Study of the penalty killing of Soviet forwards during the 1960-1990 time frame

[Canadiens1958]

Regarding these defensive weaknesses of the Soviets it is interesting that Canada/NHL let in clearly more powerplay goals against the Soviets than the Soviets did against Canada/NHL in best-on-best competition between the 1972 Summit Series and the 1987 Canada Cup. Seems like Canada also could have needed some cosmetic attempts to hide the ugly side of their own defensive weaknesses. Before someone jumps down my throat about it I want to point out that this last comment was obviously only sarcastic. However I do think that a very good case can be made for that the Soviet penalty kill actually outperformed the Canadian/NHL penalty kill over a rather large sample of games during the 1972-1987 time frame. This does not mean that the top Soviet penalty killers were superior to the top Canadian penalty killers of that time frame but it is in my opinion a good indication of that the top Soviet penalty killers definitely belonged among the best penalty killers in the world at the time.

Soviets versus Canada/NHL (Summit Series 1972, Canada Cup 1976, Challenge Cup 1979, Canada Cup 1981, Canada Cup 1984, Rendezvous 1987, Canada Cup 1987)
USSR: 8 shorthanded goals forward, 14 powerplay goals against, goal differential -6
Canada/NHL: 1 shorthanded goal forward, 19 powerplay goals against, goal differential -18

And here is the tournament by tournament breakdown.

Summit Series 1972
USSR: 3 shorthanded goals forward, 2 powerplay goals against, goal differential +1
Canada: 1 shorthanded goal forward, 7 powerplay goals against, goal differential -6

Canada Cup 1976 (1 USSR-Canada game)
USSR: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 1 powerplay goal against, goal differential -1
Canada: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 0 powerplay goals against, goal differential 0

Challenge Cup 1979
USSR: 1 shorthanded goals forward, 2 powerplay goals against, goal differential -1
NHL: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 3 powerplay goals against, goal differential -3

Canada Cup 1981 (2 USSR-Canada games)
USSR: 1 shorthanded goal forward, 1 powerplay goals against, goal differential 0
Canada: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 3 powerplay goals against, goal differential -3

Canada Cup 1984 (2 USSR-Canada games)
USSR: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 1 powerplay goal against, goal differential -1
Canada: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 2 powerplay goals against, goal differential -2

Rendezvous 1987
USSR: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 2 powerplay goals against, goal differential -2
NHL: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 1 powerplay goal against, goal differential -1

Canada Cup 1987 (4 USSR-Canada games)
USSR: 3 shorthanded goals forward, 5 powerplay goals against, goal differential -2
Canada: 0 shorthanded goals forward, 3 powerplay goals against, goal differential -3

Know that you have been watching game 1 of the 1965 demi finals Toronto vs Montreal. Penalty filled game. You should have noticed that the Canadiens used dedicated PK units built around 3 and 4 defencemen, rarely a forward. You posted glowingly about Henri Richard but even though his skills were ideal he never played on the PK.

The various other NHL teams had similar approaches with dedicated PK unites, some used star forwards on occassion but never full time.

Regardless of the era, the outstanding PK depth players in the NHL were rarely named as a unit to Team Canada. The Ed Westfall, Dan Marcotte, Craig Ramsey, Don Luce, Bob Gainey, Doug Jarvis, Rejean Houle, Jim Roberts and others. When Gainey was named neither Jarvis, Houle nor Roberts were included.

Fact remains that Canada did a better job at their objectives killing penalties - neutralizing the Soviet strength, the PP. 1986-87 NHL, season 80 games, average PPGA 72. Soviets were reduced to a PPGF rate of 60, while Canada scored at a PPGF rate of 100 over an 80 game schedule. Canada never played with a regular 5 man PP like an NHL team would so short term errors were expected and exploited. Par for the course since the NHL was not going to allow the concentration of stars on one team to create the equivalent of the Green Unit.

Basic issue remains why the Soviets never had dedicated PK unit specialists. Benefits are obvious.

Regular lines are not disrupted - example on the PK one of the KLM unit would have to sit, post PK you could not play the unit until the two from the PK were rested.

Soviets never had shot blocking specialist challenging the point shooters like the Canadiens did in 1965 - evident on the video with Talbot and Roberts(#17 and 26) two depth defencemen, who knew the correct way to block shots. Why risk shot blocking injuries to star forwards like Beliveau, Richard, etc.? Since Talbot and Roberts were defencemen they could also drop back if needed. With this approach Canadiens had the best PK almost annually. Also scored the fewest PK goals every year but the objective was killing the penalty. Also post PK the top lines were complete and fully rested. Blake could play his choice of three lines. Soviet coach could not. Soviets could be forced into a scrambled lines situation or sit your stars situation.

