Few months ago, I accidently picked up a yearbook following international hockey during 1971-72 season that I found in a local sports bar. Book is written/edited by Czech and Slovak journalists Vlado Malec and Igor Mráz. There is a couple of interesting stuff covering the state of European hockey right before the Summit Series, so I figured I'd finally post some parts here.
Unlike any other season before, there were actually 2 major international tournaments - Olympics in Sapporo, and World Championship in Prague - that took place during the span of 2-3 months. Season was also negatively affected by ongoing refusal of Canadian hockey authorities to send their national team on these events. Thus, authors judge the Olympics as "so far the poorest of all olympic post-war tournaments." Criticism continues as there were only 6 teams playing each other once in round robin which led to relatively big time gaps between games (people were used to more teams and much more games played at WHC at the time...). Therefore "tournament was missing a regular rhytm and emotions that come with it."
On top of that, almost every team dissapointed with their performance. Czechoslovakia was thought to challenge the Soviet domination but lost the game against USA in a very frustrating fashion. Michael Curran faced more than 50 shots, letting only 1 goal in. USA won the game 5:1. Soviets then beat Czechoslovaks decisively 5:2. Sweden too failed to deliver their best, losing to their rivals CSSR and Finland, ending without medal on the 4th place just as at OG 1968 in Grenoble. Finland apparently struggled with generational change when older players could not play as good as in the past while younger players did not live up to their talents. Finns only surprised at the end when they narrowly defeated Sweden, otherwise were not a decent opponent to Soviets, Czechoslovaks and even Americans. Surprisingly enough, even Soviets here received a mild critique from authors who stated that while "the Soviet victory was unambiguous, team's performance in face of previous seasons lower somewhat, playing their game more vulnerably. No one exploited that because everyone played noticeably worse than a year ago in Switzerland." Therefore only positive surprise remained the team USA playing with heart and deservedly earning the silver.
The book reflects the continuing change in playing style of European teams due significant rule change in 1969-70 which allowed players to physically check their opponent at every part of the rink. One of the Soviet coaches, Nikolai Puchkov, stated in 1969 that once Europeans fully adjust to new rules and players regularly forcheck their rivals in the offensive zone, new stars will emerge. Players will be forced to think and move much more faster, less talented but stronger players will replace skillfull technicians unwilling to take a risk and getting a couple of hits in front of goalie crease each game. Then precisely the game between CSSR and USA mentioned above is showed as an example of this pattern as Americans were able through superiority of their physical play to drive out most of the attacks outside of prime scoring areas. Most of that huge amount of shots (81 shot attempts of the Czechs!) fired at Curran came from distant/less dangerous places. From players then, Valeri Kharlamov, the most productive player of this tournament, is singled out here as a player who demonstrated best of all the ability of playing the game in such high speed that rule changes did not affect him. Despite the attention of opposing defensemen Kharlamov always found a way to score or make a chance for his linemates.
Vsevolod Bobrov had become the coach of USSR national team before the World Championship started. He entered after incredible Tarasov's and Chernyshev's 10-years run of winning gold every season. Bobrov and his assistant Puchkov expected their promotion. According to Bobrov here, Tarasov and Chernyshev already asked Soviet hockey officials to be released from their coaching duties numerous times in the past but were turned down each time until after Sapporo..
Alexander Maltsev commented that Bobrov with Puchkov provided to players a certain freedom in their game in order for them to develop particular playing skills that each player has and to maximize their potential. People noticed that the Soviet game was played differently under Bobrov in Prague. And funnily, when Maltsev asked about humour in the locker-room, he answered that Michailov is for some reason the most frequent target of jokes coming from other teammates.
