Jan Suchý and other European defensemen from mid-60s to early 70s
I finally forced myself into writing a longer profile mainly about Jan Suchý’s prime. Suchý is probably the last well-known CSSR player of whom I felt the need to post my archive findings. This post also includes some secondary information about the state of Czech and other Euro d-men in the roughly 1965-1971 period. It doesn’t include anything about Suchý’s post-car accident career, since I’ve already covered that topic elsewhere.
1964-1965
Suchý’s first international season. I find nothing particular about him. František Tikal (WHC ‘65 All-Star and 1965 Directoriate’s Best Defenseman) was still considered by far the best Czechoslovak defenseman at this point. Suchý didn’t get a vote in tournament’s all-star voting. Coach Vladimír Kostka even wrote in winter 64-65 after the CSSR trip to Canada that Tikal could easily play in the NHL. It’s truly a shame that Tikal’s legacy
have been tarnished by no one other than his 1965’ D partner in the CSSR lineup – Jan Suchý. Anyway, moving on…
1965-1966
I would cautiously refer of Suchý as the best Czechoslovak defenseman at this point. Not only that his league scoring jumped but he showed a great WHC performance. In the league, Suchý’s 32 points was good enough for the 13th place in the overall scoring (and of course the most among d-men). Dukla Jihlava (= Suchý’s team) improved in the standings and lost the title to ZKL Brno only through worse goal-differential.
But also
Kopaná-Hokej magazine declared Jan Suchý, Stanislav Prýl and Jiří Holík as the three best CSSR players at the 1966 WHC, while
Stadion magazine considered Jiří Holík as the best Czechoslovakian at the Ljublana 1966’ Championship… Suchý was the only CSSR d-man who did not register a single goal or assist so whatever the source of praise for his perfomance was, it surely hadn’t come from his offensive rushes.
1966-1967
Suchý probably became the best Czechoslovak player during this season. Dukla Jihlava won their first title and launched a dynasty lasting until 1974. Suchý was again the highest scoring d-men (he’d be one always from 1966 to 1970) while Dukla allowed the least amount of goals by a good margin.
I have two sources which together paints the picture. First,
František Žák, former league player who observed the WHC ’67 in person, named Jozef Golonka and Jan Suchý as the only couple of players who did not disappoint.
Second, I have found
Arkady Chernyshev’s list of best players at the Vienna 1967’ Championship in the
Kopaná-Hokej interview. The list is following:
View attachment 375513
KH: “Which WHC players were the best to you?”
AC: “In goal – Martin. This Canadian is without a doubt the best goaltender over the last years. I would nominate our Konovalenko as the second goalie, and as a third – the American Wetzel.
Davydov was the best amongst defensemen. He played greatly in all the games and was almost flawless. That is very important in such esteemed tournament. Ragulin deserves a high praise too. From other teams’ defensemen, I would pick the Canadian Brewer and the CSSR player Suchý.
Firsov showed an outstanding game in the offense. He was certainly the best. I would name Starshinov as the second best. What a fantastic warrior who can play on the ice exactly what interests of the collective dictate. I would put the Swede Nils Nilsson on the third place, and on the fourth – Jaroslav Holík from the CSSR.”
So that’s two individuals that separately exalt Jan Suchý after otherwise horrible team performance by the Czechoslovaks (4th place at the WHC).
Furthermore, we do have already here a smaller, less-known award for the best Czechoslovak hockey players called
Anketa internacionálů (can be loosely translated as
The Poll of the Former National Team Players). I haven’t still found enough time to look more into this, but from what I remember, I believe the award results came from approximately 10 voters and the award was granted according to yearly – not seasonal (!) – performance. Jan Suchý is listed to win this award in 1967, which presumably means that circa 10 former players thought of him to be the CSSR player for the 2nd half of 66-67 and for the 1st half of 67-68 season.
…All this is to say that from the evidence at hand, I think we can cautiously give Jan Suchý a retro Golden Stick for the 1967 season.
A sidenote: under the information available, Suchý was likely contacted by an NHL team (Detroit Red Wings) for the first time during the summer of 1967.
