The Greatest Sporting Event in History

[Argoknot]

Had it happened perhaps this could have rivalled 72, we'll never know.

The miracle that never was. I will always remember this team as the one that should have delivered the Miracle on Ice that the USA did in 1980. I still remember the fluke length of the ice goal versus Finland that killed the dream. This was the team of kids that initially exposed the Soviets planting doubt in their mind before the Americans were able to complete the job.

Haunted by Ghosts of 1980
Steve Simmons - Toronto Sun Mar 3, 2005

There was no movie made, no anniversary to celebrate, no miracle for them.

Twenty-five years later, they can view reminders of what could have been on the nightly news, rent them from their corner video store, hear about the Miracle On Ice again on radio.

Just not their miracle.

Everyone loves to relive the wondrous upset story of Lake Placid, but the Canadian Olympic hockey team of 1980 left behind a different kind of upset all its own.

"We had the better team. They had the better ending," Lorne Davis, one of the three Canadian coaches, recalled yesterday from Regina.

"We played them eight times before the Olympics, beat them five times. I don't think anybody remembers that.

"Do you?"

People don't remember much of anything about the 1980 team, except they happened to play bystander to history. They don't remember that twisted circumstances -- a fluky flip-shot goal from 100 feet and a rare hockey win by Holland -- pushed Canada to a disastrous sixth-place finish.

"I tell people all the time, I was with the miracle that didn't happen," said Ron Davidson, the crown attorney from Peterborough, who centred a line with Glenn Anderson and Jim Nill at the Olympics.

"For the longest time, I had to distance myself from (Lake Placid). I couldn't even bear to think about it. My picture was on the front page of The Globe and Mail after scoring a goal against the Russians. My parents took steps to buy it but I didn't want that picture. I didn't want any reminders at all."

For a team that went nowhere at the Games, individually the players went somewhere after Lake Placid. In all, 4,070 National Hockey League games were played by the 12 Team Canada members who would play at least one night in the big leagues. There would be 14 Stanley Cup celebrations.

The accomplishments away from the rink were even more impressive.

Davidson became a lawyer; Randy Gregg became a doctor; Stelio Zupancich became a banker. Paul Mac-Lean was a 30- and 40-goal scorer before becoming a successful coach. Anderson, one day, may be able to call himself a Hall of Fame member.

"It was an amazing group," said Nill, now the assistant general manager with the Detroit Red Wings. "Everybody has been successful. We're talking good people here. You don't think about it when you're going through it but you can see it 25 years later. We've had success -- just not the kind anyone talks about."

More than anyone, Bob Dupuis has had to live with the ghost of 1980. He was the goalie -- fresh from senior hockey of all places -- who didn't look to the stands to make eye contact with his father. He was the scapegoat who allowed a flip shot against Finland to deflate Canada's hopes.

"Looking back, and I've looked back a lot, we should have spent more time getting a goaltender," Davis said. "You couldn't really blame Bobby. He played really well for us. He was probably just the wrong guy for the job."

That wasn't the only mistake Team Canada made. Over Christmas, two months before the Olympics, the decision was made to split the team in two. Half went to a pre-Olympic tournament in Lake Placid, the other half went to a tournament overseas. One month before the Games, Team Canada travelled to Japan to play. They never quite recovered from that trip.

"We peaked too early," Davidson said.

"In Japan, Bob (Dupuis) hurt his hand badly. I don't think he made the coaching staff aware of how bad he was hurt. He'd come this close, he didn't want to have it taken from him."

At Lake Placid, the long, slow goal hurt as did a 3-1 lead the Canadians couldn't hold over the famed Russians.



But strangely, other Canadians undid the last chance this team had for a medal, the Canadians who held Dutch passports.

"The way it worked out in the round-robin was, if Poland beats Holland, the way it should have, we go to the medal round. When Poland lost, we were absolutely shocked," Davidson said. "We would have played the Americans and Sweden in the medal around. We had done well against both. Who knows what would have happened if Poland wins that game?"