 

[Batis]

Fact remains that Canada did a better job at their objectives killing penalties - neutralizing the Soviet strength, the PP. 1986-87 NHL, season 80 games, average PPGA 72. Soviets were reduced to a PPGF rate of 60, while Canada scored at a PPGF rate of 100 over an 80 game schedule. Canada never played with a regular 5 man PP like an NHL team would so short term errors were expected and exploited. Par for the course since the NHL was not going to allow the concentration of stars on one team to create the equivalent of the Green Unit.

That is far from a fact. Unless you only compare them over the four USSR-Canada games at the 1987 Canada Cup and keep up with the in my opinion very questionable notion that shorthanded goals only are "facesaving". As I have already shown the Soviet penalty kill had a goal differential of -6 (8-14) compared to Canadas/NHLs goal differential of -18 (1-19) over the best-on-best sample from the 1972-1987 time frame.

Regarding the penalty killing of Montreal Canadiens in the semifinal game from 1965 yes it was very impressive. I don't really see how it is very relevant to the discussion in this thread though. Yes the Soviet penalty kill was not built around shot-blocking to any great extent but since there are multiple ways to build a successful penalty killing unit I don't see how that is very relevant when discussing the strenght of the penalty killing of the Soviets.

 

[Theokritos]

Basic issue remains why the Soviets never had dedicated PK unit specialists. Benefits are obvious.
(...)
Soviets never had shot blocking specialist challenging the point shooters like the Canadiens did in 1965 - evident on the video with Talbot and Roberts(#17 and 26) two depth defencemen, who knew the correct way to block shots.
(...)
Canada never played with a regular 5 man PP like an NHL team would...

These are all fair points that could provide for a legit discussion.

This, on the other hand, isn't fair and doesn't make sense:

Fact remains that Canada did a better job at their objectives killing penalties - neutralizing the Soviet strength, the PP. 1986-87 NHL, season 80 games, average PPGA 72. Soviets were reduced to a PPGF rate of 60, while Canada scored at a PPGF rate of 100 over an 80 game schedule.

When the SH goal ratio over 9 games between the USSR and Canada in 4 CC tournaments from 1976-1987 is -4 on part of the USSR and -8 on part of Team Canada, then you cannot spin this into a success or advantage for Team Canada. In particular it's not viable to act as if declaring the PP was "the Soviet strength" somehow put the Canadian ratio above the objectively superior Soviet ratio. That'd be like claiming your own inferiority in advance, only to celebrate the subsequent 0-4 deficit as a victory because it could have been worse.

What's also not viable is to suggest the superiority of the NHL when playing shorthanded was down to "outstanding PK depth players" who "were rarely named as a unit to Team Canada", and then to argue that Team Canada was still somehow superior to the Soviet national team when playing shorthanded, even though the numbers tell us the opposite.

 

[Canadiens1958]

That is far from a fact. Unless you only compare them over the four USSR-Canada games at the 1987 Canada Cup and keep up with the in my opinion very questionable notion that shorthanded goals only are "facesaving". As I have already shown the Soviet penalty kill had a goal differential of -6 (8-14) compared to Canadas/NHLs goal differential of -18 (1-19) over the best-on-best sample from the 1972-1987 time frame.

Regarding the penalty killing of Montreal Canadiens in the semifinal game from 1965 yes it was very impressive. I don't really see how it is very relevant to the discussion in this thread though. Yes the Soviet penalty kill was not built around shot-blocking to any great extent but since there are multiple ways to build a successful penalty killing unit I don't see how that is very relevant when discussing the strenght of the penalty killing of the Soviets.

Omitting 1974 again.

You either recognize the objective as killing the penalty or you do not. Toe Blake kept it very simple with great success. 8 SC in 13 seasons and 8 first place finishes in the same time frame.

Shot blocking is just one of the tools in a complete toolbox. Just like winning faceoffs, conserving energy by quickly icing the puck, making the other team work.

Fail to see the advantage of tiring your best players, disrupting your line rotations while giving - up match-ups as a result.

 

[Canadiens1958]

These are all fair points that could provide for a legit discussion.

