited for "ballet era of hockey" but I don´t think there is necessary a contradiction. I think Martinec would 'star' more in less physical era but he would also do a good job of adjusting his game in tougher environment.

 

[DN28]

1972-1973 part 4:

This post focuses on Václav Nedomanský, his qualities, attention received from NA observers and also criticism of his play as well as his feuds with his team at the beginning of this season.

1) The amount of praise and attention that Nedomansky received from North Americans was quite extraordinary compared to the rest of Czechoslovak players. I can safely say that no other CSSR player can be compared to Nedomansky when it comes to number of approaches from NHL managers and scouts. American and Canadian teams were showing interest in Nedomansky regularly throughout his extended prime (1965-1974) and Czech newspapers and magazines certainly did not fear of publishing offers made by various NHL teams such as New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues or Buffalo Sabres. Thus Nedomansky was making popular headlines in the press, this effort to bring Nedomansky to North America appears to be quite a „theme“ of those times. A few examples:

„Nedomanský: I wish I´d train with the New York Rangers“, February 1967


„New York Rangers buys Nedomanský“, January 1969


„Buffalo would like to…“, January 1973


If I remember correctly, Rangers showed interest in Nedomansky as early as in 1965 during one of Czechoslovaks tours over Canada. In 1969, Rangers offered Nedomansky (and Richard Farda) two-year contract for 35 000 USD. St. Louis in 1969 wanted to take several Czech players, one of which was Nedomansky, but CSSR hockey association only allowed Jaroslav Jirik to go abroad since Jirik had been a member of National team for 11 years already. During the Ontario Cup in January 1973, it was the Sabres GM Punch Imlach who approached CSSR hockey authorities whether Nedomansky is available, but his offer was declined.

2) Appreciative or other non-negative quotes about Nedomanský.

Bill Harris, coach of Sweden, said in April 1972 (Československý sport):
„Nedomanský is a player who is for the opposing team the most dangerous of all. When my men played against CSSR, I would tie two players on him every time. The first one personally defended Nedomanský, the second one was securing the first one. Nedomanský cannot be guarded by just one player. He´s in top physical shape, has a surprising hockey thinking, quick acceleration for the puck, hard unexpected well-placed shot. He can´t be provoked to physical fights with which he could be thrown off of his game, thus weaken his team. Considering the way how he´s been played against every now and then, it is remarkable.

I would immediately take him into my team. Although he is the player for whom a conception of the line where he´s been put must submit. He is the hockey player with whom it pays off when others work for him. There are not many other such players. Maltsev, Kharlamov, Nilsson. Maybe I forgot someone but these types of players are called leaders. Such player has an unwritten right for individual actions, on the other side it does not mean though, that he doesn´t have to or is unable to pass. But as I say, mostly there must be someone working for him.
These are spontaneous impressions from ice. My opinion is though that Nedomanský has yet to hit his peak performance. Sometimes he makes an impression to me that he has too much other problems which he´s not able to let go at the specific time on ice.“

John Ferguson, assistant coach of Canada, 30th of September 1972, press conference after the post-Summit Series CSSR vs Canada game (Československý sport):
Question: “What do you think about the Czechoslovak team?”
John Ferguson: “Czechoslovak game reminds me of the style of Montreal Canadiens in many ways. Horešovský, Nedomanský – whom we´ve already learnt about in Canada and of whom we know quite a lot about, and Jaroslav Holík – left us with very good impression by their performance.”

Tommy Wally, manager of Windsor Spitfires (one of the farm teams affiliated to Detroit Red Wings), said after loss of his team to CSSR during the Ontario Cup in January 1973 (Československý sport):
“Nedomanský, Pospíšil, Kužela, Ebermann would have been the stars of biggest magnitude in Canada.”

Milan Flanderka, writer for Československý sport, cites doctor J. Černý´s thoughts on Nedomanský in his long full-page article on him, written in the Fall of 1972. Admittedly, how ‘MUDr. J. Černý’ is related to hockey, I don´t know. But his words do a good job describing and summarizing a character and perception of Nedo at the time - pretty much exactly how other players or writers remember him in books and articles that I´ve read:
“You know, Nedomanský is one of the most interesting figures in our sport. Sometimes, not even a devil would be able to see into him! I think that very few people know Nedomanský. I mean, know who he really is. I would say almost nobody. There are athletes about which you know lots of stuff. It has been written everything about the most famous sportsmen and especially after their success. But only on occasion someone sees behind the curtain. Into their privacy of thoughts. Look at how long Nedomanský is on the top of our hockey and what a hockey fan knows about him? You know people. Anyone interprets the various things in any way. And rather speculates and adds something, than doubts sceptically. In short, I think that Nedomanský is so much unknown. Largely mysterious.”

3) Criticism, potential weaknesses and improvements.

Most of the criticism of Nedomansky and his style of play have so far seemed to be focusing on his defensive play or lack thereof. Examples of this posted on this forum that I can remember would be this interview with Nedo and
the overview of the 1970 Championship by Soviet writers. What I´ve found in contemporary sources is that when Nedomansky was criticized, it would almost always be due to his missing sense for a “collective conception of the game” (or perhaps alternative translation would be “collective style of play”…). What does it mean? It could mean the unwillingness to backcheck but it looks to me from the quotes more that the bigger problem was Nedomansky taking shots on goal far too often at the expense of passing the puck to better situated teammates. Other critique of Nedo was that he had a tendency to disappear in crucial deciding games against the “big boys” – mainly the Soviets. I should say however that all these problems were vanishing over time – despite the following criticism, I think these citations clearly suggests Nedo´s improvements and that he became less “incomplete” player in the 1970s.

