Luckily for me (or sadly, depending on how you look at it), I was alive to see Kharlamov play. IMHO, he was the most explosive and exciting forward in the history of all hockey, NHL included. You can argue that Gretzky had a bigger bag of tricks than Kharlamov, but Gretzky lacked the speed and ability to control the puck and change directions while accelerating to greater speed that Kharlamov was the master at.
The most amazing and unbelievable thing about Kharlamov was his ability to stickhandle in alone against two, three or even four defenders, plus the goaltender, and the only time thing that anything ever touches anything else is when the puck touches the back of the net. In the clip that you provided, there are two rushes by Kharlamov that illustrate what I'm talking about.
About the middle of your video clip, from Game 1 of the 1972 Series in Montreal, you will see Kharlamov (in white) coming in alone on two Canadian defensemen (one is Don Awrey of the Boston Bruins - I forget the other one's name). These are all NHL All-Star defensemen, among the best that Canada had produced. Kharlamov comes in alone on them, dips his left shoulder, then blows by them to the outside untouched. He comes in alone on Ken Dryden and easily deposits the puck in the back of the net.
In the other clip, the very last one on your video, in a game between the New York Rangers and CSKA at Madison Square Garden on December 28, 1975, Kharlamov comes in alone against four Ranger defenders (yes, count them, there are four). The Rangers are lined up tightly along the blue line, but Kharlamov dekes right and left and goes by all four of them without being touched, and comes in on John Davidson, the goaltender and puts the puck by him cleanly. He went through a total of five guys by himself, and nobody touched anything until the puck touched the back of the net. I have never seen anything like that before or since.
Among Russians, Sergei Makarov and Pavel Bure came closest to matching Kharlamov's skills, but in the end, I believe that Kharlamov was in a class by himself.
, always nice to read stuff from people who actually has seen these hockey legends play and who know what they talk about.
) IHe told me that he expected to see me with black eyes and broken teeth.I told him that for me hockey is a sport with finesse and skills even though I know many like the other kind of hockey(meaning a brawl)
