The penalty killing of Jan Suchy during his peak years: A video study

[Batis]

One thing that has impressed me very much when watching peak Jan Suchy play is how great of a penalty killer he was. Because of this I decided to take a in-depth look at the penalty killing of Suchy during the 66/67-70/71 time frame by analyzing the available video footage from major international tournaments.

These are the seven available games that Suchy played in during that time frame.

CSSR-USSR 2-4 World Championships 1967
CSSR-Canada 2-3 Olympics 1968
CSSR-USSR 5-4 Olympics 1968
CSSR-USSR 2-0 World Championships 1969
CSSR-Sweden 2-2 World Championships 1970
CSSR-USSR 3-3 World Championships 1971
CSSR-USSR 5-2 World Championships 1971

Suchy was on the ice for 75.6% of Czechoslovakia´s total boxplay time in these seven games. If we discount the time that Suchy spent in the box himself and therefore not was available to kill the penalty that number goes up to 78.7%. It is also worth noting how much better the Czechoslovakian penalty kill was doing with Suchy on the ice.

With Suchy on the ice: 1 goal against in 24 minutes and 45 seconds of shorthanded ice time
Wihout Suchy on the ice: 2 goals against in 7 minutes and 59 seconds of shorthanded ice time

I would say that the most important qualities of Suchy which made him such a outstanding penalty killer was his poise with the puck, his ability to stand up and defend the defensive blueline, his willingness to sacrifice his body in order to keep the puck out of the net and his ability to fight through fatigue.

I also tried to look for some quotes regarding the penalty killing of Suchy but the only thing that I have found so far is this one from DN28´s write-up on his 70/71 season.

Jiří Hertl’s column in Gól magazine also revealed that Suchý had spent the most ice-time on PK of any player this season. Dukla Jihlava won fifth title in a row.

With the knowledge of that Suchy did lead the Czechoslovakian league in shorthanded ice time during the 70/71 season in mind it is also worth noting that the 1971 World Championships actually was the tournament in this study where Suchy percentually speaking spent the least amount of time on the penalty kill.

When discounting the time that Suchy spent in the box himself these are his percentages broken down by tournament.

1967 World Championships: 67.5% of the shorthanded ice time available to him (4 minutes, 46 seconds out of 7 minutes, 4 seconds)
1968 Olympics: 100% of the shorthanded ice time available to him (6 minutes, 0 seconds out of 6 minutes, 0 seconds)
1969 World Championships: 100% of the shorthanded ice time available to him (8 minutes, 0 seconds out of 8 minutes, 0 seconds)
1970 World Championships: 100% of the shorthanded ice time available to him (2 minutes, 0 seconds out of 2 minutes, 0 seconds)
1971 World Championships: 52.9% of the shorthanded ice time available to him (4 minutes, 59 seconds out of 9 minutes, 25 seconds)

I would definitely say that it is interesting that the tournament where Suchy had his lowest usage rate of this time frame happened during the season where we know that he led the Czechoslovakian league in shorthanded ice time. I don´t quite know what to make of that information though. Is it a indication of that Suchy probably was close to the top of the list when it comes to shorthanded ice time in the Czechoslovakian league during the 66/67-69/70 time frame as well? Or is it possible that Suchy outside of the 70/71 season played less on the penalty kill domestically than he did internationally? Perhaps the effort that it took him to play such big minutes on both the penalty kill, the powerplay and at even strenght meant that his high penalty killing usage generally was saved for only the most important league games and the games on the international stage?

