How much of the blame does Mike Liut get in your eyes for the 1981 Canada Cup?

How much of the blame does Mike Liut get in your eyes for the 1981 Canada Cup?

  • Liut is almost 100% to blame for that game

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Liut deserves more blame than anyone but there were other issues

    Votes: 3 23.1%
  • Liut deserves equal blame vs. the rest of the team

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • The team in front of him is to blame more than Liut

    Votes: 4 30.8%
  • Liut was left hung out to dry in that game

    Votes: 1 7.7%

  • Total voters
    13

Crosby2010

Registered User
Mar 4, 2023
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Just a simple question. We all know how things ended for Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup. That 8-1 thrashing at the hands of the Soviets at the Montreal Forum for the final winner take all championship game. Probably a little known fact, but the score was 0-0 at the end of the 1st. And then a manageable 3-1 at the end of the second period. In fact it was 1-1 still midway through the 2nd period. 5 goals were scored in the 3rd period against Liut. 3 goals were scored in the final 4 minutes of the game. I think the nail in the coffin was Krutov's short handed goal where Lafleur moved out of the way and just let him walk in (I assume not wanting to screen Liut). That made it 5-1. I think the entire team checked out after that and Liut was sort of left hanging. After that Larionov had a breakaway goal to make it 6-1. Shepelev had a natural hat trick in the game and to me that was the key to the entire game. It was 1-1 before he did this. The most important thing for me is to analyze those goals he scored because he broke the game open.

How much should Liut shoulder the blame for this game? He was 4-1-1 in the tournament. Canada beat the Soviets 7-3 at the end of the round robin with Don Edwards in net. Canada in general looked disheveled in this game defensively. The shots were 27-26 for Canada but I know that on the goals they just looked out of place. That power play goal Shepelev scored to make it 3-1 he is standing right in the slot and no one touches him. The goal to make it 4-1 the defense is all over the place.

I would say this, the early goals against Liut may have been stoppable but they were good goals. Liut was screened on some of them and there wasn't a weak goal they scored until perhaps the 5th goal. The 7th goal was just a weak backhander but the game is out of hand by then. Not sure if anything changes with Edwards in net as Liut was the Pearson winner that year. Or if Billy Smith had been healthy, maybe things change. But either way how much blame does he take? He was honestly never forgiven for that game I don't think.
 
Not a lot, the team scored 1 goal and largely rolled over and died in the third. Liut was far from great but it was a total team failure, mainly after the first. I guess you could argue that with another save the Canadian players would have pushed more in the third, but USSR was excellent and the goals were not going to come that game.

It's unfair to Liut, who was an excellent goaltender, that that game tarnishes his legacy while you get Fuhr letting in five a game and winning in 1987 for instance.
 
There were a lot of players who played poorly for Team Canada that night. Mike Liut was definitely one of them.

Canada's four best players in the game were all Islanders: Gillies, Trottier, Bossy and Potvin.
 
Just a simple question. We all know how things ended for Canada in the 1981 Canada Cup. That 8-1 thrashing at the hands of the Soviets at the Montreal Forum for the final winner take all championship game. Probably a little known fact, but the score was 0-0 at the end of the 1st. And then a manageable 3-1 at the end of the second period. In fact it was 1-1 still midway through the 2nd period. 5 goals were scored in the 3rd period against Liut. 3 goals were scored in the final 4 minutes of the game. I think the nail in the coffin was Krutov's short handed goal where Lafleur moved out of the way and just let him walk in (I assume not wanting to screen Liut). That made it 5-1. I think the entire team checked out after that and Liut was sort of left hanging. After that Larionov had a breakaway goal to make it 6-1. Shepelev had a natural hat trick in the game and to me that was the key to the entire game. It was 1-1 before he did this. The most important thing for me is to analyze those goals he scored because he broke the game open.

How much should Liut shoulder the blame for this game? He was 4-1-1 in the tournament. Canada beat the Soviets 7-3 at the end of the round robin with Don Edwards in net. Canada in general looked disheveled in this game defensively. The shots were 27-26 for Canada but I know that on the goals they just looked out of place. That power play goal Shepelev scored to make it 3-1 he is standing right in the slot and no one touches him. The goal to make it 4-1 the defense is all over the place.

