Viktor Zinger and '72 Summit Series

MaxV

Registered User
Nov 6, 2006
4,888
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New York, NY
Guys, this could just be a case of my memory playing tricks on me, but I seem to remember reading something on this forum that the original plan was actually to have Tretiak and Zinger split Summit Series games. Also, did Zinger have some sort of health issue after the games in Canada, as Sidelnikov took over as backup in Russia?

I know that Zinger was very highly thought of in USSR and I wonder what his legacy would be had he gotten a chance. He was kind of an overshadowed player as he had to compete against the top 2 Soviet goalies, Konovalenko and Tretiak.
 

Theokritos

Global Moderator
Apr 6, 2010
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I seem to recall Sidelnikov was already regarded higher than Zinger at that time and it was him the Soviets wanted to split games with Tretyak. But then he got injured in a preseason game.

Unfortunately I can't find my copy of Richard Bendell's books where I think I've read that.
 

Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
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How that could have changed the Summit series, we'll never know. Tretiak did very well in the Canadian games, but struggled in the Moscow games.
 

VMBM

And it didn't even bring me down
Sep 24, 2008
3,797
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Helsinki, Finland
That's interesting, considering that even at 20, Tretiak was already unquestionably the #1 goalie in the Soviet Union. From the 1972 Winter Olympics to his retirement, he always played in the key (and even semi-important) games; the lone exceptions basically being game 3 of the 1979 Challenge Cup and periods 2 and 3 in the Miracle game (both Myshkin), and there were some obvious reasons for those too (= Tretiak wasn't playing very well). The coach(es) were just extremely wary to put anyone else in the goal - even against teams like Finland - unless the game was 'in the bag', so to speak. I'm pretty sure that Myshkin, for example, could have handled a couple of more games per tournament.

Game 6 of the 1972 series would have been the most obvious game to at least test the backup goalie, since the USSR was leading the series with 3 wins to 1 (1 tie); and mind you, Tretiak was somewhat crap in the game, as he let in all 3 Team Canada goals inside 1.5 minutes in the second period and looked bad especially on the Henderson goal.
 
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