Vladimír Dzurilla after the end of 1965-1966 league season for Kopaná-hokej magazine, when asked about the season and his team´s performance:
“…Moreover, some of our players (Golonka, Nedomanský) were motivated by competition for the best player and scorer, they wanted to win it at all cost, so they played too much individually. Of course, it didn´t pay off to the collective which paid the price for their game and then did not keep fighting till the last round.”

Kopaná-hokej magazine overview of the CSSR performance at the WHC 1966:
“…Also the individual skills of Nedomanský were not used. He himself frequently preferred bad shots instead of a good pass, unfortunately even in deciding games. If Prýl, shooting-wise well disposed player, did not receive passes from his club´s teammate Kokš, we would not maybe even overturn some games in our favour. His [Nedomanský´s] performance was a dissapointment to a certain extent for many.“

Václav Nedomanský, Kopaná-hokej magazine, February 1967 after Centennial Trophy:
“You can´t imagine how much I like to return home. In Hodonín, inside the circle of my parents and grandma I feel the best. I´m always very sad when I haven´t seen them for longer time. It´s the worst to bear during Christmas. It´s a rarity for a League player to spend them [Christmas] at home. I failed to do that this time too as I was too far from my dearest – up in Canada. On this overseas trip, I earned a great compensation though. We´ve exceeded all expectations, defeating USSR again and I had the luck to substantially contribute to our successes [Nedomanský was the MVP of the tournament - DN].

It has a personal meaning to me. I probably won´t disclose any secret that after World Championships in Tampere and Ljubljana, some serious objections were brought up at my expense. Allegedly, I´m the player only for the games with easier opponents, I don´t completely fulfill the expectations in deciding matches. It was meant that I don´t score goals. For example in Ljubljana, I hit the post in the game with Canada when we were being tied 1:1. If I would have had sent the puck into the net, opinion would likely have been different. It´s true though that I haven´t had any luck for scoring a goal that would reverse the result in critical international encounters. Now I´ve finally managed to do that in Canada against USSR.”

Jiří Hertl, CSSR hockey association chief-coach and junior coach, during 1969-70 season in his write-up about possible Golden Stick winners-candidates (Gól magazine):
“I have four big candidates – Nedomanský, Dzurilla, Černý and Suchý. (…) Nedomanský emerged as a distinguished leader among forwards last year and this year. Physical game throughout the ice suits him and he is the goalies´ nightmare at shooting. In the League, not only that he has scored 26 goals so far, but he also completely runs the offense and plays in almost all of the power-plays and penalty-kills.”

Vladimír Kostka, Team CSSR assistant coach, during 1969-70 season in his write-up about possible Golden Stick winners-candidates (Gól magazine):
“Václav Nedomanský is a typical finishing player. He belongs to world´s best in terms of intensity or hardness of a shot. His collective conception of the game has gotten noticeably better to the benefit of his club and National team over the last years.”

Jiří Hertl, CSSR hockey association chief-coach and junior coach, commented CSSR team´s performance half-way through the Olympic tournament 1972.
“Unnecessary loss from the game against USA left me sleepless just as the early morning broadcast of the game with Finns. We have lost games while fighting for the best placement many times when relatively advantageous opportunity had emerged. Loss of point of both of our biggest rivals Sweden and USSR and previous high win over Poland did not motivate our players to increase concentration as it should. Selfish play of several players and thoughtless shooting had to force coaches to the decision of making changes in the line-up for the game against Finns. I also waited for the goalie change and change in the forward lines. Defensemen carried lesser blame for the loss with USA, when we realize forwards couldn´t score more than one goal for the entire game and conversely, were involved in 5 goals received, executed changes were correct.

Our players can fight, they´ve proved it many times but unfortunately, they prop themselves up to the highest performance only when they previously utterly failed. Recklessness and low collective responsibility still keeps taking away from us the highest goal achievement. High victory over Finns, especially after disappointment from the previous day, was expected by rarely anybody. Ultimately it was caused by the responsible team game which played like exchanged with some other team. What was foreign to players on Monday, was like their own on Tuesday. Although it´s needed to be said that not to everybody. Nedomanský still remained in a selfish conception of offensive play and was constantly trying to score a goal by shooting from every place, as if the players around him were added there just for the sake of having 5 skaters on ice; it´s his old weakness. He has a powerful shot but from spots where he shoots, he threatens only unprepared or weak goalie.“

One more thing that I´d like to speak about in this section. From various accounts like the Slovakian 1972 hockey yearbook or sources from Finnish observers, it looks that demands applied on Nedomansky by the Czechoslovaks were somewhat higher than standards applied on other Czech and Slovak players from his time. I did find a specific game report that caught my interest precisely because of demonstrating this phenomenon. It was the game Slovan Bratislava vs. SONP Kladno (4:3). Though I partially took the picture of this report and saved it on my dropbox because the author, Vlado Malec mentions the “Dzurilla problem” (him getting voluntarily drafted into army in order to play for Dukla Jihlava thus to inconspicuously get out of Slovan to play regularly again, as I was referring to this in the post above), Malec also wrote about the game this:

“A central figure of the away team was excellent defenseman Pospíšil. It was interesting to watch the National team members: forwards Haas and Nedomanský did not play well very much, on the contrary Pospíšil and Kužela played great. Though the fact also is that the away team focused on both Bratislava´s forwards since the start, they [Haas and Nedomanský] mostly just soloed and that was the water powering Kladno´s mill.”

