Sochi 2014

[Yakushev72]

Oskar Osala said that he was too tired after the KHL finals to play at the Worlds and Mozyakin said something similar. The fact that the season in KHL starts in early July (IIRC SKA began their training camp on July 10th) so for those playing in the national team, the season could end mid-to-late May. That would leave only about a 6 weeks of off-season. Now for comparison, NHL season ends early/mid June and begins in September (though players are doing individual training in August at the latest), making their off-season 2-3 months, depending on team success. Finnish league has a mandatory 6 week individual training period that begins in mid June and ends last week on July. Players are also guaranteed 3 weeks off after the last game of the season. Teams usually have try-outs or conditioning training in late May and early-mid June. One can see that Russian players would be much more fatigued than other. Such a short off season is simply not functional/practical, unless the KHL season is kept at ~50 games and they at least get rid of the Hopeless Cup.

I see your point, but in fact, most Russian players in the KHL have a 6-month season -with training camp starting at the end of July and the regular season starting at the end of August. By early March, most KHL teams are done for the year. National team training could be segmented for a total period of 6-to 7 weeks, and the WC team members could be released for that period of time. I'm not saying that anything like this is on the horizon, but it was done before with enormous success.

 

[Scotty B]

Yakushev72:

Let me urge caution in concluding that Canadians contributed to the development of Soviet hockey, because these are all unsubstantiated claims of dubious origin

.

Many , many people have recognized this contribution over the years. But even if that weren’t the case, Lloyd Percival’s books --- How to Play Better Hockey, published in 1946 and The Hockey Handbook, pub in 1951, are proof enough, indeed they speak for themselves..

.Here’s a thought Yak, why not try reading Llloyd P's Books And while ur at it, find me a single hockey historian, worth his salt, who will come on here and deny the Percival/ Tarasov connection, or the importance of Percival's books vis a vis the early development of CCCP/ Euro hockey .

Yakushev72

...Scotty B, who is a distant relative of Harold Schooley, who played minor league hockey for a few years in Canada in the 1950's...

In fact, he ( Schooley ) played most of his greatest games in Europe, and was quite renown overseas in his day...But alas, a la Percival, H. Schooley's contribution to 1950's Euro hockey and CCCP hockey has been sorely overlooked. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s an article, by Glen Nott, which appeared in the Hamilton Spectator, in the early eighties, attesting to this:

THE WIZARD OF EUROPE -‘They ( the Soviets ) had heard he was an exceptional goal scorer and would like to learn from him.”

~by Glen Nott special to the Hamilton Spectator


THOSE POOR souls toiling for the Fife Flyers probably didn’t know what hit them on that fateful eve of December 11,1953
What started out as just another hockey game between Flyers and the Paisley Pirates of the British Professional League that evening, would end as a world history maker as Hamilton’s own Harold Schooley fired 8 goals in leading his team to a lopsided victory.

And just for fun if you check page 178 of the 1955 edition of the Guiness Book of World records, You’ll notice that Schooley’s feat was indeed a bona fide record of its time.

However if you want a lot more fun, just ask the 60 year old Schooley about it in person.

“I was 23 at the time and I broke the league record for goals that year, scoring 89 in 62 games”,recounts Schooley, who now spends his time as general manager of Flamborough’s Niagara District junior C entry. “ The record before that was 62 in 62 games”.

The event was big stuff in its day, but it was just the beginning of a hockey odessy that carried the Cathedral High student through virtually every country in Europe and the Soviet Union before returning to England and finally to North America in the early 1970's

“After i scored the 8, I guess the Russians read it in the paper and got on the phone to Canada House in London. They wondered if Mr. Schooley would come over for one month and tour Russia. They had head he was an exceptional goal scorer and would like to learn from him”

One year later, Schooley was behind the Iron Curtain, wowing the comrades with his prolific touch around the net. One day he suited up with the East German national team and potted 12 goals in an exhibition game against the Soviet nationals. The next day, he buried a dozen more against a West German club in a tournament.