There are tentative plans for the 1980 Olympic team to get together this summer for a reunion, swap old stories, tell some lies. If only they can find the time and the place.

"There's lots to talk about," Nill said.

So much still unspoken.

---

TEAM CANADA, 1980

GOAL
Bob Dupuis (1), Paul Pageau (1)

DEFENCE
Randy Gregg (474), Tim Watters (741), Terry O'Malley, Warren Anderson, Don Spring (259), Brad Pirie, Joe Grant

FORWARDS
Glenn Anderson (1,129), Paul MacLean (719), Jim Nill (524), Dave Hindmarch (99), Kevin Maxwell (66), John Devaney, Dan D'Alvise, Ken Berry (55), Kevin Primeau, Ron Davidson, Stelio Zupancich

CO-COACHES
Tom Watt, Clare Drake, Lorne Davis

(Number of NHL games played are in brackets.)

[Argoknot]

Thank Canada for legendary game in 1980 Winter Olympics
STEPHEN WHYNO The Canadian Press Feb. 19, 2015

Tom Watt still has a video tape of the “Miracle On Ice,” with his own voice as part of the soundtrack. One of Canada’s coaches during the 1980 Winter Olympics, Watt worked the television broadcast of the legendary game between the United States and Soviet Union after his team didn’t reach the medal round.

Two days earlier, Canada fell just short of a miracle of its own. The Canadians blew a two-goal lead to the Soviet Red Army team late in the second period, and a 6-4 loss marked the end of their run in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Thirty-five years later, the rag-tag Americans are being celebrated for one of the most memorable upsets in sports history on their way to an improbable gold medal, while Canada finished a forgettable sixth.

“We had a better team than [the United States] had,” Watt said this week. “There’s no question in my mind. But, hey, the Olympic Games are all about being right on the right day.”

Back before NHL players took part in the Olympics, Canada’s talent-rich team featured 12 future NHL players, including Glenn Anderson (then 19), captain Randy Gregg, Kevin Primeau, Jim Nill and Paul MacLean. They had a winning record over the U.S. in exhibition play but never got to prove that superiority at the Olympics.

Instead, Watt still laments a 150-foot fluke goal by Finland that ultimately cost Canada a spot in the medal round – he remembers the puck sliding past goaltender Bob Dupuis and will “see it till the day I die.” Loss to the Finns aside, the Canadians had their own chance to beat the Soviets to move on.

Even though Friday marks 35 years to the day of that game, players remember it like it was yesterday. One player’s back spasmed, leading to Alexei Kasatonov’s two-on-one goal with 13 seconds left in the second period that cut Canada’s lead to one.

“Games are decided in the moment on very small things,” said Terry O’Malley, the oldest player on that team at 39.

The “Mighty Red Machine” scored twice more in the first 65 seconds of the third and then twice more after Canada tied it again. As Nill said, “it’s a game that could’ve gone either way.”

“I think that game kind of showed that you know what, boy, these guys, they can be beat,” said Nill, now the general manager of the Dallas Stars.

U.S. captain Mike Eruzione learned a lesson about the Soviets from Canada’s game.

“I thought the Canadians had them on the ropes and let them off,” Eruzione said Wednesday. “In my head, I’m thinking, ‘If we ever had them in that position, we wouldn’t let them off.’”

The U.S. did just that, taking the lead midway through the third period and finishing off the upset to the sound of broadcaster Al Michaels’ call of, “Do you believe in Miracles?”

Gregg is at peace about the defeat 35 years later.

“A loss is never a loss unless you learn something from it, and I think we learned a lot from that,” Gregg said, pointing to the many players who went on to have success in hockey and other fields.

Nill is similarly convinced that things worked out for the best. He surmises that he might not have a job in Dallas today had the “Miracle On Ice” not happened.

“In the end, probably the best thing for hockey was the U.S. team winning, to tell you the truth,” Nill said, referencing the Cold War and struggling American economy. “The NHL was big in Canada, it wasn’t big in the U.S., and I think when the Americans won, these college kids won, hockey, it gave the people in the U.S. something to grab onto.”