1967-1968
Here’s where the real ride begins. Not only that Suchý is now playing his own league but he enters a discussion for the best player in Europe. His peak play happened in 1968-1971 and at the OG ’68, Suchý won the d-men all-star voting.
Czechoslovakia won silver but managed to upset the USSR 5:4 in quite an exciting spectacle. The game was definitely won in large part through clever coaching of Pitner&Kostka but as far as the individual players’ contributions go, Jan Suchý with his two-way game was arguably the best player on ice (hinted by the head of the CSSR hockey association Zdeněk Andršt in post-game interview).
From now on, we can see a consistent pattern with Suchý’s career – the ability to always play his best in deciding games. Thriving in the clutch Suchý also demonstrated in the League 1-2 months later. Although the 1960’s CSSR League did not offer any playoffs, a luck would have it that the previous champions (Dukla Jihlava and ZKL Brno) faced each other in the last round as the final game of the season. Jihlava was ahead 2 points but Brno would win the league with any win… The game ended with a 3:3 tie. How did the press evaluate the game?
“Big battles give birth to heroes. The Jihlavian Suchý becomes one in deciding league match between ZKL and Dukla. He stopped countless actions, blocked 17 shots with his own body, by himself several times endangered and once scored on Nadrchal. Jan Suchý is clearly the best hockey player of the season.”
To prove that Suchý wasn’t just a skater who got hot in high-pressure games but disappeared in low-key games, I will show you this list:
View attachment 375514
The list shows the final account of the best Czechoslovak players based on league games only. Reporters of
Kopaná-Hokej magazine named the top goalie, d-man and forward after every game from the 67-68 season. Number behind the name reveals how many times a player was considered to be the best at his position in a particular game. 1968’ results transcripted from the picture above:
“WRITERS EVALUATED:
Lacký – Suchý – Nedomanský
In the contest of journalists for the best players of the game, here is the final ranking:
Goaltenders: Lacký (23 ‘firsts’), Termer (19), Holeček (17), Kočí (16), Nadrchal (13), Dzurilla (12), Hovora, Wohl, Mikoláš and Valášek (11) etc.
Defensemen: Suchý (31), Pospíšil (25), Gregor (11), Ondřasina, Machač, Šíma and M. Beránek (10), Tajcnár (8), Masopust and Berek (7), etc.
Forwards: Nedomanský (13), Havel (11), Bavor and Černý (10), Ševčík, Jar. Holík and Hrbatý (8), Golonka (7), Jiří Holík and Hlinka (6) etc.”
What is absurd is that Suchý was declared the top d-man 31 times while playing 36 league games. It was 86% guaranteed that Suchý was going to be the best defender whenever a hockey game started and his lead over the rest is massive. I would also point out impressive result by Pospíšil suggesting he may have been a clear 2nd best Czech D already at this point in time, despite his otherwise a bit disappointing Olympics.
Jan Suchý would have been a landslide winner of a Golden Stick trophy for the best Czechoslovak hockey player if the voting was conducted already in spring of 1968.
A sidenote: I was surprised to find out that 34 y/o František Tikal, playing basically his last season, was still viewed as a sure thing for the National team lineup! Only thing which prevented his nomination was an injury/illness.
1968-1969
Now this was one of the best seasons from any European player ever. Defenseman Suchý famously ran through the finish line as the League’s leading scorer – 1 year before Bobby Orr achieved such feat in NHL. Suchý scored 56 points (30+26) in 34 games according to official game records. He created unofficial record of all-time high number of points scored in a single league game – Dukla won 14:3 over České Budějovice on 8. 2. 1969, and Suchý contributed with 9 points (5+4).
Statistically, the 1969’ edition of Dukla Jihlava is likely the most dominant Czech or Slovak team in history. 29 wins, 6 losses, 1 tie, 59 points out of 36 games and a goal-differential of 206:83 – no other team has fared better before or since. Four Dukla players occupied the top-10 scoring rank, three Dukla players appeared on the top-5 scoring list. Just to give you an idea of Suchý’s fame, here are the two headlines from the
Československý sport from this time:
“Half of the Champion is Suchý”
“Forwards, learn from Suchý!”