Needless to say hockey in Europe has never been the same since.

But it wasn’t a burning desire to travel that led Schooley to a career of hockey stardom on the Continent. He had signed a professional contract with Eddie Shore’s Springfield Indians of the American hockey league early in his career and a combination of Shore’s stubborness and Schooley’s maverick streak eventually led the latter across the pond.

He did get a try-out with the Boston Bruins early in the 1950's , scoring 9 goals in 5 exhibition games. But when he was eventually sent back down to Springfield, along with friend Billy Cupolo of Niagara Falls, the two decided to bolt for Europe instead of playing for Shore.

“Everyone has Eddie Shore stories, he was the Harold Ballard of his era,” recalls Schooley. “He just flat out told you he was not going to trade you and back then you didn’t argue with management so i just took off.”

He shrugs off a suggestion that maybe he was a little timid for the rough and tumble NHL, instead pointing to a face thats seen its share of projectiles.

“Hell one year in the AHL I took 200 stitches. I’m a dumb Irishman, so once i got started you couldn’t stop me”

After a couple of season in Britain, Schooley became what he describes as a “freelance” hockey player, playing for teams all over Europe and getting as much as $500 per game. When he was playing in Italy, he got a call one weekend from an Austrian team desparate for his services

“I ended up playing In Italy one night and driving up to Austria the next day. I think we played 3 games in two days and i made $2,500 that weekend.”

Schooley earned a litany of nicknames during his playing days. ‘Silver’ for his abundance of prematurely greying locks, and ‘THE DEKE’ for his scoring and play making abilities that left Europeans shaking their heads.

In many place he was simply known as ‘THE CANADIAN’, a revolutionary-style player that had to be seen to be believed. He would drive, sometimes with equipment still on, from one town or country to the next one seeking new crowds to wow. ( *It is because he was mostly a freelance hockey player, and also his choice of venue i.e. 1950-60's Europe that many of his accomplishments remain unrecognized *)

He was playing 60 minutes a game most nights,11 or 12 months of the year. And he racked up three languages along the way-Italian German and French.

“I was having a heck of a time and as it turned out i was making more money than a lot of the National Hockey League players. It worked out just fine for me”

Just fine indeed . His expertise was such that he coached two Olympic teams ( if memory serves it was team Italy 1956, abd team Austria in 1960 )

...when he came back over to North America , he worked with the Philadelphia ( later Vancouver ) blazers and Calgary Cowboys of the now defunct World hockey association. He even coached the Hamilton redwing junior club in 1973.

Schooleys keen eye for athletic talent also led him to a 12 year stint as a Canadian scout for baseballs Philadelphia Phillies when rinks were quiet in the summer. He spent a lot of time in Quebec then , but he always retained Hamilton as his home base

(* I omitted a couple of paragraphs which didn't seem pertinent...Glenn Notts' article continues * )

...Speaking of his 1980's junior C assignment. “ i really feel that i didn’t get a chance to play in North America (* he had the nerve to stand up to management - Carl Brewer was not the first* ) and I see the same thing happening to a lot of kids today. I’m just glad to be doing what I’m doing now and making a contribution...THE END

 

[Scotty B]

Yakushev72:

...Read my post #404. I ask the question which STILL remains unanswered: who the hell is Gary Mossman? My guess is that he's not Russian, and my speculation would be that he is Canadian. That's why the Wikipedia claims are unattributed and unsubstantiated.

I provided considerably more coroborration than simply a single Wiki article...which, incidentally, I hadn’t even read , prior to the first time I mentioned the Percival- Tarasov connection in this thread...