This, on the other hand, isn't fair and doesn't make sense:



When the SH goal ratio over 9 games between the USSR and Canada in 4 CC tournaments from 1976-1987 is -4 on part of the USSR and -8 on part of Team Canada, then you cannot spin this into a success or advantage for Team Canada. In particular it's not viable to act as if declaring the PP was "the Soviet strength" somehow put the Canadian ratio above the objectively superior Soviet ratio. That'd be like claiming your own inferiority in advance, only to celebrate the subsequent 0-4 deficit as a victory because it could have been worse.

What's also not viable is to suggest the superiority of the NHL when playing shorthanded was down to "outstanding PK depth players" who "were rarely named as a unit to Team Canada", and then to argue that Team Canada was still somehow superior to the Soviet national team when playing shorthanded, even though the numbers tell us the opposite.

For your position to hold it would have to replicate the results in games against elite NHL club teams.

1975-76 NHL season elite teams were Buffalo and Philadelphia - 1975 SC finalists and Montreal and Philadelphia, 1976 SC finalists. So the vaunted Soviet PP and PK would have to face the elite team units in game conditions.

CSKA played Montreal and Philadelphia, Wings played Buffalo.

Combined over the three games the Soviets scored 0 PPG for in 13 advantages while giving up 1 SHA, gave up 6 PPGA in 13 disadvantages. What happened when the Soviets faced elite dedicated units that had played together for years as opposed to thrown together for a series? The Soviet PP was shut down, held scoreless, gave up a goal. The Soviet PK was bad 6 goals against. The elite NHL units prevailed by a big margin.

Buffalo game:
Ottawa Citizen - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

Philadelphia game:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

Montreal game:
The Montreal Gazette - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

 

[Batis]

Omitting 1974 again.

If you want to include the 1974 Summit Series numbers into these numbers feel free to do so. It will not make much of a difference.

Shot blocking is just one of the tools in a complete toolbox. Just like winning faceoffs, conserving energy by quickly icing the puck, making the other team work.

One could also argue that you make the other team work even harder by keeping the puck away from them when you have the chance to do so. It is just another approach to penalty killing which when executed correctly can be very effective as the Soviets (among others) showed for many years.

Fail to see the advantage of tiring your best players, disrupting your line rotations while giving - up match-ups as a result.

As MaxV pointed out earlier in this thread one advantage of having your top players being able to kill penalties is that you don't have to bring average players to kill penalties but instead can build a team of nothing but the best players. The points you bring up here are fair arguments for why it at times can become a problem to have your top players being your most capable penalty killers though. With that said there was a number of the best Soviet penalty killers who generally was not among the very, very best Soviet players (Golikov brothers, Zhluktov, Mishakov, Skvortsov and Gimaev for example) so it is not as if the Soviets only sent out their best players without any regard for whether they were great penalty killers or not.

 

[Batis]

For your position to hold it would have to replicate the results in games against elite NHL club teams.

1975-76 NHL season elite teams were Buffalo and Philadelphia - 1975 SC finalists and Montreal and Philadelphia, 1976 SC finalists. So the vaunted Soviet PP and PK would have to face the elite team units in game conditions.

CSKA played Montreal and Philadelphia, Wings played Buffalo.

Combined over the three games the Soviets scored 0 PPG for in 13 advantages while giving up 1 SHA, gave up 6 PPGA in 13 disadvantages. What happened when the Soviets faced elite dedicated units that had played together for years as opposed to thrown together for a series? The Soviet PP was shut down, held scoreless, gave up a goal. The Soviet PK was bad 6 goals against. The elite NHL units prevailed by a big margin.

Buffalo game:
Ottawa Citizen - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

Philadelphia game:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

Montreal game:
The Montreal Gazette - Recherche d'archives de Google Actualités

Yes let us judge the Soviet penalty killing based on a 3-game sample. Seems like a great idea.

Why not do the same with Bob Gainey. At the 1981 Canada Cup the Gainey led Canadian penalty kill gave up 3 powerplay goals against in 2 games against the Soviets. It seems like Gaineys penalty killing success at the NHL-level was due to not having to face real top-notch powerplay players like the top Soviets. (again this is obviously sarcasm)

 

[Canadiens1958]

If you want to include the 1974 Summit Series numbers into these numbers feel free to do so. It will not make much of a difference.




One could also argue that you make the other team work even harder by keeping the puck away from them when you have the chance to do so. It is just another approach to penalty killing which when executed correctly can be very effective as the Soviets (among others) showed for many years.