Now to turn the focus on international stage, what else have I found? For the 69’ season specifically, you can find some praise about Suchý’s physical game. Coach Vladimír Kostka highlighted rising quality of CSSR defense’s physical game in winter 68-69 after several clashes with Canadian squads. Czech d-men were at this point considered better than Canadian ones because, while perhaps less stronger, they avoid penalties. In fairness, Kostka noted the physicality of all Czech d-men, not of Suchy concretely, but a sentence later he wrote that Suchý had been statistically the best d-man of that series…
Anyway, Suchý won WHC ‘69 all-star voting with 144 votes out of 150 ballots. He also received ‘69 Directoriate’s Best Defenseman award. CSSR finished the championship only third after worse goal-differential than Sweden and Soviet Union (all three teams had equal amount of points). Czechoslovaks might have come ahead if it wasn’t for Suchý’s injury causing him to miss the last game vs. Sweden. Still, Suchý was probably again the best player on ice in crucial 1st game against the Soviets which was won 2:0 (Suchý scored the first goal, assisted to second goal).
By the end of the season, Suchý won the inaugural Golden Stick award for the best CSSR player. It’s fortunate that for this season we also have a
one-off poll for the best player in Europe where Suchý obtained by far the most votes too.
1969-1970
A season where you start to notice some criticism of Suchý. It appears that he sometimes enjoyed attacking and carrying the puck up ice way too much. In any case, reading the late 60s/early 70s contemporary press almost makes you think that there were only two major topics: rule change allowing forchecking in all 3 zones and… everything about Suchý.
There is no sense in spending too much time on the League here, since there was nothing overly new under the sun. Dukla with Suchý as the leading player landed another victory. I’d only point out that this season saw the emergence of František Pospíšil as the Europe’s next “modern” defenseman. Pospíšil did not play as a false wing like Suchý or Lennart Svedberg from the Swedish NT, but he managed to put up similar scoring numbers like Suchý domestically (not internationally though). While Suchý blazed with speed and possessed enormous creativity in all three zones, Pospíšil was a genius passer who excelled in transition and especially in counter-attacking type of play. Suchý’s portion of points came more from goals while Pospíšil’s came largely from assists. Both were obviously great in defensive zone but their style differed. I think Suchý relied more on his speed and when he lost it, he just couldn’t find his former glory. Pospíšil distinguished himself through elite positioning. Coupled with elite conditioning and later a good strength made him to last longer than Suchý and add some impressive 30+ y/o seasons in the 2nd half of the 70s. I have also found out both had a rather weak shot. Suchý especially couldn’t do anything with his slapshot from longer distance, but it caught me as a surprise that Pospíšil’s slapshot was below-average as well. It couldn’t have been matched with shots of CSSR d-men such as Horešovský or Machač – unsurprisingly precisely these two were Suchý’ and Pospíšil’s D partners in the National team. Suchý was RD and Pospíšil LD, which then begged the question why not to create a superelite first D pair? The cooperation was tried but miserably failed – both equally liked to control the flow of the game and to have the puck on their stick a lot.
Jiří Hertl (one of the leading coaches in Czechoslovakia, Hertl’s specialties were goaltending seminars, Junior National team and oversight of league statistics) in his early 1970' review of candidates for the Golden Stick award in the
Gól magazine:
“I have four big candidates – Nedomanský, Dzurilla, Černý and Suchý. (…) Jenda Suchý is slowly starting to annoy some spectators, which have been irritated by [Suchý’s]
risky game in the offensive zone. But I value him highly. Perhaps I have good nerves or I trust more that it is all well thought-out teamwork with wingers. He has scored 19 goals already and just as much assists and to naysayers, who blame him for some goal allowed through a risky play, I’d like to remind that he’s recorded 37 appearances on ice when goal was allowed, while 62 appearances on ice when goal was scored, and this should only testify in his favor.”
Vladimír Kostka (National team coach) in his early 1970' review of candidates for the Golden Stick award in the
Gól magazine:
“František Pospíšil is our best defending defenseman. He reaches a world class level in defensive positioning. Plays hard, balanced and calmly. Does not lose his playing composure even in the toughest situations.”