Sweden got a new coach at the start of the season too and this time it was Canadian coach Bill Harris who however, did not receive a lot of praise for his work. According to Tarasov Sweden lost its face by not playing their Swedish nor typical Canadian game. Nevertheless, Harris, coming from NA, had different perspective and said some interesting comments during the World championship. First, Europeans have too "dark" ideas about Canadian hockey. Dirty and unfair game that European teams had to endure while playing against Canada is according to Harris mostly typical for Canadian amateur players. Professional hockey players know that hockey is their living thus they protect their health more. Harris as a coach convinced himself during the season that Canada with overly tough and intimidating game has no chance to succeed and beat USSR or CSSR.
Second, what's highlighted in the book is when Harris was asked about tactics in NHL and he surprised everyone by saying that it is quite an unknown term there. NHL training methods are the same as it were 10 or 15 years ago. NHL season lasts 8 months and no one cares what a player does during summer. Summer break is longer in North America and that is the reason for why bigger amount of older players still play professionally, while summer break being so short in Europe is the reason why hockey players stop playing on high level much sooner.. Truth is also that Harris said these words after Sweden suffered a debacle 11:2 with USSR so even authors speculate whether emotions led him to exaggerate these differences.
Frantisek Pospisil became the captain of the Czechoslovak national team after Josef Cerny ended his international career after Sapporo OG. Seemingly the right decision as he led his team in Prague to its first gold medal after 23 years and subsequently won the Directoriate' award for the best defenseman of the championship. So unsurprisingly the authors do not save their admiration for themselves. Pospisil "supposedly never in his life came late for a training. Honest man. In life and on the ice." Leads by an example and manages to calm, advise or encourage young players.
Prague's championship presented a special obstacle to the Czechoslovak top scorer Vaclav Nedomansky - he played with different linemates almost every game and his play at the beginning of the tournament was below expectations. In spite of that he became the most productive player of his team both at the Olympics and World championship and on top of that he scored the most points and goals during this season. But as if it looked like there was still some dissatisfiction with his performance by the time season was over. Authors put forward a question whether fans and viewers do not have too big demands of Nedomansky's game? Nedomansky only answers to this that "they definitely have and I also think they have to!" Adding to that, there are written descriptions of his shyness: "It's been told that Nedomansky is only little talkative, closed, simply put - mysterious nature..." Couple pages later authors wrote that there has been talk that Nedomansky feasts on weaker opponents but doesn't score against top teams. Howerer, that was not the case this time in Prague, authors conclude, because Nedomansky scored key goals against both Sweden and USSR.
Before the deciding game of the tournament (2nd game of CSSR vs. USSR which Czechoslovaks won 3:2) Frantisek Pospisil summarizes: Soviets' biggest advantages vis-a-vis their opponent are their speed, better conditioning and individual skills; Soviet goaltending also does not belong to their weaknesses anymore like in the past. Soviets remain to be favourites but Pospisil still believes they're going to win. He says that he has never seen his team playing in such a good and relaxed mental state. Vladimir Dzurilla annecdotically commented the rivalry that playing against the Soviets "is like when you go to the dentist. First, you feel only a little pain, but the pain continues to grow, you take the pills, forget about the pain for a while, but ultimately you still have to sit in the chair the whole time. When the tooth is out you are happy that it's over since you've suffered enough."
Alexander Ragulin before the deciding game vs. CSSR admitted certain difficulties: "We're not as strong as in the past. Veterans like Firsov left and young players has not yet come to sufficiently replace them in my opinion. Both teams are comparable... our strength lies in offense, we have to score goals but excellent form of Holecek concerns us."