As MaxV pointed out earlier in this thread one advantage of having your top players being able to kill penalties is that you don't have to bring average players to kill penalties but instead can build a team of nothing but the best players. The points you bring up here are fair arguments for why it at times can become a problem to have your top players being your most capable penalty killers though. With that said there was a number of the best Soviet penalty killers who generally was not among the very, very best Soviet players (Golikov brothers, Zhluktov, Mishakov, Skvortsov and Gimaev for example) so it is not as if the Soviets only sent out their best players without any regard for whether they were great penalty killers or not.

You could argue that point, unsuccessfully, because what happens is that your players on the ice have to be making adjustments to their teammate ragging the puck and wind-up out of position. This is more tiring for the team defending.

Bruins PK improved drastically after 1969-70 when Orr just kept it simple.

But none of the listed players were on the 1987 Canada Cup team and no suitable replacements were found.

 

[Canadiens1958]

This really is cherrypicking at its finest. Yes let us judge the Soviet penalty killing based on a 3-game sample. Seems like a great idea.

Why not do the same with Bob Gainey. At the 1981 Canada Cup the Gainey led Canadian penalty kill gave up 3 powerplay goals against in 2 games against the Soviets. It seems like Gaineys penalty killing success at the NHL-level was due to not having to face real top-notch powerplay players like the top Soviets. (again this is obviously sarcasm)

We are looking at elite NHL PK team units, not individuals. 1981 Team Canada did not have the complete Canadiens PK unit. Units that had at least 100 games killing penalties like the 1975-76 Canadiens, Flyers, Sabres units did.

You on the other hand are looking at minutes in select games yet I am cherry picking?

 

[Batis]

You on the other hand are looking at minutes in select games yet I am cherry picking?

I am looking at the available footage over a 30-year period to try to analyze the penalty killing of Soviet forwards compared to other Soviet forwards. You are using a few carefully chosen tournaments/series or games in a series to try to show that the Soviet penalty kill struggled defensively.

Since I never have stated that the top Soviet penalty killers were superior to the top NHL penalty killers I really don't understand why you feel such a need to try to tear down the Soviet penalty killing performance with these carefully chosen examples.

Edit: Perhaps I should not have called it cherrypicking at its finest but that was my initial reaction and I still feel as if you have chosen which tournaments/series you think are important seemingly based on whether the Soviets had some struggles or not.

 

[Canadiens1958]

I am looking at the available footage over a 30-year period to try to analyze the penalty killing of Soviet forwards compared to other Soviet forwards. You are using a few carefully chosen tournaments/series or games in a series to try to show that the Soviet penalty kill struggled defensively.

Since I never have stated that the top Soviet penalty killers were superior to the top NHL penalty killers I really don't understand why you feel such a need to try to tear down the Soviet penalty killing performance with these carefully chosen examples.

Edit: Perhaps I should not have called it cherrypicking at its finest but that was my initial reaction and I still feel as if you have chosen which tournaments/series you think are important seemingly based on whether the Soviets had some struggles or not.

Let's be clear. I am looking at available NHL data since 1960 and limiting it to your time frame of 1990. You are looking at the Soviet PK from 1960 to 1990 afterall. NHL data is more plentiful. Gladly concede this point.

Conversely for a PK system or approach to have merit it has to be looked at within an International context and within a club or league team context. This is what I am attempting to do focusing on the games featuring best club teams against best club teams from the NHL and the Soviet League. Clearly stated.

Since the depth Soviet teams rarely or never faced NHL teams I leveled the sample space.

This approach should also reveal the strength and weaknesses of the Soviet and Canadian approach to building National teams. In both instances it seems compromises had to be made. How those compromises were made is an interesting story.
Sadly we do not have evidence about the Soviet selection process, the debates, nor the post mortems.

 

[Batis]

Let's be clear. I am looking at available NHL data since 1960 and limiting it to your time frame of 1990. You are looking at the Soviet PK from 1960 to 1990 afterall. NHL data is more plentiful. Gladly concede this point.

Conversely for a PK system or approach to have merit it has to be looked at within an International context and within a club or league team context. This is what I am attempting to do focusing on the games featuring best club teams against best club teams from the NHL and the Soviet League. Clearly stated.

Since the depth Soviet teams rarely or never faced NHL teams I leveled the sample space.