Surely we can conclude then that Nedomansky had rather bad game, especially in contrast with Pospisil right? Except for the fact that Nedo scored 2 goals that game, including the game winning fourth goal 90 seconds before the end… It would be one thing to score 2 or more goals and having your team lost anyway, but in this case Slovan Bratislava won the game and it´s difficult not to think that Nedomanský was the main reason for his team´s win due to his scoring efficiency.

4) Nedomanský vs. Slovan Bratislava during 1972-73.

Nedomansky didn´t play the first 10 games of the season because he wanted to be transferred to another team – ZKL Brno. Nedo apparently made a deal with Brno´s managers behind Slovan´s back and then simply told Slovan that he´s about to leave. Slovan stood against it which subsequently raised the question about the rules of CSSR League player´s transfers. Until then, I think every transfer happened with the agreement of both clubs and a player. Now the chairman of CSSR hockey association, Zdeněk Andršt stepped in and supported Slovan. In an interview for Československý sport, Andršt basically said that a transfer can be allowed by the club for which a player has been currently playing. Nedomansky had simply no other choice than to continue to play for Bratislava. As a result of all this, Slovan decided to strip the captaincy off of Nedomansky. Press didn´t publish Nedomansky´s side of the story so reasons for why he wanted to leave his team are unknown. It should be said though that ZKL Brno was notoriously known for trying to pull star players from other teams. They tried heavily to negotiate the transfers of Suchy and Holik brothers from Jihlava at late 60s/early 70s. They succeeded in acquiring – or to better describe it – literally buying Oldrich Machac from Kosice in late 60s and, as I´ve written above, they acquired Dzurilla after this season too. Brno at this time was generally an old team which was still relying too much on their veteran core from their past dynasty years during the 1960s. They were behind most teams in the 1970s in developing their own young players, but presumably ZKL Brno was economically well-off compared to most of other teams, hence their tactic of obtaining top players from rivals made sense for them at the time.

Since I´m still talking about Slovan, I would add that the team also suffered in the first quarter of the season from playing without Ivan Grandtner (member of the National team in the 60s) for “disciplinary reasons”, not just without Nedomansky. Julius Haas (member of the National team during this time in the early 70s) had a terrific season, was highly praised for his performance for CSSR at Izvestia Cup and Ontario Cup in the middle of the season, and according to stats counted and provided by Československý sport, it was Haas who won the regular season League scoring (not Martinec! although two other sources had Martinec clearly first). Eventually, Haas was left off of CSSR for the WHC 1973 again for mysterious “disciplinary reasons”… What exactly “disciplinary reasons” mean? I believe this description has been traditionally applied to players who were caught drunk. However given the time, it may have been also the effect of not keeping mouth shut and expressing some anti-communist / anti-occupation beliefs.

In any case, considering this and also the goalie drama described above… what a mess of a season for Slovan Bratislava! And also extremely impressive part of Jan Starší´s coaching resume. He came back to his town after horrible start when Slovan was at the bottom of the standing and fired previous coach. Starší then pulled the team up to the final 3rd place in the League!

 

[DN28]

WHC 1974 Save percentage (per game reports of Československý sport):
1. Curt Larsson (SWE): 4 G / 4 GA / 137 S / 0.9716 %
2. Stig Wetzel (FIN): 2 G / 2 GA / 54 S / 0.9643 %
3. Christer Abrahamsson (SWE): 6 G / 16 GA / 248 S / 0.9394 %
4. Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 8 G / 12 GA / 157 S / 0.9290 %
5. Alexandr Sidelnikov (USSR): 3 G / 6 GA / 64 S / 0.9143 %
6. Jiří Holeček (CSSR): 6 G / 14 GA / 139 S / 0.9085 %
7. Jorma Valtonen (FIN): 5 G / 19 GA / 163 S / 0.8956 %
8. Jiří Crha (CSSR): 5 G / 11 GA / 92 S / 0.8932 %
9. Anti Leppänen (FIN): 4 G / 15 GA / 113 S / 0.8828 %
10. Walery Kosyl (POL): 10 G / 48 GA / 353 S / 0.8803 %
11. Joachim Hurbanek (E. GER): 5 G / 26 GA / 136 S / 0.8395 %
12. Wolfgang Fisher (E. GER): 8 G / 45 GA / 214 S / 0.8263 %
13. Andrzej Tkacz (POL): 4 G / 20 GA / 50 S / 0.7143 %

