World Cup: the best hockey ever 1987 Canada vs USSR

[lilidk]

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[jj cale]

They replayed that whole series on tsn a few years back and it was just as good now as it was then, tremendous hockey, best I have ever seen.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Agreed as good as it gets

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

Im a casual fan, but I think to myself, "damn Russia must have been good if Canada's 1PP was Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Coffey, and Bourque!"

 

[Henkka]

I also collected my own goal-scoring data from these games. It was crazy how equal they were. Scoring chanches were dead even in each game. For winning the whole series it was a 1 shot difference.

Gretzky assisting something like 20 scoring chances on the 2nd game was also insane.

 

[jj cale]

Im a casual fan, but I think to myself, "damn Russia must have been good if Canada's 1PP was Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Coffey, and Bourque!"

The Soviets were tremendous, when you watch the games their whole team play really jumps out at you, especially Krutov, who was a maniac goal scorer, so dangerous.

 

[Larry44]

I got to go to the last game. What exciting hockey. Breathtaking. Will never see a crowd going crazy like that again.

 

[okSourdough]

I too was lucky enough top go to the last game. Simply the most incredible game I've ever seen live or otherwise. The pure skill on both teams was a joy to behold and one to savour for a lifetime

 

[MaxV]

Im a casual fan, but I think to myself, "damn Russia must have been good if Canada's 1PP was Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier, Coffey, and Bourque!"

... and they were allowing short-handed goals.

One of the most underrated part of the series is the heart and resilience that both teams showed. Each game featured dramatic comebacks.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

 

[Uncle Rotter]

No collusion!

 

[member 305909]

I would love to see the old Canada-cup brought back the way it was; six teams round-robin, semi-finals and finals of best of three.

If it is so important to call it the world cup instead of Canada-cup then go ahead.

 

[MaxV]

I would love to see the old Canada-cup brought back the way it was; six teams round-robin, semi-finals and finals of best of three.

If it is so important to call it the world cup instead of Canada-cup then go ahead.

The landscape of international hockey is changing. Switzerland, for example, is building a strong program. I think pretty soon they will be in the mix with top 6.

 

[DDRhockey]

The landscape of international hockey is changing. Switzerland, for example, is building a strong program. I think pretty soon they will be in the mix with top 6.

We have heard that for years. But the weaker teams havent made much progress.

 

[Back in Black]

The '87 Canada Cup was great, but nothing compares to the 1972 Summit Series.

Team Canada was down and out after being embarrassed in Canada and had to win the last 3 games in Russia , and pulled it off.

 

[snipes]

The '87 Canada Cup was great, but nothing compares to the 1972 Summit Series.

Team Canada was down and out after being embarrassed in Canada and had to win the last 3 games in Russia , and pulled it off.

View attachment 133893

A must watch for any hockey fan:

 

[Kshahdoo]

I would love to see the old Canada-cup brought back the way it was; six teams round-robin, semi-finals and finals of best of three.

If it is so important to call it the world cup instead of Canada-cup then go ahead.

It won't ever be like that again, because it was a clash of two systems, political and hockey. Nowadays all political and hockey systems are roughly the same to a degree of boredom...

 

[Kshahdoo]

The '87 Canada Cup was great, but nothing compares to the 1972 Summit Series.

Team Canada was down and out after being embarrassed in Canada and had to win the last 3 games in Russia , and pulled it off.

View attachment 133893

CC87 hockey was still way higher of quality. The only difference was goaltending, because even with 20 year old Tretyak we would have beaten Canada...

 

[JackSlater]

The 1987 Canada Cup definitely had hockey of higher quality than that at the 1972 Summit Series. 1972 had several problems like a disjointed schedule, ill-prepared teams, bloated rosters and teams that weren't really aware of how their opposition would play. Better drama in 1972 though.

 

[DannyGallivan]

CC87 hockey was still way higher of quality. The only difference was goaltending, because even with 20 year old Tretyak we would have beaten Canada...

20 year-old Tretiak gave up almost 4 goals a game in 8 games against an out of shape and weakened (no Bobby Orr or Bobby Hull) team Canada. Team Canada '87 was more deadly on offense... they would have lit Tretiak up like a Christmas tree.

 

[DannyGallivan]

If they called all the hooking, holding and picking on the Soviets, Canada would have won the first two games and there wouldn't have been any drama. Gretzky and Lemieux could have had several more points.

 

[Kshahdoo]

20 year-old Tretiak gave up almost 4 goals a game in 8 games against an out of shape and weakened (no Bobby Orr or Bobby Hull) team Canada. Team Canada '87 was more deadly on offense... they would have lit Tretiak up like a Christmas tree.

Soviet team generally played way better defense at CC87, and 4 goals/game would be enough to beat Canada.

 

[DannyGallivan]

Soviet team generally played way better defense at CC87, and 4 goals/game would be enough to beat Canada.

My point was that a 20 year-0ld Tretiak was giving up that many goals against an offensively weaker Team Canada '72. He would have allowed at least 6 goals a game... and perhaps more... against team Canada '87.

 

[Kshahdoo]

My point was that a 20 year-0ld Tretiak was giving up that many goals against an offensively weaker Team Canada '72. He would have allowed at least 6 goals a game... and perhaps more... against team Canada '87.

My point was, that Soviet defense played way better in 87, than in 72, so it would have still been 4 goals/game.

 

[DannyGallivan]

My point was, that Soviet defense played way better in 87, than in 72, so it would have still been 4 goals/game.

Soviet and defense is almost like an oxymoron... kinda like Jumbo Shrimp.

I don't think a 20 year-old Tretiak would have made a lot of difference, as he was lit up for six goals in the deciding game of the '72 series as well. Besides, you can't arbitrarily take players from different eras as fuel to say your team should have won.

If so, I'll grant you that Tretiak probably would have stopped more pucks in '87. But if we had a 22 year-old Bobby Orr, a 25 year-0ld Rocket Richard and a 28 year-old Gordie Howe, we would have scored double digits in each game.