“Jan Suchý has an individualistic conception of an offensive defenseman. Offensive activity has propped him up on the first place in our scoring charts. He has enormous playing imagination and a sense for immediate resolving of situations even outside of defensive zone.”
Now I’d like to move on to the WHC 1970. Suchý won All-Star D voting again convincingly by 78 votes from 87 ballots. Though he was not granted Directoriate’s best D award – much to a surprise of not only the recipient (Svedberg) but also to a surprise of Suchý himself.
From daily coverage of
Československý sport you get a feeling as if Suchý was the main star of the tournament. Jan Suchý became a frequent conversational topic in post-game interviews or press conferences.
Roland Stolz (former Swedish player and a star defenseman of the early 1960s hockey) in an interview with Pavel Novotný during the Stockholm 1970’ Championship published by
Československý sport:
PN: “Which defenseman do you consider the best here in Stockholm?”
RS: “There is a very simple answer to this question. Yours Suchý. I don’t consider him just a best defenseman, but also the tournament’s best player overall. Svedberg too is a good defenseman but he can’t perform at peak level in every game. Suchý can.”
Anatoli Tarasov when asked by a
Československý sport’s writer about the earlier CSSR-Sweden game:
“…I cannot allow myself not to say a word on Jan Suchý. This player to me is realization of the ideal hockey player. How he can react to situations, how he changes the spot as needed, how smartly he can attack.. That’s just amazing.”
Now to cool off the temperature a bit, here’s what
Mike Daski (Detroit Red Wings chiefscout for Europe) said in an interview with Pavel Novotný during the Championship published by
Československý sport:
PN: “Which players have impressed you the most this year in Stockholm? Would any one of them have a chance to play in the NHL?”
MD: “Last year, we invited to our camp Svedberg from the Swedish squad, and the Finn Ketola. I have my sight on other players from Sweden, Lundström and young Hedberg, which we would like to try out. Svedberg proved himself in our camp, I hope that he will accept our invitation this year too, furthermore that he will later catch on the opportunity to play in the NHL. I´d be also interested in some of the players of the CSSR team, though they have already been on negotiation lists of different professional clubs (Nedomanský New York Rangers, Jiří and Jaroslav Holík in Boston Bruins, Horešovský in Saint Louis Blues), that´s why they are inaccesible for us."
PN: “Ours Jan Suchý has been generally evaluated as the one of the Championship’s best players in Stockholm. What is your opinion on his game?”
MD: “He’s truly excellent player for European hockey even though he’s not in as good form as he was last year. Nonetheless, he is too much offensively focused for a professional hockey style and he leaves free spaces in his defense.”
What did
Suchý himself have to say about his style of play at the championship? An interview with Pavel Novotný published by
Československý sport:
PN (introduction): “Defenseman of our National team, Jan Suchý, is in the centre of attention in Stockholm. Coaches of foreign teams speak about him, he’s generated a large publicity in Swedish newspapers. His extraordinary hockey skills are being appreciated, he is called the best defenseman in the world, on the other side, negative remarks about his game and manners are emerging as well.
(…)
There is also a lot of talks whether your constant effort for attacking does not weaken the team in defense which is your position.”
JS: “It’s my playing style and I hardly unlearn it now. I’m not alone who goes forward a lot. Even Franta Pospíšil engages in offense very often. Teammates at home in Dukla count with my rushes and can always solidify defense in time. It hasn’t always worked out here. It’s just a matter of cooperation, quick assessment of the situation. If I go to counter-attack, forward somewhere behind me should secure defense because I at that moment actually overtook his role. Only Holíks do that automatically because they’re used to it. Others can’t react quickly enough.”