WHC 1975 Save percentage (per game reports of Československý sport):
1. Jiří Holeček (CSSR): 9 G / 14 GA / 212 S / 0.9381 %
2. Anti Leppänen (FIN): 7 G / 15 GA / 214 S / 0.9345 %
3. Viktor Krivolapov (USSR): 2 G / 3 GA / 40 S / 0.9302 %
4. Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 8 G / 18 GA / 221 S / 0.9247 %
5. Leif Holmqvist (SWE): 7 G / 22 GA / 200 S / 0.9009 %
6. Göran Högosta (SWE): 4 G / 12 GA / 89 S / 0.8812 %
7. Jorma Valtonen (FIN): 3 G / 19 GA / 124 S / 0.8671 %
8. Andrzej Tkacz (POL): 9 G / 41 GA / 263 S / 0.8651 %
9. Blaine Comstock (USA): 4 G / 32 GA / 187 S / 0.8539 %
10. Tadeusz Slowakiewicz (POL): 5 G / 24 GA / 127 S / 0.8411 %
11. Jim Warden (USA): 7 G / 52 GA / 253 S / 0.8295 %
12. Jiří Crha (CSSR): 2 G / 5 GA / 20 S / 0.8000 %
- Report of the game USSR vs. Poland (13:2) does not show the number of saves that each goalie recorded. Therefore statistics of Krivolapov (2 GA), Tkacz (8 GA) and Slowakiewicz (5 GA) are incomplete. The game is not counted in this table so these 3 goalies played in fact one more game each than the number presented above.

OG 1976 Save percentage (per game reports of Československý sport):
1. Alexandr Sidelnikov (USSR): 1 G / 1 GA / 25 S / 0.9615 %
2. Jiří Holeček (CSSR): 5 G / 9 GA / 129 S / 0.9348 %
3. Vladislav Tretiak (CSSR): 4 G / 10 GA / 127 S / 0.9270 %
4. Jiří Crha (CSSR): 1 G / 1 GA / 12 S / 0.9231 %
5. Anti Leppänen (FIN): 2 G / 7 GA / 77 S / 0.9167 %
6. Anton Kehle (W. GER): 3 G / 8 GA / 80 S / 0.9091 %
7. Jim Warden (USA): 5 G / 21 GA / 197 S / 0.9037 %
8. Urpo Ylönen (FIN): 3 G / 11 GA / 98 S / 0.8991 %
9. Erich Weishaupt (W. GER): 3 G / 16 GA / 95 S / 0.8559 %
10. Walery Kosyl (POL): 3 G / 18 GA / 97 S / 0.8435 %
11. Andrzej Tkacz (POL): 3 G / 26 GA / 104 S / 0.8000 %

 

[Batis]

This thread never fails to deliver. Thanks again DN28.

 

[Theokritos]

The write-up on Václav Nedomanský is fantastic. Thanks a lot!

 

[DN28]

This thread never fails to deliver. Thanks again DN28.

The write-up on Václav Nedomanský is fantastic. Thanks a lot!

Thanks guys! I always enjoy positive feedback.

Oh and I almost forgot. Stats for goalies that played in the Summit Series 1974. Let me know if full statistics of this series are somewhere on the internet, I couldn´t find them. So I went to look for the game reports of this series too and reports show the number of saves for all but 1st and 3rd game. Only website where I could found the remaining stats for these two games were on French wikipedia (of all places!), where the information is provided for the first 3 games.

I know this mash-up of stats from two sources is far from ideal but still… I think it´s better than nothing. So here it is, Summit Series 1974 goalies:

Alexandr Sidelnikov (USSR): 1 game / 2 goals allowed / 24 saves / 0.9231
Gerry Cheevers (CAN): 7 games / 24 goals allowed / 215 saves / 0.8996
Vladislav Tretiak (USSR): 7 games / 25 goals allowed / 213 saves / 0.8950
Don McLeod (CAN): 1 game / 8 goals allowed / 40 saves / 0.8333

 

[Theokritos]

...it looks to me from the quotes more that the bigger problem was Nedomansky taking shots on goal far too often at the expense of passing the puck to better situated teammates.

The same criticism can be found e.g. in contemporary Soviet accounts of Alexander Yakushev. Perhaps it's no coincidence that both players, Nedomanský and Yakushev, seem to have been valued higher and praised more by North American observers than by their own compatriots.

In August 1972, Team Canada scout John McLellan reported from Moscow that Yakushev "[is] big, has a good shot and knows what he's doing. He's the only one I saw who can make Team Canada."

Compare the account Yakushev's teammate Vyacheslav Starshinov gave in 1971: "Yakushev is a pronounced soloist. He knows and understands a lot about the game. But not everything. Notice how rarely he parts with the puck voluntarily. Notice how rarely he judges the situation correctly when it comes to not going forward himself but sending the partners forward. Goals are rarely scored after a pass by him. "

The difference between the two acccounts is pretty telling.

 

[Theokritos]

Most of the criticism of Nedomansky and his style of play have so far seemed to be focusing on his defensive play or lack thereof.

Another criticism is that he didn't use his size enough, at least early on.

In 1970, Soviet journalists Alexandr Kolodny and Dmitry Ryzhkov wrote that Nedomanský used to shy away from the physical game in earlier years – that would probably refer to the WChs and OGs from 1965-1968. "Last year" (at the 1969 World Championship), they say, he showed improvement. When the IIHF legalized bodychecking in the offensive zone in autumn 1969, there were apparently hopes that Nedomanský would be willing and able to use his size to his advantage in the offensive zone at the 1970 World Championship: see Jiří Hertl's quote from 1969-1970 that the new rule allowing a "physical game throughout the ice suits him". But at least Soviet coach Dmitry Boginov was not impressed with Nedomanský's physical game at the 1970 WCh: He says several Czechoslovak forwards made good of use of their body (namely Haas, Hrbatý, Kochta, Prýl and Ševčík) under the new rules, but that "perhaps only Václav Nedomanský was clearly inferior to his peers in relation to a tough game."