Where are they now

Glenn Anderson
Canada’s best player went on to a Hall of Fame career and won the Stanley Cup six times.

Jim Nill
Nill played 524 NHL games. Nill won four Cups as a Detroit executive and is now in his second season as general manager of the Dallas Stars.

Paul MacLean
MacLean played in parts of 11 NHL seasons. He served as an assistant to Mike Babcock in Anaheim and Detroit before coaching the Ottawa Senators. He was fired in December.

Randy Gregg
The captain turned down a deal with the New York Rangers to play at the Olympics. He later won five Cups.

John Devaney
Canada’s second-line centre turned down a minor-league contract with the Oilers to go back to the University of Alberta. He never made the NHL but found success as an accountant.

Tim Watters
The blueliner played 741 NHL games and spent one year as a Bruins assistant coach.

Tom Watt
One of the team’s three coaches, Watt has spent the decades since coaching and managing. He’s now a scout for the Leafs.

Terry O’Malley
O’Malley never made the NHL but is in the IIHF Hall of Fame.

[Will]

The Americans will always have 1980, and why not? The USSR was sending "amateur" players who for all intents and purposes were of NHL quality while the rest of the countries had to send true amateurs. Team Canada was never (to my knowledge) ever able to pull such an upset.

I take solace in the fact though that when Canada and USSR played in 'best-on-best' tournaments that it was typically Team Canada that prevailed.

[Argoknot]

The Americans will always have 1980, and why not? The USSR was sending "amateur" players who for all intents and purposes were of NHL quality while the rest of the countries had to send true amateurs. Team Canada was never (to my knowledge) ever able to pull such an upset.

Actually it happened a handful of times, Except for the first article they are very poorly documented, I'll post more later.

The 1987 Izvestia tournament: Canada’s little known Miracle On Ice
Eric Duhatschek The Globe and Mail Dec. 25 2012

Moscow, in the winter of 1987, was a dreary inhospitable place for the start of the annual Izvestia hockey tournament. The Soviet Union was wheezing towards its political end, and in the last days of the Communist era, there was little to recommend to visitors in December. Consumer goods were in short supply. Fresh food was limited and whenever it appeared – in markets, on unexpected street corners – long lines formed, so people could enjoy an orange or two for the Winter Solstice.

About the only ray of light was its hockey team, the menacing Big Red Machine, featuring the Green Unit – Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov, Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov – all at the peaks of their respective careers. Three months earlier, they had been involved in a much-revered meeting of hockey’s royalty, the 1987 Canada Cup, which produced three remarkable 6-5 classics against arguably the best Canadian team ever assembled, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux still in their primes, future Hall Of Famers such as Dale Hawerchuk cast in supporting roles.

Now, some three months later, after the NHLers had all returned to their day jobs, the Soviets were hosting their annual Christmas tourney, the last major event on the international hockey calendar before the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Internationally, Canada was (and is) usually cast as Goliath in hockey competitions, but in this seminal event, played mostly in the Luzhniki Arena, home of Paul Henderson’s memorable 1972 goal in the Summit Series, they played the part of David, a heavy underdog.

But that team, cobbled together from NHL castoffs, holdouts and draftees, went in and knocked off the Soviets at home, the first Canadian team to win there since the final game in 1972.

It was Canada’s own Miracle On Ice, and it has been cast into the back pages of hockey history by two factors: One, there was no video evidence of the victory, no Team Canada rewind that can be replayed constantly on television; and two, that three months later, the Russians exacted their revenge by winning gold in Calgary.

“That was the only downside,” said coach Dave King, who celebrated his 40th birthday on the day Canada unexpectedly clinched the gold medal. “By winning there, we kind of blew our cover.”