This approach should also reveal the strength and weaknesses of the Soviet and Canadian approach to building National teams. In both instances it seems compromises had to be made. How those compromises were made is an interesting story.
Sadly we do not have evidence about the Soviet selection process, the debates, nor the post mortems.

Fair enough. I still think that some of the standards to which you hold the Soviet penalty kill have been unreasonably difficult to live up to but this last post made it more clear to me what you are trying to do and while I still don't agree with your conclusions I am sorry if I reacted overly defensive.

For what it is worth I personally don't think that the depth of Soviet penalty killing ever came that close to rival the depth of Canadian penalty killing but that at the very top the Soviets had players who were on roughly the same level as the top Canadian penalty killers.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Fair enough. I still think that some of the standards to which you hold the Soviet penalty kill have been unreasonably difficult to live up to but this last post made it more clear to me what you are trying to do and while I still don't agree with your conclusions I am sorry if I reacted overly defensive.

For what it is worth I personally don't think that the depth of Soviet penalty killing ever came that close to rival the depth of Canadian penalty killing but that at the very top the Soviets had players who were on roughly the same level as the top Canadian penalty killers.

Didn't Tarasov and Tikhonov have unreasonably difficult standards to live up to.

Depth. Be it Canadian or Soviet, national ot club teams, depth is always the most difficult feature on a team to evaluate. Complicated by the realization that on one team a valuable depth player will not fit at all on another team.

 

[Theokritos]

For your position to hold it would have to replicate the results in games against elite NHL club teams.

Since "my position" is first and foremost that the Soviet national team was doing alright when playing shorthanded against Team Canada: no, nothing beyond the direct comparison between the USSR and Team Canada is needed for my position to hold.

As opposed to what you have suggested, no-one is arguing e.g. Helmuts Balderis was half the penalty killer that Bob Gainey was.

Was the best PK unit in the NHL better than the best Soviet PK units? Perhaps. Was the third or fourth best PK unit of the NHL better than the third or fourth best Soviet PK line? Definitely, IMO.

This approach should also reveal the strength and weaknesses of the Soviet and Canadian approach to building National teams.

This certainly has merit. It seems the Soviets preferred well-rounded lines/units where even the top scorers were regularly used as penalty killers whereas the Canadians (on the club level actually more so than on the national team level) preferred specialization. As usual, both approaches have their pro and cons. I just think it's not doing either side justice to suggest one approach was fundamentally flawed or inferior to the other when the overall record between the Soviets and both Team Canada and the NHL clubs suggests otherwise.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Since "my position" is first and foremost that the Soviet national team was doing alright when playing shorthanded against Team Canada: no, nothing beyond the direct comparison between the USSR and Team Canada is needed for my position to hold.

As opposed to what you have suggested, no-one is arguing e.g. Helmuts Balderis was half the penalty killer that Bob Gainey was.

Was the best PK unit in the NHL better than the best Soviet PK units? Perhaps. Was the third or fourth best PK unit of the NHL better than the third or fourth best Soviet PK line? Definitely, IMO.



This certainly has merit. It seems the Soviets preferred well-rounded lines/units where even the top scorers were regularly used as penalty killers whereas the Canadians (on the club level actually more so than on the national team level) preferred specialization. As usual, both approaches have their pro and cons. I just think it's not doing either side justice to suggest one approach was fundamentally flawed or inferior to the other when the overall record between the Soviets and both Team Canada and the NHL clubs suggests otherwise.

Still comes down to one key consideration. Sustainability.

Which approach sustained a high level of performance over generations and which did not.

The Canadian approach is now favoured all over the hockey world while the old puck control/ragging the puck approach is not. BTW, the Soviets did not start the puck control/ragging the puck approach. It pre-dates the NHL as does simply clearing the puck which was so common even at even strength that the icing rule was introduced in the late 1930s with a PK exception.

 

[Batis]

Here is the list of the games used in this study. When the whole game is not available on video I have marked it with an asterisk. It can mean that there is only one period available or that there is only some minutes missing from the game or anything in between. Check out the game on youtube if you are interested in knowing exactly how much is missing. Since I went off my memory when I marked the not complete games it is possible that a few other games also are somewhat incomplete. I did not feel like going through all the games in detail again though and either way I think I got the vast majority of the incomplete games marked.