Another thing worth noting is that the level of the average opponent in this study was very high considering that five of the seven games were against the Soviets and the remaining two were against Sweden and Canada. The Soviet national team was obviously the dominant force in international hockey at the time and especially during the 69-71 time frame they had extremely much offensive firepower with for example seven forwards (Kharlamov, Firsov, Mikhailov, Maltsev, Petrov, Yakushev and Starshinov) that made our top-200 players list. While Sweden had far from that kind of firepower during this time frame they still had a very good team that was competing with Czechoslovakia for being the second best team in Europe. Regarding the Canadian amateur teams of the late 60´s I would say that while they may not have had very much name recognition and clearly was the forth best team in international hockey at the time they still seem to have been a quality team that could hold their own against both Czechoslovakia, Sweden and even NHL teams as DN28 showed very well in this post. Top-100 Hockey Players of All-Time - Round 2, Vote 15

Regarding the place of Suchy in the Czechoslovakian penalty killing hierarchy I would say that he undoubtedly was the greatest penalty killer of the 66/67-70/71 time frame and that he probably belongs in the top 3 all time alongside Jiri Holik and Vladimir Martinec. I would also say that Suchy probably had the highest penalty killing peak of any Czechoslovakian player but whether one ranks him as the greatest Czechoslovakian penalty killer of all time depends on which opinion one has in the peak versus elite longevity debate considering that both Martinec and Holik were elite penalty killers on the international stage for at least a decade while Suchy´s reign only lasted about five years. Another argument in favour of Holik and Martinec is that both of them showed that they were effective penalty killers against both the best NHL players and the best Soviets while Suchy only got the chance to prove himself against the best Soviets. The counterargument to that would however be that Suchy in my opinion was even more outstanding when he was killing penaties against the top Soviets than Holik or Martinec were.

In the upcoming posts I will post the links to each of the shorthanded shifts from these games and provide a short breakdown focused on the performance of Suchy. I will start with the three tournaments in which Suchy played every second of shorthanded ice time that was available to him. First up we have the 1968 Olympics where we have footage from the CSSR-Canada game and the CSSR-USSR game.

Click to read more...

 

[Batis]

Here Suchy had a very strong shorthanded shift against a Canadian powerplay that struggled to get things set up in the offensive zone for most of the two-minute powerplay. Suchy definitely played a big role in preventing them from doing so with his ability to deny entry into the zone (at the 7.00 mark) and his poise with the puck (at the 8.15 mark). Then when the Canadian powerplay finally created some pressure Suchy also showed his noted shot blocking ability (at the 8.38 mark). It is also worth noting that Suchy was the only player on the Czechoslovakian team that played the full two minutes of this penalty kill as he started it with Horesovsky, Golonka and Sevcik and finished it with Pospisil, Cerny and Hejma.



Here Suchy and company went up against the Mayorov-Starshinov-Zimin line that showed off some flashes of the famous Spartak carousel and created plenty of movement in the offensive zone. For the most part the penalty killing unit consisting of Suchy, Horesovsky, Golonka and Sevcik played the box rather well though and it was not until very late in penalty that some truly dangerous scoring chances were created. Focusing on the performance of Suchy he blocked a couple of shots (at the 8.12 and 8.47 marks) cleared the puck out of the zone (at the 9.14 mark) and made a nice defensive play against Starshinov in the neutral zone (at the 9.21 mark).



Here Suchy is the player who got sent to the penalty box. The penalty killing unit consisting of Machac, Horesovsky, Golonka and Sevcik did a good job of defending the Starshinov-line early on but when the Firsov-line came on the Soviets quickly got things set up in the offensive zone and scored a goal 1 minute and 16 seconds into the penalty.

 

[Batis]

Here Suchy has his best shorthanded shift of this game playing against the Mayorov-Starshinov-Zimin line and then the Firsov-Polupanov-Vikulov line. Suchy first stripped Zimin of the puck and made a outlet pass (at the 24.58 mark) followed by a nice defensive play on the blueline to deny Starshinov entry into the zone (at the 25.17 mark) and when the Soviets entered the zone soon after that he blocked a shot and tied the puck up in the corner for a faceoff (at the 25.36 mark). On this penalty kill Suchy´s partner on defence was Machac the entire time while two forward pairings were used in Golonka-Sevcik and Jiri Holik-Jirik.