It was an upset of massive proportions and it had the Soviets second-guessing their own approach. How could they lose to what was clearly a secondary Canadian team, with King as coach, two young future NHLers, Sean Burke in goal and Zarley Zalapski on defence, and an engaging cast of characters up front: Ken Berry, Marc Habscheid, Gord Sherven, Claude Vilgrain, Serge Boisvert, Cliff Ronning, Bob Joyce, Wally Schreiber and others, most of whom would go on to have journeymen careers as professionals.

Sadly, the framing of hockey history is mostly based on seeing an event live or on television – and that didn’t happen.

“It was played in a vacuum,” said forward Gord Sherven. “There was no footage. There was nothing. There are maybe a thousand people in Canada who know the real story.

“I had played in the Izvestia tournament twice before – in 1983 and 1986. In 1983, we lost 8-1 to the Russians and the only goal we scored was on a fluke. In ‘86, we won the silver. We lost 5-1, but we were certainly more confident and we knew how to play them. By ‘87, the next year, Dave King had us believing we could beat anyone by playing a team system.

“From my experience, from where we’d come in ‘83, I mean, it really was a miracle.”

Russian players are commonplace in the NHL and Moscow is among the most cosmopolitan cities in the world now. But a quarter of a century ago, it was a completely different experience. Visiting hockey teams were deposited in the Sport Hotel, where cockroaches flourished, and you had a choice of two when it came to rooms: Either the temperature was unbearably hot (about 35C) or there was no heat at all. Food? Awful. That year, Schreiber’s food poisoning was so bad, he had to skip a couple of early games in the tournament.

“It was a different era altogether,” said King, who later went on to become the first Canadian ever to coach in Russia. “In those days, not only did you have to beat a pretty good hockey club, but you had to endure some difficult conditions – because this was old Soviet Russia and everything was very spartan.”

Burke played with Russians during his NHL career and coached a Russian goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov in Phoenix, but back then, the Russian players were shrouded in mystery.

“There was no interaction between you and the other team, either before or after the game,” said Burke. “We looked at them as this robotic group of guys that were almost like machines. There was no expression on their faces – and the whole country felt that way.

“You had to peel back a lot of layers before you could get anything out of the Russian people. It was just totally different from everything we were used to and it was definitely an intimidating feeling, playing against those teams.

“It wasn’t just another country, it was another world almost. There was a smell in the building. They served tea in between periods. Everything was just so different.”

Within the Soviet Union, the Izvestia tournament was viewed as vitally important. It was played in a round-robin format, meaning the team with the best record at the end would win gold.

Canada was there to prep for the Olympics and began modestly, splitting its first two games. Almost singlehandedly, Sean Burke won the opener against Sweden which was played in a secondary venue, the Olympic arena, which had hosted gymnastics during the 1980 Summer Olympics and had been partitioned in half for the game.

Midway through the game, in which Sweden would hold a 40-14 edge in shots, the event on the other side of the partition began – a Uriah Heep concert. Heavy-metal music filtered through the divide, the unlikely soundtrack to that victory. King chose Andy Moog in to play the next game, a tight loss to Czechoslovakia, which set the stage for their match against a Soviet team still smarting from the narrow Canada Cup loss.

Canada had one advantage that night. The Soviets were trying to sort out their goaltending in advance of the Olympics. Sergei Mylnikov played for them in the 1987 Canada Cup and wasn’t great, so Tikhonov wanted to look at a rising young talent, Evgeni Beloshieken. But Beloshieken had had a poor outing against the Czechs, so Tikhonov switched to Vitaly Samoylov against Canada.

Nothing seemed amiss in the early going, as the Russians jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Sergei Svetlov and Larionov before Schreiber got one back before the end of the second period.

Then, early in the third, with Burke keeping Canada in it, Berry drifted in a long shot from the blue line that stunned the players and the crowd, tying the game at two. Five minutes later, in one of the few times Canada was able to exit their own zone, Ronning found Berry open at the side of the net and he tucked it in for the go-ahead goal. There was 11:11 to go in regulation.