Something that I forgot to mention earlier is that there is one available game on youtube which is not included in the study. The game I am talking about is the USSR-CSSR game from the 1976 Canada Cup and the reason why it is not included is that the video quality during the first half or so of the game is far too low-quality for it to be possible to somewhat accurately estimate ice times. But watching the game it is obvious that one player who would climb significantly on the ice time list for that tournament if I could estimate the ice times is Alexander Maltsev who spent alot of time killing penalties during that game.

Another thing worth noticing is that one game used in the study no longer is available on youtube (not the full game at least). The game in question is USSR-Sweden from the 1981 WHC. Fortunately I have the game saved on my old computer so I could estimate the ice times even after it was taken down.

Additionally I just realized that I had missed that the second USSR-CSSR game from the 1972 WHC also is available. Will watch that game and add the estimated ice times for that tournament to the study sometime next week. Seems like it is not the full game though and that USSR only had two penalties during the game so unfortunately it will probably be one of the tournaments with the smallest sample size of shorthanded ice time.
Anyway here is the list of the games included so far.

WOG 1960
USSR-USA 2-3

WOG 1964
USSR-Canada 3-2

WHC 1967
USSR-Canada 2-1
USSR-CSSR 4-2

WOG 1968
USSR-Finland 8-0*
USSR-USA 10-2*
USSR-West Germany 9-1
USSR-Sweden 3-2
USSR-Canada 5-0

WHC 1969
USSR-CSSR 0-2
USSR-Sweden 3-2

WHC 1970
USSR-Sweden 2-4
USSR-Sweden 3-1

WOG 1972
USSR-USA 7-2

WHC 1972
USSR-CSSR 2-3*

Summit Series 1972
USSR-Canada 7-3
USSR-Canada 1-4
USSR-Canada 4-4
USSR-Canada 5-3
USSR-Canada 5-4
USSR-Canada 2-3
USSR-Canada 3-4
USSR-Canada 5-6

Summit Series 1974
USSR-Canada 3-3
USSR-Canada 1-4
USSR-Canada 8-5
USSR-Canada 5-5
USSR-Canada 3-2*
USSR-Canada 5-2
USSR-Canada 4-4*
USSR-Canada 3-2

Super Series 75/76
CSKA Moscow-New York Rangers 7-3
CSKA Moscow-Montreal Canadiens 3-3
CSKA Moscow-Boston Bruins 5-2

WOG 1976
USSR-CSSR 4-3

WHC 1976
USSR-Poland 4-6

Canada Cup 1976
USSR-Sweden 3-3
USSR-USA 5-0*
USSR-Canada 1-3

WHC 1977
USSR-Canada 11-1
USSR-CSSR 3-4
USSR-Canada 8-1

WHC 1978
USSR-Sweden 6-1
USSR-CSSR 4-6
USSR-Canada 4-2
USSR-CSSR 3-1

Challenge Cup 1979
USSR-NHL All-Stars 2-4
USSR-NHL All-Stars 5-4
USSR-NHL All-Stars 6-0

WHC 1979
USSR-CSSR 6-1

Super Series 79/80
CSKA Moscow-New York Rangers 5-2
CSKA Moscow-Montreal Canadiens 2-4
CSKA Moscow-Buffalo Sabres 1-6
CSKA Moscow-Quebec Nordiques 6-4

WOG 1980
USSR-Canada 6-4
USSR-USA 3-4
USSR-Sweden 9-2

WHC 1981
USSR-Canada 8-2*
USSR-Canada 4-4
USSR-Sweden 13-1
USSR-CSSR 1-1*

Canada Cup 1981
USSR-USA 4-1
USSR-Canada 3-7
USSR-CSSR 4-1
USSR-Canada 8-1

WHC 1982
USSR-Canada 4-3
USSR-Canada 6-4

Super Series 82/83
USSR-Edmonton Oilers 3-4
USSR-Quebec Nordiques 3-0
USSR-Montreal Canadiens 5-0
USSR-Calgary Flames 2-3
USSR-Minnesota North Stars 6-3
USSR-Philadelphia Flyers 5-1

WHC 1983
USSR-Canada 8-2

WOG 1984
USSR-Canada 4-0
USSR-CSSR 2-0

Canada Cup 1984
USSR-CSSR 3-0
USSR-Sweden 3-2
USSR-West Germany 8-1
USSR-USA 2-1
USSR-Canada 6-3
USSR-Canada 2-3 OT