Now we move on to Suchy´s absolute peak and the 1969 World Championships. From that tournament we unfortunately only have footage from one of the games that Suchy played in (the first game between Czechoslovakia and the Soviets). This is also where Suchy and company starts going up against powerplay units with a great amount of offensive firepower. In this case it was Firsov, Kharlamov, Maltsev, Vikulov and Ragulin that played the majority of the Soviets first powerplay opportunity. Even if Czechoslovakia managed to kill off this penalty it was definitely not one of the better shorthanded shifts of Suchy who had a couple of sloppy passes (at the 24.13 and the 25.12 marks) and no real standout plays. Suchy and Pospisil played the full 2-minutes shift while the Holik brothers started the shift and Golonka and Sevcik finished it at the forward position.



This time Suchy went up against powerplay units consisting of first Firsov, Kharlamov, Petrov Mikhailov and Ragulin and later on in the shift Firsov, Starshinov, Zimin, Mishakov and Davydov. Here Suchy had very impressive shift with a blocked shot against Kharlamov (at the 1.10.02 mark) and a outstanding sequence where he first denied Starshinov entry into the zone, put pressure on Firsov and stole the puck from Davydov to create a shorthanded opportunity (at the 1.11.32 mark). Soon after that he also blocked a shot from Starshinov (at the 1.12.04 mark). This time Suchy and Sevcik were the players that played the full 2-minute shift with Horesovsky, Pospisil, Jiri Holik and Golonka being the other players that got some ice time.

 

[Batis]

Here the Soviets get another powerplay opportunity with just over 5 minutes left in the game and this time they manage to create more scoring chances than they did in the previous two opportunities. Especially early on with Firsov, Kharlamov, Maltsev, Vikulov and Paladiev on the ice. Suchy did not have as outstanding of a shift as in the previous one but he made one big play late in the penalty kill to deny Firsov entry into the zone (at the 1.48.42 mark). As usual Suchy played the full 2-minute shift and Horesovsky, Pospisil, Sevcik, Golonka (who only took the first faceoff) and the Holik brothers were the other players that got ice time during this penalty kill.



Shortly after coming on to the ice after serving the previous penalty Josef Cerny took another one and the Czechoslovakian penalty kill had to get back to work with just over 2 minutes left in the game and with a 2-0 lead to defend in one of the most politically charged hockey games of all time. At this point Jan Suchy had been on the ice for almost 4 minutes in a row fiercely defending that all important lead. That Suchy almost completely had emptied his tank is also possible to notice by how he remained on his knees for a long time after the referee had blown the whistle for the penalty. But Suchy toughed it out and stayed on the ice for the rest of the game and considering the circumstances I would say that he had one of the most impressive penalty killing performances of all time here. First he intercepted a pass and cleared the puck down the ice (at the 1.51.14 mark), then he put pressure on Starshinov to try to force a turnover (at the 1.51.39 mark) and as usual he went down to block a shot attempt (at the 1.52.49 mark). But his most impressive sequence was in my opinion when he picked up a loose puck in the air with his glove and then showed incredible poise with it under pressure to clear the zone under control and joined the rush towards the offensive zone where he stopped and tied the puck up against the boards (at the 1.54.35 mark). Suchy also stopped the last Soviet rush of their powerplay (at the 1.55.55 mark) and to close the show he blocked Firsov´s last long distance shot towards goal when the penalty had just expired and the game clock was running out. The play of Suchy during the last ca 6 minutes of this game is in my opinion one of the more heroic performances in hockey history and this last penalty kill really is the cherry on top of that brilliant performance. Pospisil and Sevcik also played the full 2-minute shift on this penalty kill and the other players who got some ice time were the Holik brothers and Golonka.



Now we move on to the 1970 World Championships and the second game between Czechoslovakia and Sweden in that tournament. The first powerplay unit of Sweden was Lundström, Wickberg, Stefan Karlsson, Svedberg and Arne Karlsson and then Sterner, Palmqvist, Johansson, Sjöberg and Abrahamsson. The most outstanding play from Suchy during this penalty kill was when he stopped one of Lill-Strimmas famous rushes (at the 7.54 mark) but he also had a nice play where he denied Johansson entry into the zone later on the kill (at the 9.20 mark). This time Suchy, Horesovsky and Jiri Holik played the entire boxplay and Jaroslav Holik and Sevcik also got some ice time.