“What I remember most about playing the Russians is being very, very aware that if we didn’t play extremely well, we could be embarrassed because of how good they were,” said Burke. “There was a real fear when you stepped on the ice and it brought the team together.

“But in that game, you could just feel our confidence growing as the game moved along. I knew we were going to have to hang on to win, but at some point, early in the third period, I remember thinking, ‘you know what? We can win this game.”

According to Sherven, Berry’s tying goal from long range “changed the game. You could just sense the trust in their goaltending wasn’t there anymore.”

King remembered it that way too.

Rest of article

[Argoknot]

I firmly believe things would have turned out differently in 1972 if Hull, Tremblay, Cheevers and possibly Sanderson and Parent had been allowed to play. I just found out (remembered) Parent had been invited. After watching this interview I believe they could have played. I don't think Eagleson has any reason to lie about anything not related to his convicted behaviour and I believe what he says here because it passes the common sense test and I believe I read the same from another source.

[Argoknot]

Second part of article

“The Russians, they dialed it up late in that game,” said King. “There was no sweat in the first half. I think they were thinking, ‘we’ll get this done here, we’ll wear them down, it’s just a matter of time.’ But we hung in there. Burkie made a save every so often that should have been a goal to keep us in it and then all of a sudden, to watch the Russians in the last period, about five, six, seven minutes into the period, see them start to panic. To see Tikhonov, on the bench, start to get angry. To watch all the players push individually, but maybe not as collectively as they normally are.

“Because there was always this thing – that their guys were like machines. So for me, it was the realization: ‘Hey, these guys are pretty normal. They’re just like we are when they start to lose.’ There are a few antics on the bench. There are a few problems on the ice. Everybody’s shrugging their shoulders and complaining to each other as they’re coming off. Watching them come unglued a like that – the human way to lose – was kinda neat.”

Vilgrain said that he was never more exhausted before or after a game than he was that day.

“The year before, when we played them, I wanted to ask the ref for a second puck because they wouldn’t let us touch the one they were playing with,” said Vilgrain. “But Sean Burke was unbelievable and we were blocking shots like crazy because we knew we were so close. When we won, we were so tired, even in the dressing room afterward, we just sat there. It was so quiet, so surreal. We knew we’d accomplished something unbelievable.

“The Izvestia was very important to the Russians and a lot of the fans went home mad. They whistled their team off the ice. They were so sure they were going to go on to win that they didn’t have the Canadian national anthem ready to play. So they played the Russian anthem instead.”

But even after that monumental victory, the tournament wasn’t over. Because of its round-robin format, Canada needed wins over Germany and Finland to win it all. King was only too aware that there could be a letdown after such an emotional win.

“The Russians had no respect for us and the Germans had total respect,” said King. “They just backed up and backed up. It was a tough game to play.”

Canada did just squeak past the Germans 2-1, leaving them in control of their own destiny.

On the night before the Finnish game, with their departure from Russia in sight, Sherven wanted to do what Canadian players of that era often did – exchange blue jeans and athletic gear on the black market for Russian souvenirs such as stacking dolls, champagne and caviar. He and defenceman Randy Gregg had been approached by a couple of Russians, who wanted to meet them outside, at night, in the parking lot behind the Sport Hotel. Sherven wanted to be prepared in case they had something to celebrate after the game against the Finns, so he planned to smuggle in some champagne in his hockey bag.

“It’s minus 30 outside,” said Sherven. “There’s frost on the windows of this little Lada, so you can’t see out the front. We got in, Randy Gregg in front, me in the back between two Russian guys. All of them were smoking, so the driver had the window rolled down. All of sudden, they started chattering because they could see shadows coming. It was the police, the KGB or something, so the driver throws it into gear and takes off, spinning in the parking lot on the ice. Randy and I were like, ‘holy s***.’ “This guy, the policeman grabbed onto the window that was open and we’re dragging him around the parking lot until he finally let go. They drive about two, three miles and park behind some apartment building and I’m thinking, ‘this is the end of us.’ Randy, his red hair was standing up on the back of his neck. But no, we made the exchange and they brought us back and it all was good.”