Game itself: started with Soviet pressure. After 8 minutes Kochta got injured and Martinec then played the rest of the game as RW in 2nd and 3rd line which immediatelly produced wanted outcome - Martinec assisted to Nedomansky on the first goal and quickly after that Martinec assisted to Farda on the second goal. Second period is largely stolen by Jaroslav Holik for himself. First, he made a mistake by passing the puck to Vikulov which led to Maltsev scoring a breakaway goal thus bringing the Soviets back to game. Few minutes after, Jar. Holik founds himself in a counterattack with his linemates Jiri Holik and Jan Klapac against only Ragulin and Tretyak and, very uncharacteristically of him, he chooses to quickly shoot instead of pass and... he scores a goal! And again, few minutes later, Jar. Holik is sent to penalty box and Kharlamov scores a goal after prolonged pressure from Vikulov-Maltsev-Kharlamov line. Third period showed a really great hockey from both teams playing risky all-offense hockey (from Soviets especially) in order to score a tying goal (for Soviets) or to score a decisive goal (for Czechs). Despite great chances no goals were scored. One particular shift is a testament to that. After Bubla crushed Maltsev, Martinec shooted twice from good positions and a moment later he passed to Farda for him only to hit the post 5 minutes up to the end, and Machac got two minute penalty few moments after that. Soviets however did not manage to use the powerplay at the end to their advantage and the game was won by the Czechoslovakia 3:2.
Stats: 63 shot attempts by Soviets vs. 31 shot attempts by Czechoslovaks, but only 21 direct shots on Holecek from Soviets vs. 17 shots on goal from CSSR.
Czechoslovaks "excelled in defense, playing like a one man, cautiously, courageously, offensively, with no fear." Commentator of Canadian Television summarized: "I've said long time ago that the Championships of the Soviet and Czechoslovakian hockey players equal our best professionals. Now I double down on that. It was an amazing experience, I take hundreds of meters of film with me to Canada so that Canadian viewer can too enjoy the beauty."
Teams didn't think only about defense, didn't fear of physical game. Arne Strömberg commented: "You could see the game, shown by Czechoslovak and Soviet teams, even in the NHL very rarely. Only among the best teams. It was a fight where everything was included: beauty, dramaticality, exceptional tacticional maturity, solid mentality of the Czechoslovak team and also a fair play. First and last period of the Czechoslovak team seemed absolutely without a fault."
After this almost "finale game", Sweden managed to lost to Finland but after that they finished their season in a not-so-bad-fashion given they tied with USSR at the end of the tournament, just as at the Olympics.. (3:3, while Sweden was also winning over Soviets until 57th minute and Yakushev's tying goal). "Best game of the Swedes at the World Championship," authors conclude, although admitting that Soviets must have felt physically and morally weaken after loss to Czechoslovakia. Thus Sweden secured their next bronze medal. Silver was earned by the Soviets of course.
Alexander Maltsev - clearly the most productive player of the Championship with 22 points in just 10 games - then shares his honest impression of the Sweden: They played truly badly in Prague and he hasn't really been enjoying the game of Swedes for the past couple years with the exception of this year's Olympics and WHC 1969. He says that "Sweden is missing the type of player Ulf Sterner once was. He knew how to change the rhytm of the game from minute to minute, players respected him and teammates wanted to equal him." And Maltsev's reasons why they lost the gold this time after decade of winning? Czechoslovaks showed better effort, were better physically prepared for this time and displayed clearly best defense seen during the tournament. Lower effort or preparation was probably not as much of a concern for Maltsev though as he was voted by the media as the best center and by the IIHF directoriate as the best forward.
Former international goalies Nikolai Puchkov and Josef Mikolas were pleasantly surprised precisely by the increasing quality of European goalies. "Goaltenders belonged to the best players of the Championship... Holecek played extraordinarily," Puchkov claimed. Mikolas pityed current goalies of how harder it gets for them in todays game as opposed to Mikolas/Puchkov era. "Game is faster, shots harder. There is not so much novelty in the art goaltending however. Puck flies and it can't go in. Goalie pads and other goaltending protections are much more lighter than they used to be, goaltenders are more mobile. Now only Molina from Switzerland played without a mask. Valtonen surprised by his excellent performance, he has a good style, fast catcher, takes care of shots along the ice, has very mobile legs. Holmqvist dissapointed. Our goalies are both good, Holecek and Dzurilla. First one got an opportunity and took it over greatly."