 

[DN28]

Another criticism is that he didn't use his size enough, at least early on.

In 1970, Soviet journalists Alexandr Kolodny and Dmitry Ryzhkov wrote that Nedomanský used to shy away from the physical game in earlier years – that would probably refer to the WChs and OGs from 1965-1968. "Last year" (at the 1969 World Championship), they say, he showed improvement. When the IIHF legalized bodychecking in the offensive zone in autumn 1969, there were apparently hopes that Nedomanský would be willing and able to use his size to his advantage in the offensive zone at the 1970 World Championship: see Jiří Hertl's quote from 1969-1970 that the new rule allowing a "physical game throughout the ice suits him". But at least Soviet coach Dmitry Boginov was not impressed with Nedomanský's physical game at the 1970 WCh: He says several Czechoslovak forwards made good of use of their body (namely Haas, Hrbatý, Kochta, Prýl and Ševčík) under the new rules, but that "perhaps only Václav Nedomanský was clearly inferior to his peers in relation to a tough game."

Yes, these two accounts clearly contradict themselves... My understanding of Nedomansky´s physical play is that he preferred technical non-physical game but he was able to adjust to the more physical game eventually - in spite of what Kolodny´ and Ryzhkov wrote in 1970.

See for example Harris´ quote from above: "...He [Nedomanský] can´t be provoked to physical fights with which he could be thrown off of his game, thus weaken his team. Considering the way how he´s been played against every now and then, it is remarkable."

 

[DN28]

1972-1973 part 5:

Another part of this series of posts following closely a development of the 1973 season with additional information from other seasons to form a more detailed view on a certain player(s). This time, we´ll take a look at Jiří Holík.

1972-73 meant the most likely peak season of Holik´s very long career, thus it comes as a no surprise that the amount of praise and admiration for Holik´s all-round play was quite overwhelming. I am fairly confident to say that no other Czechoslovak forward ever came close to the value Holik provided in terms of defensive contributions. It should be added as well that the term “two-way player” fits for Holik literally – both defensive and offensive part of his play was highly appreciated.

Holik´s positional versatility is definitely something new that I haven´t known about previously. During this season, he would play a certain number of league games (approximately over 10 but less than 20) at centre. First, the change from LW to C would be caused by injuries of his brother during the reg. season. Later in the season – playoffs played after the WHC 1973 – Jiri Holik playing as 1C, “hiding” Jaroslav Holik into the 3C role, thus making 3 forward lines able to score, was a tactical maneuver used by Jihlava (and NT) coach Jaroslav Pitner with success (but more on that later). With the exception of OG 1976, where Holik would actually play most of the tournament at C due to flu epidemic affecting the centers a little more, I have not found any more evidence of this phenomenon however.

a) Game reports
Advantage to read through the game reports of Československý sport for this season got me into a several very interesting / entertaining games. Obviously I can´t just translate and post here everything that caught my eye due to time management. But I thought at least this one or two games deserve to be brought up to light to demonstrate Holik´s usage at center position in a shutdown role versus the elite offensive players – in this case Vaclav Nedomansky.

Československý sport, Monday 4. 12. 1972, Jiří Čírtek and Pavel Novotný:


“Fight only in the first period
Dukla Jihlava – Sn Bratislava 7:1 (2:1, 2:0, 3:0)
On Saturday´s remaining television match of the 17th round, both teams have missed three injured players of the regular lineup (Jar. Holík – sat ‘for all purposes’ dressed up and covered with blanket on the bench – Grandtner and Mrukvia) and also a bigger number of spectators (last two losses of soldiers, Saturday, television, bad foggy weather – countryside did not arrive).

And because the clash was seen by hundreds of thousands of fans of hockey, let us give a word to both coaches at first. Colonel J. Pitner: ‘We did not start well, the team was nervous. At the same time it cannot be said that this was influenced by our last two losses. For example in Plzeň, we played well outside of first period, but Krása failed in the game. It should be taken into consideration that we don´t have a single experienced player on the back end. Slovan arrived to strictly defend and this tactic came out usefully for them in the first period. Krása quickly recovered and played reliably. In the remaining time the away team attacked but was forgetting on a consistent secured defense. Our first line [Klapáč, Jiří Holík, Beránek] was given the task to paralyze Nedomanský´s trio, and they successfully achieved that, eventually completely outplayed them. For us, it´s about keeping the contact with the league´s top. After all, we´re still continually rebuilding the team.’ Doctor Ján Starší: ‘Dukla had lost twice, of course they had to bounce back. We played well only in the initial period. I´m not making a tragedy out of this loss, soldiers were clearly better.’

In the 60th mutual match-up (29 – 8 – 23; Jihlavians have a passive balance now only with the ZKL Brno), a tough fight was expected. Slovan has consolidated after misunderstandings and initial weaker performances. Nedomanský plays and the team is led by qualified coach who is seconded by a former carrier of an army jersey. Slovan started in Jihlava well in defense and offense too, in a good mood and viciously. The game had a pace, was full of excitement. If we account for the fact that Sakáč kept the team in the game, many were beginning to wonder that after Tesla, another surprise is about to be born. Nedomanský played great, he was a prominent figure of the away team at the start. Soon after the launch, he skated alone onto Krása after Adamík´s mistake but his outstanding save thwarted the danger. But then all of a sudden, he [Krása] had to surrender after all. During exclusion of Augusta, Dučaj passed to, this time, a ‘defenseman’ Nedomanský and he with his typical far away hard shot from distance just above the ice to the right post scored.