Sherven scored the first goal against the Finns and Vilgrain the insurance goal in what ended as a routine 4-1 win. In the dressing room afterward, Sherven popped open his bottle of champagne and managed to spray most of it up his nose. It’s what comes from not being used to celebratory moments.

King tried hard to downplay the win, by noting that they were the Canadian Olympic team, not the Canadian Izvestia team, and in some ways, he was probably right. By the time the Russians came over to Calgary to start the ‘88 Olympics, they’d lost yet another game to the Canadians – in Saskatoon, in the final pre-Olympic exhibition. Any element of surprise that the Canadians might have had evaporated there, in the mists of Luzhniki.

“Still, it was a special moment,” said Sherven. “We flew back to Canada right after the Finnish game. It was Christmas and right after, we were back on the road for an eight-game tour across Canada, so we never really had a chance to celebrate it. I remember landing in Toronto, and there was Alan Eagleson, wanting to be right in the middle of it all. That’s what ended up on the front page the next day – Eagleson, with the Izvestia trophy, which wasn’t even a trophy really, it was a clock or something.”

Burke, meanwhile, won the tournament MVP, which garnered him a fragile porcelain snowman – about three feet in length – that his sister stores for him in Toronto. On the flight home, Burke had an aisle seat – and the snowman was buckled in the middle, a seatbelt fastened around its waist.

“I moved around a few times and I didn’t want to have it get lost or broken, so it’s at her house and she keeps saying, someday when she comes out, she’ll give it to me,” said Burke. “The individual honors are great, you don’t forget them, but the feeling of any championship, in the end, it’s the guys you played with that you remember.

“And Dave King – he was like a second father to me and I’m still working with him after all these years. He was, to me, the biggest reason we were able to compete against those teams. We weren’t as talented, but we always had a chance with Dave because we were prepared.”

King still follows Russian hockey closely and during the 2005-06 season, when he was coaching Metallurg Magnitogorsk, caught up with Tikhonov during a trip to Moscow.

“That was an interesting time for the Russians,” said King. “A lot of the players had played so long for Tikhonov that his approaching was starting to wear thin. But when I talked to Tikhonov in Russia when I coached there, he told me his ‘88 team was his best team. He thought more players were in their prime than at any other time. So in his mind, when you have the most players in their prime, that’s your best team – and that makes sense.

“For us, it was a significant win. It just showed the Canadian mentality – a team that was overshadowed and outplayed territorially that did everything in its power to win.”

[rdavies]

Updating some dead links from this thread

[rdavies]

The original post before we all got off track (me especially) was "Member's of the winning team in the greatest sporting event in history - nothing remotely compares for significance, gravitas, sustained intensity, and drama - are conducting a cultural-historical tour."

Now while it is a rather lofty reach that Canada Russia 72 was "the greatest sporting event in history" that morphed into was it the greatest sporting event in Canadian history. I offered my evidence to support a very easy YES!

[bannedforlife]

Another one for the collection

CBC Gem Sports on Fire
Episode 1 A Cold War

Available on Vimeo as well
Sports on Fire Episode 1 A Cold War

[bannedforlife]

Now on CBC GEM celebrating the 50th anniversary
Summit 72 Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4

[bannedforlife]

Ice-Breaker The 1972 Summit Series

[bannedforlife]

According to Gary J Smith (who worked at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow in 72) and was the author of the book Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series, there have been 40-50 books written on the 72 Summit Series. He also calls it "The greatest moment in Canadian sports history"

The series was also ranked number 5 in an online poll by the Dominion Institute of events Canadians felt were the most significant in Canadian history.
1. Confederation
2. Completing the CPR
3. War of 1812
4. Vimy Ridge
5. 1972 Hockey Series
6. Canada & W.W.II
7. Constitution's Patriation
8. Plains of Abraham
9. Maple Leaf Flag
10. Persons Case