I'd like to summarize my response as follows:
"Wait, what??"
Let's say just for the sake of simplicity that we treat all series/tournaments involving the best players from both Canada and USSR/Russia on equal footing. So for just this one time let's say Challenge Cup = Canada Cup = Olympics = Summit Series in terms of weighting.
Accepting the above, Canada has victories in competitions from the following series/tournaments:
1972
1976
1984
1987
1991
2002
2004
2010
====
Total:8
and USSR/Russia has victories in competitions from the following series/tournaments
1979
1981
====
Total:2
Now I know you like to ignore many tournaments where Canada was successful, citing various technicalities/excuses/etc; whilst not applying those same excuses when they would work against you (i.e. Challenge Cup). But even if we let you have your way and we ignore, say, fully
one half of the Canadian victories (I'll let you decide which ones to throw out), that still leaves a convincing 4 - 2 edge for Canada
.
Now you mention that if you look at it in terms to total games played, with the implication that
all games are being treated as equal value, then Canada has only a 1 game edge. If you're going to boil things down to individual games then you can't then turn around and say that the 81 Canada Cup was a blowout! Again, if we're talking about individual games, Canada and USSR played each other twice; a round robin game that Canada won 7-3, and a final game that USSR won 8-1. Both of those games were blowouts, and so if we apply
your own logic as set out above, then the 81 Canada Cup can be considered pretty much a draw since all games are considered equal value.
Now if you agree that, in fact, not all games are equal, and that a game which clinches a tournament/series is more important than other games, then yes, the 81 CC was a blowout. But then you must also agree then that my tally above is correct and that Canada has a considerable overall edge in terms of victories in best-on-best with USSR/Russia.