Though Dukla in the first twenty minutes managed to tie, their game started to flourish, they refined defense and most of all they speeded up their actions during a transition into the attack. Pressure, initiated before the tying goal, kept getting escalated in the next minutes and periods. Jihlavians created a clear dominance which was crowned by goals. The first line worked perfectly, led this time by Jiří Holík, whose performance in defense and offense all over the ice was remarkable, Klapáč grinded (passed to three goals) and rookie Beránek, author of two goals, pleasantly surprised. Nový´s line had perhaps the most opportunities; if they seized at least a third of the hottest scoring chances, the result would be of two digits. Performance of Slovan declined with the increasing minutes, as if the team would heavily lose a physical strength. Nedomanský was also not much to be seen on ice by the end. And so from an expected big battle, which was quite promisingly featured in the initial period, nothing was left off and Bratislavians rightfully smoothly and unexpectedly highly lost. But they definitely haven´t said their last word in this league season yet.

JIHLAVA: Krása – Adamík, K. Dvořák, Kaberle, Bulán, Vejvoda, M. Dvořák – Klapáč, Jiří Holík, Beránek – Hrbatý, Nový, Augusta – Novák, Titz, Výborný. Coaches Pitner and Neveselý.
BRATISLAVA: Sakáč – Kužela, Mišovič, Ujváry, Bukovinský, Kečka – Šťastný, Nedomanský, Haas – Kordiak, Dučaj, Molnár – Cisár, Miklošovič, Žižka. Coaches dr. Starší and ing. Walter.
GOALS: 2 Jiří Holík (17. and 22.), 2 Beránek (20. and 55.), Novák (35.), M. Dvořák (49.), Nový (58.) – Nedomanský (9.). – ASSISTS: Klapáč 3, K. and M. Dvořáks – Dučaj. Referees ing. Baťa and Vidlák, penalties 4:3, powerplays 0:1, in penalty kills 1:0. Goalie saves: Krása 19 (7, 5, 7) – Sakáč 41 (10, 17, 14). Attendance 4000.“

…Nice little insight but in order for not to read too much into this, and to balance things out, I also saved the last encounter of Dukla and Slovan from this season, the game played on March 6, 1973. Jaroslav Holik injured himself again by the end of the season so the prefered option for Jihlava coaches was again to put Jiri Holik at center position of the 1st line. Here´s the game report apparently showing that the shutdown capabilities of Holik versus Nedomansky were not good enough this time.

Československý sport, Wednesday 7. 3. 1973, Jíří Čírtek:


“Three seconds till twelve o’clock
Jihlava – Slovan 3:3 (1:1, 1:1, 1:1)
JIHLAVA: Bakus – Suchý, M. Dvořák, Adamík, K. Dvořák, Kaberle, Vejvoda – Klapáč, Jiří Holík, Výborný – Hrbatý, Nový, Augusta – Novák, Titz, Bačo – Pavlík, Paulík. Coaches Pitner and Neveselý.
BRATISLAVA: Sakáč –Ujváry, Bukovinský, Mišovič, Kužela, Kečka – Mrukvia, Nedomanský, Haas – Šťastný, Miklošovič, Žižka – Hejčík, Dučaj, Molnár – Cisár. Coaches Starší and Walter.
GOALS: Vejvoda (15.), Bačo (33.), Adamík (48.) – 3 Nedomanský (11., 21., 60.). – ASSISTS: M. Dvořák, Titz – Mrukvia 2, Haas. Referees Filip and Pochop, penalties 3:4, powerplays 1:0. Goalie saves: Bakus 17 (5, 6, 6) – Sakáč 34 (14, 10, 10). Attendance 6000.

Home team without injured Jar. Holík, Beránek and Krása played without any restraints, started with big pressure, they were close to have at least three goals scored right at the beginning. Bakus had not touched the puck until the 7th minute, but it was him, behind whose back the red glowed for the first time. Dukla grinded way way too hard for the tying goal, their shooting productivity was bad.

They needed full fourteen shots for the first goal (!), although Sakáč played very carefully.

Rare attacks of Slovan were very dangerous, excellent Nedomanský scored for the second time from one of them, Jihlavian goalie literally moved away from this bomb. It was up for Dukla to tie the score again but the inaccuracies began to multiply, the match after a good first period fell into mediocrity.