 

[Batis]

Now we move on to the 1967 and 1971 World Championships where Suchy also was an integral part of the Czechoslovakian penalty kill but not quite to the same extent as he was during the 68-70 time frame. First we have the CSSR-USSR game from the 1967 World Championships. In the first boxplay of that game Suchy and Smid were the defencemen throughout the entire penalty kill until Smid took a penalty himself with only 3 seconds left of the first one. Pospisil and Machac were the defencemen on the second boxplay which ended when Firsov took a penalty 1 minute and 14 seconds after the penalty to Smid. The forwards that got ice time during these two boxplays were Golonka, Jirik, Pryl and the Holik brothers. While this Soviet team may not have had quite as much offensive firepower as they had during the 69-71 time frame they still rolled out quality lines like Alexandrov-Almetov-V. Yakushev, Mayorov-Starshinov-A.Yakushev, Firsov-Polupanov-Vikulov and for a while they even had Mayorov-Starshinov-Firsov out there at the same time so Suchy and company definitely had their hands full either way. Focusing specifically on Suchy he had a pretty good shift where I thought that he was positionally sound and he blocked a couple of shots from Starshinov and Firsov (at the 7.00 and 7.16 marks). The two times that Suchy had the puck he tried to make some of his moves but did not quite get away from the opponents and instead pinned the puck to the boards both times (at the 5.47 and 6.14 marks).



Here it was Suchy, Smid and the Holik brothers that were out on the ice for almost the entire penalty time. The first couple of seconds was actually powerplay time though since the Soviets had two players in the box and then in the end of the boxplay Pospisil, Machac, Jirik and Pryl came out for the last seconds of penalty killing. Here I would say that Suchy had one of his weaker shifts since he after almost causing a turnover (at the 32.43 mark) went back and tried another dangerous pass that did cause a turnover which led to a scoring chance for the Soviets (at the 33.31 mark). On the other hand it was his ability to usually succeed in making those kinds of plays that made him such a special player. On a more positive note Suchy also had one of his usual shot blocks (at the 33.45 mark).



In this boxplay the ice time was split up pretty evenly between the Suchy, Smid, Holik brothers unit and the Pospisil, Machac, Jirik, Pryl unit. The playmaking abilities of Mayorov was on display in this powerplay when the Soviets created a couple of scoring chances early on against the Suchy unit. The most notable play from Suchy was when he stole the puck from Starshinov and tried to kill some time off the clock before he was tied up (at the 1.33.20 mark).

 

[Batis]

Now we move on to the 1971 World Championships where we have footage from both of the games between Czechoslovakia and the Soviets. Here we have the first boxplay of this study where Suchy did not recieve any ice time despite being available to play. Instead it was Horesovsky, Bubla, Holik, Martinec, Pospisil, Machac, Cerny and Farda that killed off this penalty.



Here Firsov scores a goal after only 26 seconds of powerplay time. The Czechoslovakian boxplay unit consisted of Pospisil, Machac, Jiri Holik and Farda.



Suchy, Horesovsky, Jiri Holik, Nedomansky, Cerny and Farda were the players that got ice time during this boxplay but they had some real problems keeping up with the Soviet powerplay unit of Firsov, Kharlamov, Petrov, Mikhailov and Kuzkin which scored a goal after 59 seconds of constant pressure. This was the only powerplay goal that the opponents managed to score when Suchy was on the ice during his 24 minutes and 45 seconds of shorthanded ice time. The most outstanding play of Suchy from this boxplay was when he blocked a shot from Kuzkin (at the 1.25.48 mark).

 

[Batis]

Here is another boxplay where Suchy did not play. The players that managed to kill off this penalty were Horesovsky, Bubla, Jiri Holik, Martinec, Pospisil, Machac, Farda and Cerny. Early on in the powerplay the Soviets did score a goal that was disallowed.