Defense evaluation is provided by another former 50s/60s international players, Roland Stolz and Rudolf Potsch. Potsch appreaciated Machac the most. He won the most battles and shooted very hard. Gusev as a rookie in the Soviet team attracted Potsch' s attention too. Concretly Gusev's passing, view over the game and skating. Stolz commented that "demands for defensemen have been increasing. Few years ago defensemen did not focus at attacking at all... Every defenseman needs a high individual technique and chemistry with the rest of a unit. The most elaborate defensive system has been performed by the new world champions, the team CSSR. Players substitued and complemented each other and created impervious defensive wall. They promote versatile players who knew when and how to move into efficient attack. In Prague I like the most Machac, Pospisil, Lutchenko and Cygankov. Unfortunately, my followers and countrymen left me dissapointed."
Another former 50s/60s international player and soon-to-be assistant coach of the CSSR national team, Jan Starsi, was the one who commented the level of tournament's offense. "When we had been playing, we have had much more space in the game than what forwards and wingers especially have today. Good winger of the past didn't need very much perseverance and toughness as today's one needs. A lot has changed even after the rules change. Now it is possible to bodycheck throughout the whole rink. Game of the forwards has gottten quite a different character. Hockey players had to add in speed, in technique and in toughness too. These features can be obtained by only those who have a sufficient conditioning. Strength and endurance are now most required properties for a hockey player. Kharlamov looked at Prague's WHC as the ideal winger. Shame that he's not taller and heavier (70 kg, 168 cm). If only he had the stature and the shot of Nedomansky..."
Coaching changes are reflected by V. Bobrov's words that there has been a steady increase in player's rotation as the speed of the game forces coaches to change the lines even after 30 seconds while in the past 2 minutes on ice for a unit was the usual procedure.
Upcoming Summit Series is then mentioned near the end of the book: "You're going to play against Canada again. What's your take on that?"
Alexander Maltsev: "After some pause, this re-opening of our contacts is interesting. Everyone tests his own strength and hockey skills. I'll tell you words of our coaches. They're saying: If you wouldn't play in Canada, you didn't see the hockey! It is needed to try to play with them. And who is going to win? We'll see!"
Unlike any other season before, there were actually 2 major international tournaments - Olympics in Sapporo, and World Championship in Prague - that took place during the span of 2-3 months. Season was also negatively affected by ongoing refusal of Canadian hockey authorities to send their national team on these events. Thus, authors judge the Olympics as "so far the poorest of all olympic post-war tournaments." Criticism continues as there were only 6 teams playing each other once in round robin which led to relatively big time gaps between games (people were used to more teams and much more games played at WHC at the time...). Therefore "tournament was missing a regular rhytm and emotions that come with it."
On top of that, almost every team dissapointed with their performance. Czechoslovakia was thought to challenge the Soviet domination but lost the game against USA in a very frustrating fashion. Michael Curran faced more than 50 shots, letting only 1 goal in. USA won the game 5:1. Soviets then beat Czechoslovaks decisively 5:2. Sweden too failed to deliver their best, losing to their rivals CSSR and Finland, ending without medal on the 4th place just as at OG 1968 in Grenoble. Finland apparently struggled with generational change when older players could not play as good as in the past while younger players did not live up to their talents. Finns only surprised at the end when they narrowly defeated Sweden, otherwise were not a decent opponent to Soviets, Czechoslovaks and even Americans. Surprisingly enough, even Soviets here received a mild critique from authors who stated that while "the Soviet victory was unambiguous, team's performance in face of previous seasons lower somewhat, playing their game more vulnerably. No one exploited that because everyone played noticeably worse than a year ago in Switzerland." Therefore only positive surprise remained the team USA playing with heart and deservedly earning the silver.
