From the mid-1950s into the second half of the 1960s, the monthly sports magazine Спортивные игры ("Sporting Games") often featured short hockey reports and how-to instructions with illustrative photos. The following one is from the December 1955 edition and was authored by a certain A. Kostrikov. I couldn't find out a lot about him, not even his full first name. In the years after the war he played soccer and most likely bandy too for Krylya Sovietov Moscow and in the mid-1950s we find him as a defenceman in Canadian hockey for the same team under Vladimir Yegorov (who was also the assistant coach of the Soviet national team). He was paired with national player Alfred Kuchevsky and among his teammates was the trio Bychkov/Guryshev/Khlystov, one of the best forward lines in early Soviet hockey.
Kostrikov's entry is titled
Physical Play:
"Lately, our hockey players have more and more often used bodychecking (as permitted by the rules) when taking the puck away from the opponent, or as it is called, physical play. (...) Here's a typical example: A forward with very good stickhandling skills enters into an individual combat with a defenceman and uses of a series of deceiving moves. Against such a technical player, the defenceman will not always be able to take the puck with his stick. This is where the crucial moment calls for physical play. (...)
In order to meet the opponent with your chest, shoulder or hip proficiently, you need to be fully prepared. A player who uses physical play must be physically strong, have a firm stand on his skates and have a quick reaction. If the puck is lost in the other half of the rink, you often have to retreat while skating backward to have a good view of everything that happens on the ice. The ability to move backward is an important skill for a defenceman. (...)
The forward has broken through to the goal. Only the defenceman and the goaltender remain in the way. How should the defenceman act now? He has to try to drive the forward away from the goal to buy time and allow his partners to pull up to the place of the fight. But the forward doesn't move to the outside, he seeks to get around the defenceman in the middle of the ice. Skating backward, the defenceman has to monitor the actions and body movements of his opponent carefully. He doesn't have to focus on the puck at this moment and there is no need for him to respond to deceptive moves of the forward whose speed is notably reduced now. What the defenceman has to do is to choose a convenient moment (barring the possibility of amiss) in order to turn his chest or his shoulder to the opponent. But in doing so, the movement toward the forward must not exceed two strides."
Kostrikov proceeds to illustrate various aspects of physical play with photos showing Nikolai Sologubov – "the best defenceman of our national team" and a pioneer of bodychecking in the Soviet Union – in action.
Photo 1: "Look how his tilted body, legs and arms are placed at the time of the check. The defenceman is likely to win possession of the puck now since the attacker is no longer active, he has lost orientation and balance."
"Very often the forward manages to get away at the last moment, so that it appears he has succeeded and the goal is under threat again. But the defenceman is allowed to use another bodychecking technique: to make use of the hip. The arm is pressed against the body and the hip is sharply exposed toward the opponent (photo 2)."
"Sometimes it happens that a defenceman using a bodycheck puts his stick, head, knee or skate forward or pushes the opponent into the board. These techniques are incorrect and will immediately be punished by the referee.
Take a look at photos 3 and 4. In one case (photo 3), the defenceman puts his knee forward and grabs the hand of the opponent before giving him a shoulder check. In the second case (photo 4), the defenceman, too late to target the hip, targets the opponent's leg instead. You can't do that! This is a clear violation of the rules."
"The techniques of bodychecking with the chest or the shoulder are roughly the same in their execution. In both cases, the players makes no more than two strides and spreads the slightly bend knees wide. His body is tilted slightly forward and the arms are laid to the side or backward.
Quite often, the opposing puck carrier moved ahead in close proximity to the boards. How does the defenceman act in such a situation?
Having taken an advantageous position, he can check the opponent on the chest or the shoulder, but so that he doesn't bump his body against the boards. Do not push the opponent in the back at the boards as shown in photo 5."
"However, the defenceman is allowed to skate up to the side of the foward and stop his movement with his chest or shoulder, push him away from the puck and take possession of it (photo 6)."
"A hockey player can use power techniques in any game setting, but skillfully, so that they do not turn into rudeness."