After not getting much shorthanded ice time in the first game between the two teams Suchy was back to being heavily relied upon in the second game. Suchy had a impressive shift playing the full 2 minutes against the highpowered Soviet powerplay. His two most impressive plays was when he tapped the puck out of the defensive zone which sent Martinec away on a counterattack (at the 1.16.53 mark) and when he showed some of his skating and poise with the puck to get the it safely out of the zone (at the 1.18.35 mark). Horesovsky also played the entire boxplay alongside Suchy and the forwards that recieved ice time were Jiri Holik, Martinec, Farda and Cerny.



This is the last boxplay shift of this study and fittingly Suchy was the only player that played the full 2 minutes when Czechoslovakia was defending a late lead against their arch rivals. Suchy also had a very strong shift where he fought hard to successfully defend that lead with most notably some sacrificing plays (at the 1.44.06 and 1.45.25 marks) and also a blocked shot when the penalty had just ended (at the 1.46.23 mark). The other players that got ice time were Horesovsky, Bubla, Jiri Holik, Martinec, Farda and Cerny.

 

[NigerianNightmare]

Which current player would you compare Suchy to?

 

[ImporterExporter]

Which current player would you compare Suchy to?

In 28 Dec, 1968 Patrick Nagle of the Ottawa Journal compared him to Pierre Pilote.

 

[The Macho King]

In 28 Dec, 1968 Patrick Nagle of the Ottawa Journal compared him to Pierre Pilote.

Except he was good on the PK:p.

 

[Batis]

Which current player would you compare Suchy to?

When it comes to style of play I can´t really think of a very accurate comparison among current players. When it comes to career arc Erik Karlsson seems like a pretty good comparable as both of them had rather short but spectacular peaks where they could keep up with or even outscore elite forwards. When Suchy won his Czechoslovakian league scoring title in 68/69 he scored 12% more points than the second highest scorer Vaclav Nedomansky despite playing 2 games less than him and when Karlsson during the 15/16 season finished 4th in scoring and led the NHL in assist he obviously outscored a number of elite forwards.

 

[hacksaw7]

This is a really great post and analysis

Also I'm flabbergasted at the color quality of some of those old clips you showed. Were they restored or is this how they were recorded and viewed?

Swedens goalie in 1970 only wore a flimsy Jofa and no facial protection

 

[Batis]

With Suchy on the ice: 1 goal against in 24 minutes and 45 seconds of shorthanded ice time

One additional note regarding this. Based on these numbers from the available footage Suchy did on average kill penalties for 3 minutes and 32 seconds per game. But it is worth noting that the footage from the CSSR-USSR game in 1968 is incomplete as three Czechoslovakian boxplays from that game are missing. One of those boxplays was a complete 2-minute penalty kill while two of them ended after 58 seconds and 59 seconds respectively when the Soviets took penalties which ended their powerplays. If we assume that Suchy played every second of those 3 minutes and 57 seconds of shorthanded ice time (which seems like a fair assumption considering how much he played on the penalty kill during the 68-70 time frame) his average jumps up to 4 minutes and 6 seconds per game. It would also mean that he in these seven games only was on the ice for 1 goal against over the course of 28 minutes and 42 seconds of shorthanded ice time and that his usage rate would go up to 78.2% of all shorthanded ice time and 81.0% of all shorthanded ice time available to him.

 

[NigerianNightmare]

When it comes to style of play I can´t really think of a very accurate comparison among current players. When it comes to career arc Erik Karlsson seems like a pretty good comparable as both of them had rather short but spectacular peaks where they could keep up with or even outscore elite forwards. When Suchy won his Czechoslovakian league scoring title in 68/69 he scored 12% more points than the second highest scorer Vaclav Nedomansky despite playing 2 games less than him and when Karlsson during the 15/16 season finished 4th in scoring and led the NHL in assist he obviously outscored a number of elite forwards.