The book reflects the continuing change in playing style of European teams due significant rule change in 1969-70 which allowed players to physically check their opponent at every part of the rink. One of the Soviet coaches, Nikolai Puchkov, stated in 1969 that once Europeans fully adjust to new rules and players regularly forcheck their rivals in the offensive zone, new stars will emerge. Players will be forced to think and move much more faster, less talented but stronger players will replace skillfull technicians unwilling to take a risk and getting a couple of hits in front of goalie crease each game. Then precisely the game between CSSR and USA mentioned above is showed as an example of this pattern as Americans were able through superiority of their physical play to drive out most of the attacks outside of prime scoring areas. Most of that huge amount of shots (81 shot attempts of the Czechs!) fired at Curran came from distant/less dangerous places. From players then, Valeri Kharlamov, the most productive player of this tournament, is singled out here as a player who demonstrated best of all the ability of playing the game in such high speed that rule changes did not affect him. Despite the attention of opposing defensemen Kharlamov always found a way to score or make a chance for his linemates.
Vsevolod Bobrov had become the coach of USSR national team before the World Championship started. He entered after incredible Tarasov's and Chernyshev's 10-years run of winning gold every season. Bobrov and his assistant Puchkov expected their promotion. According to Bobrov here, Tarasov and Chernyshev already asked Soviet hockey officials to be released from their coaching duties numerous times in the past but were turned down each time until after Sapporo..
Alexander Maltsev commented that Bobrov with Puchkov provided to players a certain freedom in their game in order for them to develop particular playing skills that each player has and to maximize their potential. People noticed that the Soviet game was played differently under Bobrov in Prague. And funnily, when Maltsev asked about humour in the locker-room, he answered that Michailov is for some reason the most frequent target of jokes coming from other teammates.
Sweden got a new coach at the start of the season too and this time it was Canadian coach Bill Harris who however, did not receive a lot of praise for his work. According to Tarasov Sweden lost its face by not playing their Swedish nor typical Canadian game. Nevertheless, Harris, coming from NA, had different perspective and said some interesting comments during the World championship. First, Europeans have too "dark" ideas about Canadian hockey. Dirty and unfair game that European teams had to endure while playing against Canada is according to Harris mostly typical for Canadian amateur players. Professional hockey players know that hockey is their living thus they protect their health more. Harris as a coach convinced himself during the season that Canada with overly tough and intimidating game has no chance to succeed and beat USSR or CSSR.
Second, what's highlighted in the book is when Harris was asked about tactics in NHL and he surprised everyone by saying that it is quite an unknown term there. NHL training methods are the same as it were 10 or 15 years ago. NHL season lasts 8 months and no one cares what a player does during summer. Summer break is longer in North America and that is the reason for why bigger amount of older players still play professionally, while summer break being so short in Europe is the reason why hockey players stop playing on high level much sooner.. Truth is also that Harris said these words after Sweden suffered a debacle 11:2 with USSR so even authors speculate whether emotions led him to exaggerate these differences.
Frantisek Pospisil became the captain of the Czechoslovak national team after Josef Cerny ended his international career after Sapporo OG. Seemingly the right decision as he led his team in Prague to its first gold medal after 23 years and subsequently won the Directoriate' award for the best defenseman of the championship. So unsurprisingly the authors do not save their admiration for themselves. Pospisil "supposedly never in his life came late for a training. Honest man. In life and on the ice." Leads by an example and manages to calm, advise or encourage young players.
Prague's championship presented a special obstacle to the Czechoslovak top scorer Vaclav Nedomansky - he played with different linemates almost every game and his play at the beginning of the tournament was below expectations. In spite of that he became the most productive player of his team both at the Olympics and World championship and on top of that he scored the most points and goals during this season. But as if it looked like there was still some dissatisfiction with his performance by the time season was over. Authors put forward a question whether fans and viewers do not have too big demands of Nedomansky's game? Nedomansky only answers to this that "they definitely have and I also think they have to!" Adding to that, there are written descriptions of his shyness: "It's been told that Nedomansky is only little talkative, closed, simply put - mysterious nature..." Couple pages later authors wrote that there has been talk that Nedomansky feasts on weaker opponents but doesn't score against top teams. Howerer, that was not the case this time in Prague, authors conclude, because Nedomansky scored key goals against both Sweden and USSR.