At the end of the ’70 season, Suchý received his 2nd Golden Stick for the best CSSR player. It’s an incredible shame that that 1969 poll of
Československý sport wasn’t conducted again. Writers back in 69 had actually stated that they intend to run such voting annually. Would Suchý be able to win it again? Tough to say, since his play and play of his National team declined compared to 1969, but Firsov battled through injuries and missed games, and Maltsev was a young phenom but too one-dimensional vis-à-vis Firsov and Suchý. Hard to say…
Otherwise, it's also possible that comparisons of Suchý-Orr started right after this season. Very first analogy of the “European Bobby Orr” was found in the
Gól magazine, summer of 1970. Writer Pavel Rýpar reported on the 1970’ NHL season and
Jaroslav Jiřík (1st Czech playing in NHL), who had played 3 games for St. Louis in 69/70, added some comments in the article. It was no one other than Jiřík who said:
“He [Orr]
reminds me of Honza Suchý. Orr keeps getting in front and when he’s on the ice, Boston sometimes allows unnecessary goals, but he also scores more goals only by himself. He plays a lot, sometimes double-shifts, coach puts him on power-plays. He just has everything any hockey player can only dream of: perfect skater, physically unusually strong, with ‘European’ technique and ‘Canadian’ shooting: Amazing hockey player.”
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Suchý has watched a good amount of NHL during various National team’s trips. What was he actually thinking about NHL and Orr? Here’s a clip from
Suchý’s autobiography co-written with David Lukšů, Aleš Palán and published in 2008/2015 (p. 161-162):
“We enjoyed professional overseas hockey only in television. We kept watching sports channels even for 24 hours. What else to do when you’re stuck in Winnipeg with -40 degrees outside?... It didn’t seem to me that there would have been a big difference between ours and Canadian hockey. It was just more blown up through media and advertisement in overseas. Old Holík, who went to see his son to America, used to say that some of those games are completely unwatchable.
The level of overseas hockey in my opinion improved only after the arrival of Europeans – it’s not so brutal and trivial anymore. Today, when the NHL even tightened the penalties for roughing, suddenly technical players have a chance too. It wasn’t like that in our time.
I observed mainly defensemen then, who had the only task: get the puck and advance it along the boards; if a forward received it or not was already his thing to worry about. I told myself that if I was playing like that with Holík, he would kill me. Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe were the biggest attractions at the time of our trips, but I guess I had just seen the games that hadn’t gone so well for them. To me, Bobby Orr shined above everyone else: huge defenseman who skated forward a lot. Just like me.”
1970-1971
An important part in Suchý’s resumé since he was able to demonstrate over the course of entire domestic and international season that he’s capable of acting more as a shutdown stay-at-home d-man. Suchý’s league points fell down to 27 while playing 41 games, which was not even in the top 20. Suchý recorded 43, 56 and 44 points in 34-36 games in previous three seasons and he always competed with forwards for the scoring title. This wasn’t the case now as Suchý’s mere 8 goals scored was even less than what he scored in previous seasons including the 1965 (10 goals in 32 games). Suchý also led the league in +/- and remarkably registered lone 6 PIMs in the entire season. Suchý wasn’t exactly prototype of a clean, low-PIM d-man – this data was more of an exception. Jiří Hertl’s column in
Gól magazine also revealed that Suchý had spent the most ice-time on PK of any player this season. Dukla Jihlava won fifth title in a row.
Low-scoring type of game continued to the 1971 WHC. Suchý scored 5 points in 10 games in Switzerland, when he had been >ppg in two previous championships. From a
Russian source posted on this forum by Sanf 5 years ago, Suchý’s role changed, he was now tasked to play like a
“quarterback, true defender”. Suchý won the All-Star D voting for 4th time in a row, Directoriate’s best D award was handed over to him for a 2nd time now too.
Suchý and the CSSR team played what suited them more – a rigid, Left-wing-lock defensive system where a team rather waits for an opponent to make a mistake. CSSR earned silver medal but did outperform the golden Soviets in their match-ups. First one ending 3:3, second one ending with a clear 5:2 win for the Czechs with Suchý once again the man of the game.
Anatoli Tarasov after the second USSR-CSSR game quoted by the
TIP magazine:
“What a sensation when the Czechoslovak team lost the first championship match with the USA team. Well, even a bigger sensation was that this squad managed to put itself together so quickly after unsuccessful start. The 3-goal victory in Geneve in the battle with our team was absolutely the highest point of this reality. And it was totally fine. One man has stayed in front of my eyes, whose performance from this game I will never forget in my life – Jan Suchý. I rank him amongst the best players of our time. His sense for a play, his brilliant technique, his positioning, all of this is inimitable.”
