3) Aleksandr Kolodny and Dmitry Ryzhkov
The contribution by Kolodny and Ryzhkov is dedicated to the World Championship All-star team determined by a poll among the international journalists accredited at the WHC in Stockholm. Full voting result from another source:
1970
87 voters from 11 country
GOALIE:Viktor Konovalenko 43, Leif Holmqvist 23, Urpo Ylönen 21
DEFENSE:Jan Suchy 78, Lennart Svedberg 58, Tommy Abrahamsson 12, Dietmar Peters DDR 5, Lars-Erik Sjöberg 5, Arne Carlsson 4, Vitali Davydov 3, Vladimir Lutshenko 3, Juha Rantasila 3
FORWARD:Aleksander Maltsev 80, Anatoli Firsov 59, Vaclav Nedomansky 35, Vjatsjeslav Starsinov 12, Ulf Sterner 10, Vladimir Petrov 9, Valeri Harlamov 8, Lars Göran Nilsson 8, Tord Lundström 7, Håkan Wickberg 7, Anders Hedberg 5, Jaroslav Holik 3, Matti Murto 3, Vladimir Vikulov 3, Jiri Kochta 2, Krysztof Bialynicki 1, Jiri Holik 1, Boris Mihailov 1
Kolodny/Ryzhkov go through the All-star team one position after the other. They list the top 2 vote-getters and discuss the players. Here we go:
Goaltender: Viktor Konovalenko (USSR) 43 points, Leif Holmqvist (Sweden) 23 points.
Kolodny/Ryzhkov unsurprisingly agree that Konovalenko was the best goalkeeper in the tournament. They say he made only one mistake all tournament (in the second game against Sweden). For corroboration they cite a Czechoslovak peer of theirs, Vladimír Malec, as saying that Konovalenko played brilliantly after not being called up to the national team for a whole year and that he was steadier and calmer than the other goaltenders in the tournament. Apart from his good play, Kolodny/Ryzhkov also highlight Konovalenko's character and determination. After suffering a broken nose in the first game against Sweden (March 20), he returned to full training the next day and was back in goal against Finland the day after (March 22). The game was already heading for a runaway victory of the Soviets when Konovalenko took another blow to his mask and started bleeding from his nose again, and yet he didn't allow himself to be pulled and stayed on the ice for the full 60 minutes.
Kolodny/Ryzhkov say that Leif Holmqvist was "of course a great goaltender" too, but they quote a Swiss journalist (F. Lüzinger [?] from Zurich) wo said that Holmqvist was something of "an actor" who sometimes "played for the audience". Kolodny/Ryzhkov agree with this and illustrate it with an example of Holmqvist theatrically explaining something to the referee. They add that Holmqvist would at times show signs of getting nervous and unsettled at the end of difficult games by visibly looking at the clock and counting the minutes until the final whistle. In opposition to this, Konovalenko was always calm and focused, with nothing but the game on his mind. That's the way Kolodny/Ryzhkov portray it.
They also disagree with the IIHF Directorate picking Urpo Ylönen (Finland) as the "Best Goaltender" of the tournament. Their explanation for this choice: "It has long been known that a goalkeeper on a weaker team looks, so to say, better. He has to fend off a lot of shots and if his team loses no-one will dare to call the goalie the culprit." Ylönen was always guaranteed applause in matches against stronger teams. Conversely goaltenders like Konovalenko (USSR), Holmqvist (Sweden) and Dzurilla (Czechoslovakia) have no opportunity to add glory when playing against weaker teams of plenty of opportunity to stain their reputation.
Right defenceman: Jan Suchý (ČSSR) 78 points, Lars-Erik Sjöberg (Sweden) 5 points.
Now this is interesting. The Finnish yearbook which gave us the full All-star voting results quoted above just lists all defencemen and then all forwards together while Kolodny/Ryzhkov list them by specific position: Right defencemen, left defencemen, right winger, center, left winger. (The order, right to left, is characteristic for Russian sources. In Russian it's "Mikhailov-Petrov-Kharlamov", not the other way round.) So were the World Championship All-star teams actually selected by specific positions after all?