So basically Erik Karlsson with an outstanding penalty killing ability

 

[Batis]

Also I'm flabbergasted at the color quality of some of those old clips you showed. Were they restored or is this how they were recorded and viewed?

I think that the original source for the footage from the CSSR-USSR game in 1969 and the CSSR-Sweden game in 1970 is the SVT archives. I have no idea about whether the footage has been restored or if it is how it was recorded and viewed though.

Swedens goalie in 1970 only wore a flimsy Jofa and no facial protection

That would be legendary Swedish goaltender Leif "Honken" Holmqvist who as you can see in this post from DN28 used to have great success against the Czechoslovakian team.

Those oddly low numbers of Czechoslovak forwards against Sweden (even lower than against USSR) should not come as a surprise. 1965-1974 is the timeframe when Leif Holmqvist mostly guarded the Swedish net. I'm not sure how many people are aware of him around here but Holmqvist was absolute killer of the Czech teams particularly in late 1960s. A specialist shut-down goalie for the Czech teams who notoriously struggled to score on him even outside of major international tournaments.

 

[Staniowski]

Suchy was a good player....a very strong skater, particularly his agility and balance....his speed a little less so....excellent puck skills, extremely slick, and obviously a very confident player.

Loved going down to block shots.

But, the main part of his game was his offense....he loved using his excellent slapshot. And he loved going up ice, and joining the attack. And he stayed up there for relatively long periods (Paul Reinhart is the only other defenseman that I've seen go up ice as much and remain there for such long periods of time). So, it's no wonder he scored lots of points.

He was constantly looking for opportunities to go up ice.

Suchy was very small for a defenseman.

 

[Batis]

Suchy was a good player....a very strong skater, particularly his agility and balance....his speed a little less so....excellent puck skills, extremely slick, and obviously a very confident player.

Yes I would agree with that it was more his agility that made him such a strong skater rather than his speed.

But, the main part of his game was his offense....he loved using his excellent slapshot. And he loved going up ice, and joining the attack. And he stayed up there for relatively long periods (Paul Reinhart is the only other defenseman that I've seen go up ice as much and remain there for such long periods of time). So, it's no wonder he scored lots of points.

Yes there is no doubt about that the main strenghts of Suchy´s game could be seen when he had the puck on his stick. I would however say that Suchy also could be great defensively when the situation called for it. One example of that is his defensive performances when his team was shorthanded and another one is the way he seems to have stepped things up defensively when defending a lead in big games like against the Soviets in 1969 and 1971. In the 2-0 victory in 1969 Suchy did according to my ice time estimates play around 14 minutes and 40 seconds in the third period when the Czechoslovakian team was trying to hold on to their lead. Aside from his last boxplay shift my favourite moment from Suchy in that third period is this sequence when he first showed his poise with the puck and created a great chance offensively and then stopped a rush from Kharlamov with a perfectly timed hit.

 

[Theokritos]

Great work, as usual! Thanks a lot for this thread.

For the convenience of the viewers, Suchý is #17.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Love these historical posts of ‘lesser known’ players. Keep them coming everyone

 

[Batis]

This is a really great post and analysis

Great work, as usual! Thanks a lot for this thread.

Love these historical posts of ‘lesser known’ players. Keep them coming everyone

Thank you. Great to hear that it is appreciated.

For the convenience of the viewers, Suchý is #17.

Yes I should have mentioned that. Thanks.

 

[Theokritos]

The play of Suchy during the last 6 minutes of this game is in my opinion one of the more heroic performances in hockey history and this last penalty kill really is the cherry on top of that brilliant performance.

