Guldskridskon (Best Swedish player at the WHC/Olympics)
Sterner 2 (67, 69)
Svedberg 0
Why has Svedberg never won this award?
Alexandrov, Hlinka, Sologubov, Ragulin, Malecek and Kapustin are the definitive top guys for me this time. Then Svedberg, Davydov, Lutchenko, and the bottom three are Shadrin, Lindmark and Dzurilla. What is Lindmark's case over e.g. Ulf Sterner? Was Dzurilla much better than even e.g. Konovalenko? How is Shadrin's international or domestic record more impressive than e.g. Vladimir Vikulov's?
Come on now. Their record are not really comparable (longevity, awards...).
Soviet goalies playing in 60s (Konovalenko and Zinger) were considered to be the main weakness of the Tarasov´s squad by Czechoslovak players.
I had Lindmark over both Dzurilla and Kralik on my initial list. Lindmark destroys Kralik in longevity, and I think he was perhaps more consistent than Dzurilla. Starting goalie for team Sweden for more than a decade, right? Won gold at the WHCs in 1987 and 1991, Sweden's first two wins since 1962, the 1987 win over a still excellent Soviet team.
My perception of Dzurilla is that he was always above average goalie with occasional greatness. Now the case for him lies in two things - the former thing he did for much longer than any of his peers in Europe, the latter thing he did in any age, resp. in different eras and different competion.
To the first point, Dzurilla, unlike Holecek, was recognized as great talent right from the start. He started his pro-career in Slovan already in 1959 when he played his 1st elite-league game (he was 17 y/o) - last elite domestic season of Zabrodsky for example.
His first international game was played against Sweden (with Tumba in the lineup) only year after his debut --> in 1960.
His first international tournament should have been WC 1962, but countries of the Eastern bloc refused to come over. So his first one was in 1963 when he was 21 years old.
Then his last international tournament was WC 1977 when he outplayed Holecek, replaced him and won gold medal (35 y/o).
He played in 19 domestic seasons and 571 games - by far the most at the time. And he actually won one domestic title with his team in Germany somewhere in 1980 or 81 .
To the second point, consider his best tournaments: WC 1965, WC 1969, OG 1972, CC 1976 and perhaps WC 1977. See how much they´re spread out?
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I´ll post a little more about him yet but 2 more facts:
1) Despite his long career and many championships, he was never outplayed by his backup when he started as number one goalie (though he had some weaker tournaments).
2) Correct me if I´m wrong, but when Dzurilla in his famous game against Soviets in 1969 (2:0 in first game for CSSR) posted a shutout, it was for the only time in 60s in major tournaments when Soviets didn´t score a goal! From 1954 to 1970 USSR scored at least one goal in every game of every championship, except for Canada x USSR in 1955, and CSSR x USSR in 1969.
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Question of longevity:
number of major international tournaments (WC, OG, CC):
Dzurilla - 12
Lindmark - 11
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