In the 45th minute, Nedomanský hit the goalpost and that was the injection for the soldiers who added up and took the lead for the first time. Ending was very dramatic, Slovan played the powerplay hundred seconds before the finish, Nedomanský at first overpulled his deke, but in the end this poorly guarded, but by far the best player on the ice, tied the score three seconds before the end.“

b) Number of games played
It wasn´t uncommon for a CSSR National team player to play a sum total of 80+ games over the course of one season if every game – for both club and national uniform regardless of its importance – counted. Jiri Holik´s 1973 season is the most extreme case that I found. Tip magazine provides an info that Dukla Jihlava played exactly 91 games – record for any Czech team at the time. Shame that there is no list of these games and I´m unable to track it, but aside from the league reg. season and play-off, it is at least sure that Dukla also played the European Cup (tournament of various european league champions) and a „World Cup“ (a tournament played in January in the USA where the Soviet national team was the most prominent participant). Jihlava´s schedule definitely looks a bit more dense compared to the rest of Czechoslovak teams. I did find at least a precise list of this season´s National team´s games – a total of 38 games, which consists of 28 non-WHC games and 10 WHC games. Holik would only miss all 7 games that CSSR (under the name „Team Prague“) played in January Ontario Cup. Otherwise he would also miss the last 2 games of the season (5th and 6th game of the Finals with Tesla Pardubice due to an injury). If my calculation is correct and Tip´s assertion is also correct, then Jiri Holik played 120 games over the course of entire ´73 season (89 games for Dukla + 31 games for CSSR).

c) A couple of quotes

I figured this one picture is really worth sharing, nice photo of Holik on the cover of Stadion magazine, 2nd of January 1973, with even nicer description at the bottom, documenting the impact and reputation that he received at the time from Czech fans, writers, coaches etc. It says:
„Jiří Holík belongs without a doubt to the plethora of the world´s best hockey players. Today, when he has matured into his 29, he´s not only a star of Dukla Jihlava but also of our National team. Perfect forward for a modern conception of hockey, excellent at driving to the goal of opponent and at defensive maneuvers!“

Nomination for WHC 1971 presented at Gól magazine, Jiri Holik´s player description:
"Versatile forward with outstanding results in offensive and defensive game."

Vladimír Kostka, Team CSSR assistant coach, during 1969-70 season in his write-up about possible Golden Stick winners-candidates (Gól magazine):
“Jiří Holík is an excellent skater with large playing range of his game, persistant, fearless, offensive. Conception of his defensive game reaches the world´s highest levels. As a captain of the National team players, he is proven particularly in the hardest games.”

d) Playoffs
Good place to insert here an overview of the CSSR First League 1973 playoffs. We´re talking about a unique set of games since short play-off with the top 4 teams were played only twice (1971, 1973). Larger playoffs with all of 12 teams were re-introduced in 1986. Higher concentration of talent and strong generation itself were the main factors that the arguably highest quality of hockey on a club level in Czechoslovakia was to be observed at these early 70s post-seasons. POs were first established in April and May 1971 after the WHC. Reasoning was that one of the main reasons for a failure of CSSR team in 1970 was exhaustion of players after the league season and almost immediate shift to international hockey without much rest and preparation time. Whereas now with the PO, reg. season in 1971 and 1973 ended up much earlier, approximately a month before the championship and the PO was played right after the championship finished.

Playoffs 1971 met with great success, the quality of hockey and attendance was high. The success of the CSSR team at the ´71 WHC had a clear positive impact. While playoffs 1973 met with lesser success… the quality of hockey still remained relatively high, albeit lesser compared to 1971, but disappointment of the CSSR team at the ´73 WHC had equally negative impact on attendance.

1st seeded Pardubice played with a 3rd seeded Slovan Bratislava. Series that writers considered brutal in terms of physical play – an effect of increasing permission of fair and „less fair“ hitting, checking, slashing etc. after the Summit Series and WHC 1973. Excerpt of the report of the 3rd game: „It was a match-up full of physical fights, tough as stone, arriving one by one. Spectators though, and unfortunately also referees, only watched how the boards were crashing. It was practically a hockey from Canadian NHL, in which only a mass bench brawl was missing. Haas paid the price for it when he was escorted to hospital with an injured face and eye.“ The number of injured players during the series was high on both sides. Although not quite a bench brawl, the end of the 5th game was marked by 6 players dropping their gloves and combating. As a result – and as a demonstration of how seriously this was viewed at the time – Czechoslovak hockey association issued an order that for a 6th, and eventual 7th game, whichever player will engage in a physical fight, regardless of who caused it, will be expelled from the game; also, if a bench brawl between the teams occurs, both clubs will be expelled from the play-off competition, series will be prematurely finished and Dukla Jihlava will get a League title by default (by this time Dukla had already won their semifinals). This decision resulted in a beautiful last 6th game where star players finally got an opportunity to show their skills in full swing. Nedomansky was responsible for the goal of the series, skating from the blue-line over 3 players and scoring on Crha with another hard shot. Martinec-Novak-Stastny formation were again able to lock down the opposing unit for several minutes within their defensive zone.

Efficiency of Pardubice´s PK is mentioned as well, they scored 3 PK goals during the series and the game report of the 5th game explicitly writes about how pleasure is to watch Martinec-Stastny duo working when shorthanded.
It was a very close series where Tesla Pardubice prevailed, winning the series 4:2, and three out of six games were decided in OT.

A second semifinal saw a series of Dukla Jihlava (2nd) with SONP Kladno (4th). Not a very exciting series as Dukla outplayed Kladno comfortably 4:0. Jiri Holik was the only player receiving some positive remarks about his play, as he “carried on his standard performance from a Moscow´s ice.”