Before the deciding game of the tournament (2nd game of CSSR vs. USSR which Czechoslovaks won 3:2) Frantisek Pospisil summarizes: Soviets' biggest advantages vis-a-vis their opponent are their speed, better conditioning and individual skills; Soviet goaltending also does not belong to their weaknesses anymore like in the past. Soviets remain to be favourites but Pospisil still believes they're going to win. He says that he has never seen his team playing in such a good and relaxed mental state. Vladimir Dzurilla annecdotically commented the rivalry that playing against the Soviets "is like when you go to the dentist. First, you feel only a little pain, but the pain continues to grow, you take the pills, forget about the pain for a while, but ultimately you still have to sit in the chair the whole time. When the tooth is out you are happy that it's over since you've suffered enough."
Alexander Ragulin before the deciding game vs. CSSR admitted certain difficulties: "We're not as strong as in the past. Veterans like Firsov left and young players has not yet come to sufficiently replace them in my opinion. Both teams are comparable... our strength lies in offense, we have to score goals but excellent form of Holecek concerns us."
Game itself: started with Soviet pressure. After 8 minutes Kochta got injured and Martinec then played the rest of the game as RW in 2nd and 3rd line which immediatelly produced wanted outcome - Martinec assisted to Nedomansky on the first goal and quickly after that Martinec assisted to Farda on the second goal. Second period is largely stolen by Jaroslav Holik for himself. First, he made a mistake by passing the puck to Vikulov which led to Maltsev scoring a breakaway goal thus bringing the Soviets back to game. Few minutes after, Jar. Holik founds himself in a counterattack with his linemates Jiri Holik and Jan Klapac against only Ragulin and Tretyak and, very uncharacteristically of him, he chooses to quickly shoot instead of pass and... he scores a goal! And again, few minutes later, Jar. Holik is sent to penalty box and Kharlamov scores a goal after prolonged pressure from Vikulov-Maltsev-Kharlamov line. Third period showed a really great hockey from both teams playing risky all-offense hockey (from Soviets especially) in order to score a tying goal (for Soviets) or to score a decisive goal (for Czechs). Despite great chances no goals were scored. One particular shift is a testament to that. After Bubla crushed Maltsev, Martinec shooted twice from good positions and a moment later he passed to Farda for him only to hit the post 5 minutes up to the end, and Machac got two minute penalty few moments after that. Soviets however did not manage to use the powerplay at the end to their advantage and the game was won by the Czechoslovakia 3:2.
Stats: 63 shot attempts by Soviets vs. 31 shot attempts by Czechoslovaks, but only 21 direct shots on Holecek from Soviets vs. 17 shots on goal from CSSR.
Czechoslovaks "excelled in defense, playing like a one man, cautiously, courageously, offensively, with no fear." Commentator of Canadian Television summarized: "I've said long time ago that the Championships of the Soviet and Czechoslovakian hockey players equal our best professionals. Now I double down on that. It was an amazing experience, I take hundreds of meters of film with me to Canada so that Canadian viewer can too enjoy the beauty."
Teams didn't think only about defense, didn't fear of physical game. Arne Strömberg commented: "You could see the game, shown by Czechoslovak and Soviet teams, even in the NHL very rarely. Only among the best teams. It was a fight where everything was included: beauty, dramaticality, exceptional tacticional maturity, solid mentality of the Czechoslovak team and also a fair play. First and last period of the Czechoslovak team seemed absolutely without a fault."
After this almost "finale game", Sweden managed to lost to Finland but after that they finished their season in a not-so-bad-fashion given they tied with USSR at the end of the tournament, just as at the Olympics.. (3:3, while Sweden was also winning over Soviets until 57th minute and Yakushev's tying goal). "Best game of the Swedes at the World Championship," authors conclude, although admitting that Soviets must have felt physically and morally weaken after loss to Czechoslovakia. Thus Sweden secured their next bronze medal. Silver was earned by the Soviets of course.
