40th Anniversary of the Challenge Cup

[Yakushev72]

On February 8, 1979 the NHL All-Stars met the Soviet National Team for a best of 3 series in Madison Square Garden. The Soviets won the tournament, 2 games to 1, in what I would argue was the greatest and most dominant Soviet hockey performance of all time. The passion, emotion and exuberance with which the Soviets played seems in sharp contrast to the sheer burnout that seemed evident in the late 80's under Tikhonov's harsh regime.

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[Big Phil]

An excellent three game display. I think the NHL jumped the gun with this a bit and didn't think through what sort of preparation is needed for this sort of series. Doing it the way they do it with the Canada Cups is one thing with a training camp, but in the middle of the NHL season putting a team together of NHL rivals when they were playing each other two days before was probably short sighted. And why the heck did Tony Esposito, definitely the best goalie in the 1972 Series, not play in this at all?

 

[Yakushev72]

An excellent three game display. I think the NHL jumped the gun with this a bit and didn't think through what sort of preparation is needed for this sort of series. Doing it the way they do it with the Canada Cups is one thing with a training camp, but in the middle of the NHL season putting a team together of NHL rivals when they were playing each other two days before was probably short sighted. And why the heck did Tony Esposito, definitely the best goalie in the 1972 Series, not play in this at all?

There was no doubt some difficulty in throwing together a team of all-stars, but the problem was minimized somewhat by using intact lines from the two most dominant NHL teams of the era - the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders. From the standpoint of the Soviets, I believe that it was the best Soviet performance of all time. The passion, intensity and fight of the Soviet team was unparalleled before or after the Challenge Cup series.

 

[Big Phil]

There was no doubt some difficulty in throwing together a team of all-stars, but the problem was minimized somewhat by using intact lines from the two most dominant NHL teams of the era - the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders. From the standpoint of the Soviets, I believe that it was the best Soviet performance of all time. The passion, intensity and fight of the Soviet team was unparalleled before or after the Challenge Cup series.

It is likely their best team of all-time. Probably even trumps the 1981 team. That 1980 debacle in between is always that "what the........?" moment though.

 

[Yakushev72]

It is likely their best team of all-time. Probably even trumps the 1981 team. That 1980 debacle in between is always that "what the........?" moment though.

ESPN has a series of documentaries called "30 for 30." The one for the 1980 Lake Placid game is called "of Miracles and Men." It is a 2-hour documentary that tells the story from the perspective of the Soviet team (Fetisov, Tretiak, Mikhailov, etc.). It is really interesting if you get a chance to see it.

 

[Big Phil]

ESPN has a series of documentaries called "30 for 30." The one for the 1980 Lake Placid game is called "of Miracles and Men." It is a 2-hour documentary that tells the story from the perspective of the Soviet team (Fetisov, Tretiak, Mikhailov, etc.). It is really interesting if you get a chance to see it.

It would be interesting. What is their take on it? I think it is very surprising that this tournament is talked about so rarely from a Soviet standpoint. Obviously the big storyline is the Miracle on Ice, but I have rarely heard much from the Soviets. I know of a quote Fetisov said once, perhaps when his English wasn't very good, when they asked him why Tretiak was pulled and his response was something like: "Coach crazy!"

 

[Yakushev72]

It would be interesting. What is their take on it? I think it is very surprising that this tournament is talked about so rarely from a Soviet standpoint. Obviously the big storyline is the Miracle on Ice, but I have rarely heard much from the Soviets. I know of a quote Fetisov said once, perhaps when his English wasn't very good, when they asked him why Tretiak was pulled and his response was something like: "Coach crazy!"

The Soviet players were actually very funny about the whole thing. That is what made it fun to watch. They seemed to attribute the loss to 3 things: (1) overconfidence, given the fact that they played the USA at Madison Square Garden two weeks earlier and beat them 10-3; (2) their lodging was at a prison near Lake Placid, and they were less than impressed with their jailhouse accommodations; and (3) Tikhonov's decision to pull Tretiak out in favor of Myshkin at the end of the 1st period. Another factor was the quality of the USA team. They played together a year before the Olympics, including as a regular in the Central Hockey League in the USA, and they were better than people gave them credit for. Another factor mentioned by Soviet journalists was the atmosphere after the invasion of Afghanistan.

 

[VMBM]

There was no doubt some difficulty in throwing together a team of all-stars, but the problem was minimized somewhat by using intact lines from the two most dominant NHL teams of the era - the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders. From the standpoint of the Soviets, I believe that it was the best Soviet performance of all time. The passion, intensity and fight of the Soviet team was unparalleled before or after the Challenge Cup series.

The first game was a flat effort by the Soviets. Only the Golikov-Golikov-Makarov line played well throughout the game. Petrov's troika did score one PP goal and later nearly scored on 2-on-2, but that's about it. The impressive thing was that they were able to turn the tables and even dominate game 2 (shots on goal 31-16 for the USSR). They also lost Kharlamov in game 1 and Vladimir Golikov after game 2, and so had to juggle lines, and in that sense too game 3 was a terrific performance, and maybe the best game defensively that the Soviet national team played ever, as the NHL All-Stars had very little good scoring chances. However, I still think that the team and the performance that they had at the 1979 World Championship was even a little bit better. The Soviet team and performance in the 1981-82 season was comparable too. Very well-balanced teams.

In any case, I think the Challenge Cup games are still fun to watch; they have a good pace, and there's a lot of 'coast to coast' action. Maybe the unfortunate thing is that in none of the games are both teams at the top of their game, which maybe prevents them from being all-time classics, like the 1987 Canada Cup final games.