As for Gary Mossman? ...seems that the CBC ( maybe u’ve heard of them Yak? , you know the home of Hockey Night in Canada ) doesn’t consider Gary Mossman a nobody...Moreover, CBC reporter Tim Wharnsby seems to have NO Doubts about the pivotal role Percival played in early CCCP + Euro hockey development

Don Cherry ( ever heard of him Yak ? ) and many MANY others, in NHL inner circles, likewise seem to recognize what a huge impact Percival had, on hockey and a number of other sports , on BOTH sides of the Pond


http://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/ho...ate-lloyd-percival-was-ahead-of-his-time.html

INSIDE THE GAME: LLOYD PERCIVAL WROTE THE BOOK ON HOCKEY FITNESS

Long before there were strength and conditioning gurus in hockey like Andy O'Brien, T.R. Goodman and Gary Roberts, there was Lloyd Percival.

Percival, who passed away at age 61 in July 1974, was much more than a fitness coach for hockey players. He guided top Canadian athletes in all sports.

His clientele list was a who's who of Canadian sport. First, through his CBC Radio program, Sports College on the Air, and later through his training facilities called The Fitness Institute, some of those schooled by Percival included: George Chuvalo, Kathy Kreiner, Gordie Howe, George Knudson, Jocelyn Lovell, Jim Day as well as Sandra Bezic. The list goes on and on.

But why bring up Percival now, especially when training elite-level and everyday athletes has become so sophisticated, so advanced and such a big business?



Well, a new book from Canadian author Gary Mossman recently has been released about Percival's life. Entitled Lloyd Percival: Coach and Visionary, this intriguing tome details just how much influence Percival had and still has on the way athletes train in this country almost four decades after his death.

Also, with the Sochi Olympics less than seven weeks away, it should be noted the important role Percival played in how swiftly Russian hockey evolved more than 50 years ago. Percival's book, The Hockey Handbook, gave Anatoli Tarasov, known as the father of Soviet hockey, a proverbial bible to teach and guide his players to international success.

The impact of this book on Soviet hockey has led some to joke that Percival was the stepfather of Russian hockey. But The Hockey Handbook also heavily influenced the development of national programs in then Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Finland.

It was Mossman's father who introduced Percival's story to the author. One of the many narratives Mossman unearthed was an interesting story that transpired during the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviets.

As the series developed, Phil Esposito and Co. grew to appreciate the strengths of their opponents, especially the talent of Soviet goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak.

They saw Tretiak in the hallways at the different rinks working on his reflexes and coordination by bouncing and catching tennis balls against the wall in a bang-bang manner.

This just happened to be a drill that Percival wrote about and prescribed to Detroit Red Wings goalie Terry Sawchuk. Now most goalies employ the "wall-ball drill" in their training.

Sawchuk, in fact, benefited from Percival's training in the early 1950s, when he was hired to work with the Red Wings.

"Percival found it more difficult to convince Sawchuk that his agility and coordination would improve even more if he shed some of his 200 pounds," wrote Mossman. "Neither was Detroit's management overly concerned about Sawchuk's weight until he reported to training camp in September 1951 weighing 219 pounds.

"[Red Wings owner Jack] Adams immediately ordered his goaltender to go on a diet prescribed by Percival. Ten weeks later, Sawchuk weighed 193 pounds. By season's end, his weight had reached 170-175 pounds, the level at which he would remain for most of his career.

"In 1951-52, Terry Sawchuk produced possibly the single greatest season ever enjoyed by a goaltender."

'Stood the test of time'

Percival's ideas and methods weren't accepted by all in the hockey community. But he did later gain the acceptance and credit he deserved.

"I believe The Hockey Handbook, written by Lloyd Percival and first published in 1951, remains the authoritative source for hockey fundamentals," said longtime Carolina Hurricanes athletic therapist Peter Friesen, who was given a copy of the book by coach Dave King in 1980.

"It is my view that the training regimens that Percival developed based on those fundamentals have stood the test of time."

Even Don Cherry had praise for Percival in the book. He remembers listening to the fitness guru on his radio show.

"Every Saturday at 12:15, when we were young lads, my mother made sausages and toast for my brother and me and we listened to 'Ace' Percival on Sports College," Cherry said.

Follow Tim Wharnsby on Twitter @WharnsbyCBC

 

[stv11]

Guys, you can have this debate without attacking other posters.

The next ad hominen attack will earn its author an infraction.