Despite all of this, Jan Suchý did not consequently win a third Golden Stick, coming in close 2nd behind František Pospíšil who himself was progressing. Pospíšil scored 42 points in 36 reg. season games, which meant 5th place on the overall scoring chart. With his 32 assists Pospíšil even led the League in 1971. Pospíšil also contributed further with 7 points (2+5) from 9 games in the playoffs, which followed in April after the WHC ended. Pospíšil’s domestic play was equally great as Suchý’s, if not even greater. Pospíšil’s international play was by my account very good too, but completely overshadowed by Suchý’s talent to rise in high-pressure moments.
I’ll finally conclude this post by perhaps the most interesting piece yet. Translated article of
Miloslav Charouzd (a 1950s NT player, then a prominent hockey columnist) published in
Gól magazine after the 1971’ Bern & Geneve Championship, who reflects on the modern type of offense-oriented defenseman emerging in the early 1970s personified by Bobby Orr in North America and Suchý, Svedberg and Pospíšil in Europe. The article also somewhat confirms a contempory lack of high quality puck-moving Soviet d-men that could perform at a similar level as the mentioned Czech and Swedish defenders.
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“A Hockey Player’s Year
Ing. Arch. MILOSLAV CHAROUZD
SUCHÝ attacks in Europe, Bobby ORR attacks in Canada!
A look at the job of hockey defenseman has lately been slowly – but steadily – changing. To defend the zone in front of goalie – that used to suffice in the past. Today, the active defensive game of the whole team requires effective help of defensemen even in the offensive zone, and often a defenseman must also be the initiator of a quick counter-attack.
Experts’ opinions on these offensive game occurences of defensemen are not as clearly unanimous though. One camp still sees the core of defenseman primarily in an actual defending and destroying the actions of an opponent. This way of defense has been practised typically by the Swedish teams. That is why Nordlander, Carlsson, Milton – but more others, except for Svedberg – operate mainly in own defensive zone. On the contrary defensemen of the most of Soviet teams have employed more aggressive way of attacking defense. This playing activity of Davydov, Kuzkin and even those of the youngest generation – Lutchenko, Tsygankov – excels especially in the area around the offensive blue line. After retrieving a rubber it is then an outright duty of a Soviet defenseman to pass to a forward in motion. USSR defensemen adhere to this type of game all too stereotypically, and their defenseman only very rarely participates in an offensive action – conversely as we can very frequently watch on Suchý or Pospíšil. Namely both of these our defensemen can immediately engage into offensive action, if the on-ice situation calls for an opportunity for a rapid thrust forward, which they always decisively and with no mercy execute.
This art of ‘deciphering the situation’ on the ice in the best and fastest way, and realizing such solutions, which are worthy of a hockey persona, has been a privilege of real hockey ‘masterminds’ on the back-end – whether it was Míla Pokorný from LTC Prague in post-war era nicknamed then as a “wandering defenseman”, or Karel Gut later, or Honza Suchý nowadays.
Hockey times are changing not only in Europe but also in Canada. Boston Bruins’ Bobby Orr, one of the youngest and yet most valuable NHL defenseman, has brought revolutionary offensive elements into already traditional defensive game of Canadian professionals. He even became the king of shooters and passers with his literally offensive game, and rivals have been personally covering him as the most dangerous forward of the team.
So do these outstanding offensive defensemen neglect their defending duties? Not even their detractors can conclusively say that – even though they still have certain objections. But hockey has again advanced in its development one step further and one fact is more than clear: Offensive defensemen also this season set the pace in all hockey matured countries. Bobby Orr stars in Canada, Svedberg is the most highly appreciated in Sweden, and with us even the two of the best players have recruited from duo of defenders Pospíšil – Suchý. Moreover, it is necessary to add the outstanding Finish defenseman Koskela to these names as well. Only Soviet hockey has no significant individual in defense after Sologubov’s departure. Generally though, the evolution suggests that many defensemen haven’t yet used up every options offered by the game. Options in current hockey discovered so far and demonstrated only by magnificient talents.”