WHC 1985
USSR-USA 11-1
USSR-CSSR 5-1
USSR-CSSR 1-2
USSR-Canada 1-3

Super Series 85/86
CSKA Moscow-Los Angeles Kings 5-2
CSKA Moscow-Edmonton Oilers 6-3
CSKA Moscow-Quebec Nordiques 1-5
CSKA Moscow-Montreal Canadiens 6-1
CSKA Moscow-St Louis Blues 4-2

WHC 1986
USSR-West Germany 4-1
USSR-CSSR 4-2
USSR-Canada 7-4*
USSR-Finland 8-0*
USSR-Sweden 3-2

Rendezvous 1987
USSR-NHL All-Stars 3-4
USSR-NHL All-Stars 5-3

WHC 1987
USSR-Switzerland 13-5*
USSR-West Germany 7-0
USSR-USA 11-2
USSR-CSSR 6-1
USSR-Finland 4-0
USSR-Canada 3-2*
USSR-Canada 0-0*
USSR-Sweden 2-2*
USSR-CSSR 2-1

Canada Cup 1987
USSR-Sweden 3-5
USSR-Finland 7-4
USSR-USA 5-1
USSR-Canada 3-3
USSR-Sweden 4-2
USSR-Canada 6-5 OT
USSR-Canada 5-6 OT
USSR-Canada 5-6

WOG 1988
USSR-USA 7-5
USSR-CSSR 6-1
USSR-Canada 5-0
USSR-Sweden 7-1
USSR-Finland 1-2

Super Series 88/89
CSKA Moscow-Quebec Nordiques 5-5
CSKA Moscow-New York Islanders 3-2
CSKA Moscow-Boston Bruins 5-4
CSKA Moscow-New Jersey Devils 5-0
CSKA Moscow-Pittsburgh Penguins 2-4
CSKA Moscow-Hartford Whalers 6-3
CSKA Moscow-Buffalo Sabres 5-6

WHC 1989
USSR-USA 4-2
USSR-Finland 4-1*
USSR-CSSR 4-2*
USSR-Canada 4-3
USSR-Sweden 3-2*
USSR-Canada 5-3
USSR-Sweden 5-1

WHC 1990
USSR-West Germany 5-2
USSR-USA 10-1
USSR-Finland 6-1
USSR-Sweden 1-3*
USSR-CSSR 4-1*
USSR-Canada 3-3
USSR-Sweden 3-0
USSR-Canada 7-1*
USSR-CSSR 5-0

 

[Batis]

Now the ice times for the 1972 WHC tournament have been estimated and added to the first post. Since there only was two Soviet boxplays during that USSR-CSSR game the 1972 tournament is one of the ones with the smallest sample of shorthanded ice time which makes the results more difficult to judge than in tournaments with a larger sample of shorthanded ice time. Still it should at least give an indication of which players probably spent much time penalty killing during that tournament. I will update the other posts as well to include the 1972 WHC numbers.

 

[Batis]

The original post and the goal differential post have now been updated to include the numbers from the CSKA Moscow-New York Rangers game at the 79/80 Super Series and from the CSKA Moscow games versus the Los Angeles Kings and the St Louis Blues at the 85/86 Super Series. The Rangers and Kings games are now available on youtube (and apparently have been for awhile) and the Blues game I have recently purchased on dvd. I will do the updates in the posts of the ranking lists to include the new numbers there as well.

Edit. And now everything should be updated.

 

[Batis]

The shorthanded ice time numbers from the USSR-USA game at the 1972 Olympics has now been added to the original post. I have also updated the posts in the ranking lists. I will make the updates to the goal differential post when I find the time to do so as well.

It is worth noting that in the available footage from the USSR-USA game at the 1972 Olympics the Soviets only had one boxplay so it is one of the tournaments with the smallest sample sizes which of course is somewhat problematic. Still it does show that these four forwards did kill penalties during the tournament and judging by that all four of them are proven penalty killers from other tournaments I think that we can assume that they would be near the top of the list of Soviet penalty killers in this tournament even just based on one boxplay. Anyway here are the numbers.

WOG 1972

1. Vladimir Petrov: 1 gp, 1 min, 29 sec, 0 goals forward, 0 goals against
1. Yevgeny Mishakov: 1 gp 1 min, 29 sec, 0 goals forward, 0 goals against
3. Anatoly Firsov: 1 gp, 0 min, 31 sec, 0 goals foward, 0 goals against
3. Vladimir Vikulov: 1 gp, 0 min, 31 sec, 0 goals forward, 0 goals against