Let's Watch... USSR vs Canada (1967/3/27)

[Theokritos]

With the eighth installment of this feature, we turn to international hockey and watch a game from the 1967 World Championship at Vienna.

Previous installments:
1959/4/7: Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs
1960/4/7: Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs
1963/4/18: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings
1963/12/7: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Chicago Black Hawks
1965/4/1: Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs
1966/4/14: Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens
1968/3/10: Chicago Blackhawks vs Toronto Maple Leafs
1974/5/5: Philadelphia Flyers vs New York Rangers

Click to read more...

 

[Theokritos]

The game was played under the old international system with two referees and no linesmen. The referees were Ted Daily (USA) and Olle Wiking (Sweden). After 10 minutes of the last period, ends were switched one more time as was custom in international hockey.

USSR:

Veniamin Alexandrov (8) – Alexander Almetov (9) – Viktor Yakushev (13)
Boris Mayorov (10) – Vyacheslav Starshinov (18) – Viktor Yaroslavtsev (7)
Anatoli Firsov (11) – Viktor Polupanov (12) – Vladimir Vikulov (17)

Vitali Davydov (4) – Viktor Kuzkin (2)
Valeri Nikitin (19) – Oleg Zaitsev (6)
Eduard Ivanov (3) – Alexander Ragulin (5)

Viktor Konovalenko (20)​

Canada:

Ted Hargreaves (11) – Roger Bourbonnais (14) – Addie Tambellini (15)
Morris Mott (20) – Fran Huck (9) – Marshall Johnston (10)
Jean Cusson (8) – Gary Dineen (7) – Bill MacMillan (12)

Carl Brewer (17) – Terry O'Malley (2)
Gary Begg (6) – Paul Conlin (3)
Barry McKenzie (4) – Jack Bownass (5)

Seth Martin (1)​

Events:
(click on spoiler button to view)

Spoiler

First Period:
2.30 – Pen both (Vikulov and Dineen, 2 min each)
5.05 – Pen USSR (2 min for too many men, served by Yaroslatvsev)
5.35 – 0-1 Canada [PP] (Huck)
10.41 – Pen USSR (Polupanov, 2 min)
15.27 – Pen USSR (Ivanov 2+10 min)
16.36 – Pen Canada (Bourbonnais, 2 min)

Second period:
21.32 – Pen both (Ragulin and McKenzie, 2 min each)
23.51 – Pen Canada (MacMillan, 2 min)
29.32 – 1-1 USSR (Firsov)
31.44 – Pen USSR (Polupanov, 2 min)

Third period:
50.36 – 2-1 USSR (Starshinov)

 

[Michael Farkas]

Just watched a bit of it so far...first thing I noticed was all the pretty modern looking ads on the boards about 15-20 years before that was an NHL staple...

Secondly, I'm pretty impressed by the quality of play...I don't like to look at lineups for these games where I'm a little less familiar with the players, as I don't want to bias myself into what players standout the most, but I assume Canada is mostly non-NHLers given the name of the game, and the Soviets are the Soviets...

So far 11 red has stuck out the most...more to follow as I get time to watch it...

 

[Batis]

This was most certainly a competitive game where the Canadian team really challenged the Soviets and managed to keep the top Soviet forwards relatively well in check even if it was goals from Firsov and Starshinov which turned the game around in the favour of the Soviets. However if you look at Firsovs completely dominant performance against Czechoslovakia a couple of days later and compare it to his performance in this game I think that the Canadian team deserves credit for the way they played him. Now Firsov was probably the best player on the ice in this game as well but he did not completely dominate in the same way as he did against Czechoslovakia.

It is perhaps worth noting that this version of the Canadian national team also did very well when playing against NHL-opponents in the exhibition games that were part of their preparation for the 1967 WHC and that Bernie Geoffrion said this about the team after facing them "This is the best Canadian national squad I ever saw. They wonderfully fought with us. They skate, they don´t get lost in scrumbles and they shoot like pros." This quote and more information about these games against the NHL-teams can be found in this excellent post from @DN28. Top-100 Hockey Players of All-Time - Round 2, Vote 15

 

[VanIslander]

Veniamin Alexandrov... Viktor Yakushev... Boris Mayorov... Vyacheslav Starshinov... Vladimir Vikulov... Vitali Davydov... Viktor Kuzkin... Eduard Ivanov... Alexander Ragulin

Vs.