Alexander Maltsev - clearly the most productive player of the Championship with 22 points in just 10 games - then shares his honest impression of the Sweden: They played truly badly in Prague and he hasn't really been enjoying the game of Swedes for the past couple years with the exception of this year's Olympics and WHC 1969. He says that "Sweden is missing the type of player Ulf Sterner once was. He knew how to change the rhytm of the game from minute to minute, players respected him and teammates wanted to equal him." And Maltsev's reasons why they lost the gold this time after decade of winning? Czechoslovaks showed better effort, were better physically prepared for this time and displayed clearly best defense seen during the tournament. Lower effort or preparation was probably not as much of a concern for Maltsev though as he was voted by the media as the best center and by the IIHF directoriate as the best forward.
Former international goalies Nikolai Puchkov and Josef Mikolas were pleasantly surprised precisely by the increasing quality of European goalies. "Goaltenders belonged to the best players of the Championship... Holecek played extraordinarily," Puchkov claimed. Mikolas pityed current goalies of how harder it gets for them in todays game as opposed to Mikolas/Puchkov era. "Game is faster, shots harder. There is not so much novelty in the art goaltending however. Puck flies and it can't go in. Goalie pads and other goaltending protections are much more lighter than they used to be, goaltenders are more mobile. Now only Molina from Switzerland played without a mask. Valtonen surprised by his excellent performance, he has a good style, fast catcher, takes care of shots along the ice, has very mobile legs. Holmqvist dissapointed. Our goalies are both good, Holecek and Dzurilla. First one got an opportunity and took it over greatly."
Defense evaluation is provided by another former 50s/60s international players, Roland Stolz and Rudolf Potsch. Potsch appreaciated Machac the most. He won the most battles and shooted very hard. Gusev as a rookie in the Soviet team attracted Potsch' s attention too. Concretly Gusev's passing, view over the game and skating. Stolz commented that "demands for defensemen have been increasing. Few years ago defensemen did not focus at attacking at all... Every defenseman needs a high individual technique and chemistry with the rest of a unit. The most elaborate defensive system has been performed by the new world champions, the team CSSR. Players substitued and complemented each other and created impervious defensive wall. They promote versatile players who knew when and how to move into efficient attack. In Prague I like the most Machac, Pospisil, Lutchenko and Cygankov. Unfortunately, my followers and countrymen left me dissapointed."
Another former 50s/60s international player and soon-to-be assistant coach of the CSSR national team, Jan Starsi, was the one who commented the level of tournament's offense. "When we had been playing, we have had much more space in the game than what forwards and wingers especially have today. Good winger of the past didn't need very much perseverance and toughness as today's one needs. A lot has changed even after the rules change. Now it is possible to bodycheck throughout the whole rink. Game of the forwards has gottten quite a different character. Hockey players had to add in speed, in technique and in toughness too. These features can be obtained by only those who have a sufficient conditioning. Strength and endurance are now most required properties for a hockey player. Kharlamov looked at Prague's WHC as the ideal winger. Shame that he's not taller and heavier (70 kg, 168 cm). If only he had the stature and the shot of Nedomansky..."
Coaching changes are reflected by V. Bobrov's words that there has been a steady increase in player's rotation as the speed of the game forces coaches to change the lines even after 30 seconds while in the past 2 minutes on ice for a unit was the usual procedure.
Upcoming Summit Series is then mentioned near the end of the book: "You're going to play against Canada again. What's your take on that?"
Alexander Maltsev: "After some pause, this re-opening of our contacts is interesting. Everyone tests his own strength and hockey skills. I'll tell you words of our coaches. They're saying: If you wouldn't play in Canada, you didn't see the hockey! It is needed to try to play with them. And who is going to win? We'll see!"
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whoa, wait.. I know squat about these:
