In 1972 (40 years ago), USSR was quite on the level of NHL stars. Do you really think that they developed their star power overnight? Well, they didn't. FYI, Soviets thoroughly dominated the 60s decade. Firsov and Starshinov were world class players. Just because they didn't have a chance to play against NHL stars, doesn't mean they weren't as good as the ones that came in the 70s.
Listen, I don't want to get into a whole debate about '72 or belittle it much out of respect because it certainly became apparent that the Russians belonged but 2 things have to be kept in mind.
1) Canada went into that tourny with players that hadn't played together much vs a Russian team that had played together for years in most cases.
2) Canada played without their 2 best players, both named Bobby. Orr alone would have completely changed the face of that tounry.
The bottom tiers are always bottom tiers. We are talking about top end talent.
Your league composition stats are meaningless, as the other poster noted. With KHL's emergence, all those people that otherwise would have filled NHL teams' bottom two lines are now playing in Russia (plus a star or two, like Jagr and Kovalchuk). And your last paragraph doesn't make any sense, I'm sorry.
Actually, not only does it make perfect sense but it's also REALLY simple.
Your argument is that the only Euro's playing are the top tier ones. That would mean that they should have large spikes in their share of points compared to their population. Quality over quantity right?
Well, that's not happening, at least not any where near the degree that's trying to be portrayed.
See, it's my opinion that Canadians tend to take more penalties and that the vast majority of the enforcers are Canadian. Now for my opinion to be supported, all that needs to happen is that when you switch the population chart to PIM shares, there should be a spike for Canada and ohh there it is. A clear spike from 50% population to 60% of the PIM shares.