Jan Suchý was the landeslide winner in this one. But Kolodny/Ryzhkov got a question: "Who are you, Jan Suchý? A defenceman or a forward?" They recall his first appearance at the WHC in 1965: "He was steady and reliable enough [for a defenceman]. And perhaps we wouldn't even ask this question ('who are you, Jan Suchý?') if not for his shot. Even back then it was notable that his shot was more accurate than that of many other players. One shot – one goal. Two shots – two goals. And on it went." No question Suchý was "excellent" in the 1970 WHC "as a forward". Being double-shifted when Czechoslovakia was down to five defencemen, he still managed to join in the attack as usual. And as a defenceman? Kolodny/Ryzhkov quote a statement Suchý himself gave after the tournament: "When I go on the attack with my [club team] Dukla [Jihlava], the forwards are obliged to cover up for me. In Stockholm [=1970 WHC] there was no safety net. But I don't change my style of play because of that." Kolodny/Ryzhkov hold back on a final judgment, but they make it clear that Suchý was all offence at the 1970 WHC and didn't play (or wasn't asked to play?) a balanced game.
Left defenceman: Lennart Svedberg (Sweden) 58 points, Thommy Abrahamsson (Sweden) 12 points.
Kolodny/Ryzhkov characterize Svedberg as a "pronounced individualist" in love with the spotlight. Renowned for his offensive forays, he "acted like a forward" as soon as he entered the zone of the opponent. His offensive play in the first half of the WHC earned him the praise of the international journalists, but team coach Arne Strömberg thought it was not always to the benefit of the team, so he made Svedberg play more conservatively. Apparently with good results: Kolodny and Ryzhkov say that the pairing of Lennart Svedberg and Arne Carlsson "was probably the most reliable" one in the second round of the WHC. So unlike Suchý, Svedberg did not only demonstrate his offensive but also his defensive qualities at the 1970 WHC.
Right winger: Aleksandr Maltsev (Soviet Union) 80 points. (Valery Kharlamov is listed as second with 3 points. That's a mixup on part of the authors. They probably had Vikulov in mind.)
Maltsev made headlines as "hero" of the tournament and won all the individual honours he could possibly win. Kolodny/Ryzhkov portray him as a natural born athlete who also excelled in soccer and basketball. After giving his WHC debute in 1969 he had "matured as a hockey player" by 1970 and he had entered the rows of the hockey greats more easily than anybody since Veniamin Aleksandrov. Maltsev's qualities: "fantastic" speed, fine technique, an accurate and strong shot and the ability to "explode" and unexpectedly "jack up the pace". But now that Maltsev has gained recognition the biggest test is still ahead of him, Kolodny/Ryzhkov say: the "test of glory", of not getting carried away by the recognition. They cite Veniamin Aleksandrov again as a role model for Maltsev as he never stopped being self-disciplined and subjecting himself to the highest demands. Considering some of the later criticism Maltsev faced, he obviously would not always live up to the ideal the authors had in mind here.
Center: Václav Nedomanský (ČSSR) 35 points, Vyacheslav Starshinov (Soviet Union) 12 points.
Kolodny/Ryzhkov describe Nedomanský as an imposing figure with a powerful shot – someone impossible not to notice on the ice. A "typical goalscorer", he would rather use his big shot than "fancy moves" to cut through resistance. Even though he was a powerful guy, he used to shy away from the physical game in earlier years, but last year (1969) he showed that "the trips to Canada served him well". Expectations before the 1970 WHC were high, Kolodny/Ryzhkov say that some journalists predicted Nedomanský would become even more dangerous now that bodychecking was allowed in the offensive zone too and that he would become the star of the tournament. However, this did not come to pass, at least in the eyes of Kolodny/Ryzhkov. Their arguments: Nedomanský (10 goals) was the second best goalscorer in the tournament after Maltsev (15), but he preyed on weaker teams and his defensive performance was not up to the standards a center should be held to.
Left winger: Anatoly Firsov (Soviet Union) 59 points, Lars-Göran Nilsson (Sweden) 8 points.
Kolodny/Rzyhkov have disappointingly little to say about the actual game and performance of Firsov. They give a short recap of his career and his earlier achievements before deferring to Anatoly Tarasov's book "Совершеннолетие" where it says that Firsov possesses speed of thought, speed of hand and speed of foot. They add that Firsov was always the "center of events" on the ice and that he "always came up with something special". Afterwards they proceed to praise his character and his role model qualities: determined, tireless, cheerful and a selfless mentor for Polupanov and Vikulov since 1966. Not uninteresting, but not really offering us anything tangible about the 1970 WHC either.
Trivia:
-An eery read: "Suchý has always been possessed by the need for speed. He drives his car in such a way that his own father doesn't risk to be a passenger". That's what Kolodny/Ryzhkov write in December 1970. Nine months later Suchý had a terrible car crash and at least according to
this report it claimed the life of his passenger.