I would say this, the early goals against Liut may have been stoppable but they were good goals. Liut was screened on some of them and there wasn't a weak goal they scored until perhaps the 5th goal. The 7th goal was just a weak backhander but the game is out of hand by then. Not sure if anything changes with Edwards in net as Liut was the Pearson winner that year. Or if Billy Smith had been healthy, maybe things change. But either way how much blame does he take? He was honestly never forgiven for that game I don't think.
On the Krutov goal, Gretzky, Lafleur, and Potvin all looked bad. Gretzky, on the PP, passed it right to Krutov. Lafleur was completely tricked with the fake slapshot, and Potvin easily could've been it position to stop him.

Krutov was pretty new on the scene, they probably didn't yet realize how dangerous he was, for one thing.
 
I think, in general, Canadian hockey wasn't yet equipped to handle the Soviets when they were firing on all cylinders. The Soviets played a real team game, and Canada struggled to play like a team, and to play good defense.

Remember, this is the second final game in a row that a Scotty Bowman-coached team was completely walloped by the Soviets, following Game 3 of the '79 Challenge Cup.
 
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I think, in general, Canadian hockey wasn't yet equipped to handle the Soviets when they were firing on all cylinders. The Soviets played a real team game, and Canada struggled to play like a team, and to play good defense.

Remember, this is the second final game in a row that a Scotty Bowman-coached team was completely walloped by the Soviets, following Game 3 of the '79 Challenge Cup.
Didn't Canada spank the Soviets, like, 7-3, a week prior to this game?
 
Bit of both.

No Team Canada calibre goalie should allow that many goals.

But it begs the question of what the team was doing.

Gretzky’s autobiography alludes to the tension in the dressing room between the Oilers personnel and the Islanders personnel.

Never really built a team.
 
Bit of both.

No Team Canada calibre goalie should allow that many goals.

But it begs the question of what the team was doing.

Gretzky’s autobiography alludes to the tension in the dressing room between the Oilers personnel and the Islanders personnel.

Never really built a team.
The Oilers/Islanders thing would be 1984, when there were 8 Oilers and 4 Islanders.

Gretzky was the only Oiler in '81.
 
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Was Dryden to blame for the 79 Challenge Cup final massacre?

The Soviets were a well oiled juggernaut in that era, the strongest they’ve ever been. A group of all stars with no chemistry was always going to be in tough.
 
Liut was absolutely hung out to dry as Canada was completely destroyed by the USSR.

But blaming the goalie was an easier 'out' than admitting how far behind the Soviets we looked in that game.
 
On the Krutov goal, Gretzky, Lafleur, and Potvin all looked bad. Gretzky, on the PP, passed it right to Krutov. Lafleur was completely tricked with the fake slapshot, and Potvin easily could've been it position to stop him.

Krutov was pretty new on the scene, they probably didn't yet realize how dangerous he was, for one thing.

I guess Potvin should have maybe been closer to Krutov, but for starters that wasn't his side and secondly I doubt he thought Lafleur would duck out of the way like that. That really put a laneway there for Krutov and Potvin didn't have time to catch up to him.

Was Dryden to blame for the 79 Challenge Cup final massacre?

The Soviets were a well oiled juggernaut in that era, the strongest they’ve ever been. A group of all stars with no chemistry was always going to be in tough.

Yes and no he was to blame. He played the first two games. Did well in Game 1. NHL All-Stars won 4-2. Then Game 2 he's back in there, they had a 4-2 lead near the end of the 2nd period. But then two goals late in the 2nd, an early one in the 3rd and it was 5-4. Bowman must have been nervous or felt that if he put Dryden back in for Game 3 and they lost that it would be "his" goalie in Montreal that he was favouring. Either way, Cheevers had backstopped the last two Cup finalists, maybe I pick Esposito myself but Cheevers did do well against the Soviets before. You just can't predict a 6-0 thrashing.
 

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