Carl Brewer (& Seth Martin)​

9 ATD picks vs. 1 ATD pick (Martin a respected next-best minor league draft pick AFTER the all-time draft).

This game is making me re-think my Soviet appreciation. Not for Makarov and Fetisov, but for pre-1972 Summit Series play.

How much of a steep incline was the top-end play of the Soviets in hockey history? By 1980, several touring Soviet teams were knocking off quality NHL teams. But pre-1972, it seems like a cliff was climbed.​

 

[Batis]

9 ATD picks vs. 1 ATD pick (Martin a respected next-best minor league draft pick AFTER the all-time draft).

This game is making me re-think my Soviet appreciation. Not for Makarov and Fetisov, but for pre-1972 Summit Series play.

How much of a steep incline was the top-end play of the Soviets in hockey history? By 1980, several touring Soviet teams were knocking off quality NHL teams. But pre-1972, it seems like a cliff was climbed.​

While this Canadian team definitely gave the Soviets a real challenge here I think that if we look at the results of the whole tournament we see that the Soviets was the far stronger team as should be expected and perhaps this was a case of them having a somewhat bad day at the office (which happens to all teams of course) combined with Canada having a strong game. Throughout the tournament the Soviets won all of their 7 games and most notably beat the silvermedal winning Swedish team with a 9-1 margin. Canada on the other hand did not beat any of the top teams as they lost 0-6 against that Swedish team, played a 1-1 tie with Czechoslovakia and lost this game against the Soviets 1-2.

And like mentioned earlier this Canadian team did very well against the NHL-teams they faced during their preparations for the tournament as you can see in the linked post from DN28. So while they may not have been that strong of a team on paper they seem to have been performing at a rather high level throughout this season with some obvious exceptions like their 0-6 loss to Sweden at the WHC.

 

[DN28]

Agreed, Canadians under father Bauer post-1963 were structured, organized, players trained together whole season, not a weak team at all.

Also do not take ATD picks as the final truth. Based on everything I´ve read about Seth Martin, not many Soviets were considered better or more valuable than Martin (up to 1967). At least Kuzkin, Ivanov, even Ragulin and Mayorov were certainly not valued as much as Martin - at least not according to what I´ve read...

 

[JackSlater]

Very good video quality. Interesting game. The Soviet forwards were the class of the game, with the defencemen probably equal between the teams. Tactically it is also interesting to see the game before the IIHF allowed checking in all three zones, as I don't believe I've seen a game from that period before. This was also my best best chance at seeing Firsov when he was in his prime and he was definitely good. I also kept an eye out for Ragulin. He doesn't impress me in the Summit Series but he looks understandably better here.

 

[Sentinel]

IIRC this is the game that prompted the greatest Russian singer-songwriter Vladimir Vysotsky to write one of his most famous songs, "The Professionals."

Unfortunately, the popularity of this song did a disservice to accuracy: many Russians believed that, for the first time ever, Soviet hockey players beat a team full of Canadian professionals. Which, of course, was not the case. Sixty years later in many Russian minds this song blended with the Summit Series, and many people now believe that "back then the Red Machine beat the Canadian pros and Vysotsky wrote a song about it."

 

[Michael Farkas]

Structurally, I'm impressed by the Soviets...they're up in the play, their defense keeps plays alive, their spacing is much better all over the ice...

It's clearly really ingrained in their system and their teaching, to the point that it doesn't look like the players can really use their judgment (or failed to)...good example is the Firsov goal...Firsov in that situation would absolutely have pushed his own d-man back out of the zone and back to the dot line on that side, but he's just standing right up there at the point, about two feet from him...odd to see, but it goes to show you how structurally standard they are and would grow to become further as the years go on...

 

[Theokritos]

Structurally, I'm impressed by the Soviets...they're up in the play, their defense keeps plays alive, their spacing is much better all over the ice...

It's clearly really ingrained in their system and their teaching, to the point that it doesn't look like the players can really use their judgment (or failed to)...good example is the Firsov goal...Firsov in that situation would absolutely have pushed his own d-man back out of the zone and back to the dot line on that side, but he's just standing right up there at the point, about two feet from him...odd to see, but it goes to show you how structurally standard they are and would grow to become further as the years go on...

Tarasov's take one year later (Совершеннолетие, 2nd edition, 1968):

"The fundamental difference is that the Canadian defensemen don't really participate in pressuring the opponent, they're quick to abandon the zone [of the opponent] and fall back, they don't like to take chances, they concede territory. Our defencemen are actively involved in the attack and lock the opponent in his zone. (...) In our tactical interpretation, five players participate in pressing. Among the Canadians, only three players participate."​