Let's Watch... USSR vs Czechoslovakia (1967/3/29)

[Theokritos]

With the ninth edition of this feature, we watch another game from the 1967 World Championship at Vienna. After securing the World Championship two days before in their game against Canada (see Let's Watch... Part VIII), the Soviets were facing Czechoslovakia in the final game of the tournament. Czechoslovakia needed a win to gain the silver medal, a loss would have left them empty-handed.



USSR:

Boris Mayorov (10) – Vyacheslav Starshinov (18) – Alexander Yakushev (15)
Anatoli Firsov (11) – Viktor Polupanov (12) – Vladimir Vikulov (17)
Veniamin Alexandrov (8) – Alexander Almetov (9) – Viktor Yakushev (13)

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

Viktor Konovalenko (20)​

ČSSR:

Josef Černý (15) – Václav Nedomanský (19) – Ivan Grandtner (8)
Jiří Holík (20) – Jaroslav Holík (5) – Stanislav Prýl (6)
Jaroslav Jiřík (16) – Josef Golonka (9) – Jan Havel (21)
Jiří Kochta (12)

Ladislav Šmíd (18) – Jan Suchý (17)
František Pospíšil (7) – Oldřich Machač (4)
František Tikal (3)

Vladimír Nadrchal (1)​

Click to read more...

 

[JackSlater]

Very nice, I'm going to watch this tomorrow with a focus on a few players (Firsov, Nedomansky, Suchy). From the bit that I have watched it sounds like a pretty good, active crowd.

 

[Staniowski]

I only watched a few shifts so far, I'll watch the rest when I get a chance.

This is Ned's 22-year-old season, and he certainly has great mobility here. The Holik brothers always look good, and Pospisil.

Ned didn't score much in this tournament. Golonka was their leading scorer.

At what times in Golonka's career did he play defense?

 

[DN28]

Just finished watching. Interesting game. I thought the gap in skills, skating, conditiong between Soviets and Czechoslovaks would be bigger, even though the difference in quality between both teams was still very noticeable. When CSSR players entered the offensive zone, they´d struggle to create a good scoring chance. USSR offense didn´t have this problem.

Czechs were not quite in the "golden era" yet as every team stood firmly behind the Soviets at the time. CSSR didn´t medal at this Championship and for the 1st time since 1960. Next time when that happens, will be in 1980.

I focused on the CSSR players and have to say I liked Jozef Golonka and Jan Suchy the most. Perhaps a confirmation bias on my part, since these two players were praised for their WHC´s performance in spite of team failure by the press. But Golonka is a dynamite, entertaining player to watch, constantly hustling all over the ice, forcing turnovers and creating many chances. Jirik-Golonka-Havel was easily the best CSSR line of the game, no accident that both CSSR goals were scored by this line.

Suchy is visibly looking for spaces to attack and it´s fun to watch and compare his play to other d-men. I thought he also looked decent vs. USSR forwards in his own zone. Young D duo of rookies (Pospisil-Machac) struggled a bit compared to Suchy-Smid, but no shame in losing some battles with prime Firsov.. Underrated Czech goalie Nadrchal had a solid game, a final result could have been much worse than 4:2 for Soviets if not for him. Jiri Holik looked fine there too. Nedomansky had a bad game.

Otherwise, this game became quite infamous at the time thanks to the scrimmage in the end. I would have thought the fights had been much more brutal and longer, but no, not really a "brawl" I wanted to see. I guess that even such a minor discontent emerging between the supposed "brotherly nations" at all was good enough to create scandal. Part of that was that Czechoslovaks refused to shake hands after the game ended. Everyone saw that the players just dislike each other. Constant arguing of Jaroslav Holik with Soviets probably caused him to miss the subsequent Olympic tournament next year.

 

[tinyzombies]

https://www.macobserver.com/news/youtube-uptime-release/

 

[Theokritos]

One thing that is puzzling is how Anatoli Tarasov keeps referring to his 1-2-2 system, but you don't really see it on the ice in this game or in the Canada game. Yes, at even strength the pairing Ragulin & Ivanov is usually on the ice with the Firsov line, so you have the alleged 1-2-2 unit right there – and yet, the way they play doesn't visibly differ from the other Soviet lines and units.

• Eduard Ivanov (left defenseman) is advertised as one of the "halfbacks". Therefore you'd expect him to play a prominent role offensively. But he doesn't seem to play a more offense-minded game than the other Soviet defensemen. Kuzkin and Zaitsev appear more involved than Ivanov.
• Alexander Ragulin (right defensesman) is supposed to be the "stopper" who guards the slot instead of moving into the corners when the opponent attacks. The corners are to be covered by the halfbacks Ivanov and Polupanov. And yet, Ragulin doesn't appear to show any hesitation to go into the corners at any time.

After the tournament Tarasov expressed surprise that the journalists and the opponents apparently didn't catch the Soviet innovation. But based on the game footage, it's not surprising at all because it's hard to find a single scene where the alleged setup can be observed.