So let me get this straight:

• If I'm not mistaken, Suchý actually entered the ice before the penalty kill even started. There's an offside call at 1:43:20 of the footage, the break lasts until the faceoff at 1:43:59 and in between Horešovský (#3) gets on the ice with what appears to be Suchý. So his final shift of the game starts with the faceoff at 1:43:59.
• After 19 seconds, the first penalty against Černý is called (1:44:18 of the footage = 54:39 of the game according to the official score). Suchý stays on the ice for the entire 2 minutes.
• Černý returns to the ice at 1:48:51 of the footage = 56:39 of the game. Now both teams play at even strength for one minute and 10 seconds. And Suchý stays on the ice.
• The second penalty against Černý is called at 1:50:00 of the footage = 57:49 of the game. Suchý stays on the ice again.
• The penalty expires at 59:49 and Suchý stays on the ice for the final 11 seconds of the game.

For reference, the video again:



0:19 + 2:00 + 1:10 + 2:00 + 0:11 = 5:40

So that's a 5 minutes 40 seconds shift for Suchý to close out a game against the top opponent. 4 minutes out of those 5:40 were shorthanded. His team didn't concede a goal during that marathon shift, as they indeed didn't concede one all game. And the opponent was a Soviet team that was just three years away from upsetting Team Canada (NHL). Kharlamov, Petrov, Mikhailov, Maltsev, Vikulov, Yakushev and Zimin were all there as were prime Starshinov and Firsov.

 

[Batis]

So let me get this straight:

• If I'm not mistaken, Suchý actually entered the ice before the penalty kill even started. There's an offside call at 1:43:20 of the footage, the break lasts until the faceoff at 1:43:59 and in between Horešovský (#3) gets on the ice with what appears to be Suchý. So his final shift of the game starts with the faceoff at 1:43:59.
• After 19 seconds, the first penalty against Černý is called (1:44:18 of the footage = 54:39 of the game according to the official score). Suchý stays on the ice for the entire 2 minutes.
• Černý returns to the ice at 1:48:51 of the footage = 56:39 of the game. Now both teams play at even strength for one minute and 10 seconds. And Suchý stays on the ice.
• The second penalty against Černý is called at 1:50:00 of the footage = 57:49 of the game. Suchý stays on the ice again.
• The penalty expires at 59:49 and Suchý stays on the ice for the final 11 seconds of the game.

For reference, the video again:



0:19 + 2:00 + 1:10 + 2:00 + 0:11 = 5:40

So that's a 5 minutes 40 seconds shift for Suchý to close out a game against the top opponent. 4 minutes out of those 5:40 were shorthanded. His team didn't concede a goal during that marathon shift, as they indeed didn't concede one all game. And the opponent was a Soviet team that was just three years away from upsetting Team Canada (NHL). Kharlamov, Petrov, Mikhailov, Maltsev, Vikulov, Yakushev and Zimin were all there as were prime Starshinov and Firsov.

It is also worth noting that when Suchy entered the ice to start this marathon shift he had already played around 9 minutes in the third period so it is not as if he was well rested when he started this 5:40 shift either. In total Suchy played around 14 minutes and 40 seconds in this third period and aside from the excellent defense that he was playing he also assisted on the Cerny goal that extended the lead to 2-0.



This may be a hot take but I honestly think that I would rank the performance of Suchy in this game as the second most impressive performance that I have seen in a game against the Soviet national team. Number one on that list is in my opinion clearly Wayne Gretzky in game 2 of the 1987 Canada Cup finals. Now there are plenty of other great candidates for the runner-up spot on such a list but I feel like the brilliant two-way performance of Suchy in this game might earn him that spot on my list.

 

[ChiTownPhilly]

In 28 Dec, 1968 Patrick Nagle of the Ottawa Journal compared him to Pierre Pilote.

Except he was good on the PK

Pierre Pilote plus Furnace-Hot Peak minus Longevity.

 

[hacksaw7]

Interesting watching some of these old games, the ads on the boards makes them seem more modern relative to NHL highlights from the late 60's which can sometimes seem ancient to me

 

[Batis]

Interesting watching some of these old games, the ads on the boards makes them seem more modern relative to NHL highlights from the late 60's which can sometimes seem ancient to me

Agreed and like you mentioned earlier the quality of the footage from especially the 1969 and 1970 World Championships really is outstanding and probably helps with providing that more modern feel.