Finals started with Tesla dominating first 2 games played at home (5:3, 3:0 wins). Martinec especially shined at these games, scoring shorthanded again and “shaken off of consequences of [recent] double injury, easily permeated into opponent´s defensive zone and thus playing with teammates another concert.” Martinec-Novak-Stastny line definitely outplayed the Klapac-Holik-Holik line (all of them members of NT) in these initial games. Crha´s goaltending had been already strong versus Slovan but he really delivered the top performance now in the finals. From defensemen, Suchy from Jihlava has showed a lot of effort but “did not have enough speed, nor shooting, nor his noted toughness.” Jaroslav Pitner, Jihlava´ and NT´ coach, made a snarky remarks on behalf of the Pardubice´s forwards: “…shame that they had not played as well at the Moscow championship too.”

Third final game was very nervous, 43 PIMs at total (Hrbaty expelled from the game) caused by oversensitive referees whose performances are very criticized by the report. Still, the match was of high quality after all, Dukla prevailed 4:3 mainly thanks to outstanding play by Jiri Holik. Fourth game provided one-sided match-up as Dukla won 7:0. Noted is a smart move by Pitner who moved Jiri Holik onto the 1st line C, while Jaroslav Holik got “hidden” in the 3rd line. Strength of the offense was present in all lines of Jihlava now.

However, the fifth and sixth game (5:2, 5:3) was affected by Jiri Holik´s injury, the best Dukla´s player, (broken ribs) and subsequent outskating of the Jihlava team. Goaltending played a crucial part as well: Crha was stellar most of the time, while Krasa fell apart especially at these two last games. Tesla Pardubice won the final series (4:2) and became the League champion for the first time, ending the Jihlava streak of 6 consecutive titles.

Post-series comments. Stanislav Nevesely, assistant coach of Jihlava: “We did not expect an easy victory again but Tesla surprised us. It was shown that we can´t play without Jiri Holik, just as without the goalie of Crha calibre.” Jiri Holik: “With this group of players that we have at our disposal, second place is a beautiful success. Not only that we have 50 % of hockey disciples – if they at least, when they´re learning, showed an effort and fighted…”

“Losers series” for the bronze medal did not gain too much attention albeit especially the last game was very exciting. Slovan won the series 3:2, the last game was won by Slovan 5:4 after the shootouts while Kladno was 15 seconds away from victory and bronze, when Zizka (Slovan) tied the score for 4:4. Nedomansky decided the shootouts then. Overall, no player from Kladno seemed to stand out throughout the playoffs, but their main issue seemed to be weak goaltending.

No equivalent of the Conn Smythe Trophy was awarded and the press did not declare any player being the best of all. However, the impression I got from reading is more or less clear that the best play-off performers this time were Tesla´s (and National team) goalie Jiri Crha and Jiri Holik, whose absence was singled out as a primary reason for Jihlava´s losses of the last 2 games. Tesla´s 1st line (Martinec-Novak-Stastny) as a whole should probably come on a second tier of the best play-off players right after Crha and Holik. Other than that, I think Nedomansky and Milan Novy (2nd line C of Jihlava) deserve an honorable mention as well.

League playoffs were not played in 1972 due to emergence of two major international tournaments in one year (Olympics now a separate tournament from the World championships). After 1973, playoffs were cancelled for an increasing need of the CSSR team for more and more time for a WHC preparation.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Excellent as expected.

Very basic request, Copies of Czechoslovakian league regular season schedules with dates between 1968 and 1990. Results not needed just the actual schedule.

 

[Theokritos]

Fantastic work!

 

[DN28]

Excellent as expected.

Very basic request, Copies of Czechoslovakian league regular season schedules with dates between 1968 and 1990. Results not needed just the actual schedule.

I don´t have the season schedules with dates myself but I can only provide you a link where you can find it:
CZ

Hope the link is working... Just click at each season you´re interested in. Once you click at a season, you have an PDF in front of you. Schedule is usually at 3rd to 5th page. Now, I understand this can be confusing for you (and others) since it´s not written in English, here is basic vocabulary:

"kolo" = round
"září" = September
"října" = October
"listopadu" = November
"prosince" = December
"ledna" = January
"února" = February
"března" = March
"dubna" = April
"května" = May

Not sure if this will help you but I hope it will.

Anyway, I have written a post for you a month ago about randomly picked 3 seasons (1968, 1978, 1988) and their scheduling. Schedule wasn´t a whole lot different for other seasons...

 

[Canadiens1958]

I don´t have the season schedules with dates myself but I can only provide you a link where you can find it:
CZ

Hope the link is working... Just click at each season you´re interested in. Once you click at a season, you have an PDF in front of you. Schedule is usually at 3rd to 5th page. Now, I understand this can be confusing for you (and others) since it´s not written in English, here is basic vocabulary:

"kolo" = round
"září" = September
"října" = October
"listopadu" = November
"prosince" = December
"ledna" = January
"února" = February
"března" = March
"dubna" = April
"května" = May

Not sure if this will help you but I hope it will.

Anyway, I have written a post for you a month ago about randomly picked 3 seasons (1968, 1978, 1988) and their scheduling. Schedule wasn´t a whole lot different for other seasons...

Thank you,especially for the vocabulary.

Added to the previous, it seems that the league schedule was patterned and balanced. All teams played on the same day with equal rest for all between games.

Very different from NA scheduling.

 

[DN28]

Thank you,especially for the vocabulary.

Added to the previous, it seems that the league schedule was patterned and balanced. All teams played on the same day with equal rest for all between games.

Very different from NA scheduling.

Yes, and that by the way remains true for the nowadays Czech Extraleague as well.