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THIS ORR THAT
Thoughts from and about the greatest defenceman ever.
“I’ve been gifted. The world is full of people who not only haven’t been gifted, but have had some thing taken away from them. All I have to do is see one of them, some little girl who can’t walk, and then I don’t think I’m such a hero anymore. I think that compared to them, I’m a very small article.”
—Bobby Orr
“If I can be half the hockey player that Bobby Orr was, I’ll be happy.”
—Ray Bourque,
former Boston Bruins defenceman
“I don’t think you ever stopped Bobby Orr, you contained Bobby Orr, but you NEVER stopped him!”
—Larry Robinson,
former Montreal Canadiens defenceman
“Forget about talent; worry about results.”
—Bobby Orr
THE BIG RED MACHINE
The Russians’ seemingly quick ascent of the world hockey ladder was a carefully planned, government-backed try at domination.
THOSE DAMNED REDS…
It’s true. The Russian national team is no longer the powerhouse of international hockey it once was in the “CCCP” days. But it isn’t for lack of talent or personnel. In fact, when one thinks of goaltenders Nikolai Khabibulin and Evgeni Nabokov, defencemen Sergei Gonchar, Sergei Zubov and Darius Kasparitus, and forwards like Pavel Datsyuk, Alexei Yashin, Alexander Ovechkin, Alex Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Sergei Samsonov, and Pavel Bure (if anyone can find him), it’s quite conceivable that a lineup with such talent could compete with the accomplishments of the Big Red Machine of earlier times. The main difference being, of course, that in those days Soviet hockey’s first and only priority was international domination—keeping and training the country’s best players together for six to seven months every year. Boston Bruins president and keen USSR-hockey follower Harry Sinden classifies the thought of the Russians being able to follow the same steady, disciplined strategy with the amount of talent they have today simply as “frightening.”
Of course during the Cold War period most North American fans resented the USSR for their hockey dominance; for the fact that we couldn’t see their best players in the NHL; and also from a good number of political and surely stereotypical angles that we needn’t get into. But in hindsight the Soviet determination to build the best team in the world (and build some patriotism while they were at it) is not only a project responsible for some of the most exciting moments in the history of the game, but is also something well worth looking back at.
LENIN POWER
The era of world domination for Russian hockey started on the scoreboard in 1954 when the comrades won the first World Championship they entered, whipping the ordinary senior team representing Canada 7–2 to give a huge jolt to Canadian hockey. But the sport has a lengthy history in that country, like the Russian approach to many other games featuring a government-backed development program to show that the Communist system produced top athletes.
BANDY WAS DANDY
For decades, the Russians had played a game called “bandy”: in reality, field hockey on outdoor ice because the country lacked indoor arenas with artificial ice. Canadian-style hockey was first demonstrated in Russia in 1932 after the Olympic Games tournament in Lake Placid, NY, when a German team played a series of exhibitions against the Moscow clubs Central Red Army and the Selects. Commentators of the day called the “new” game a poorly played version of bandy.
SPORTS SUPREMICIST
But Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, viewed sports like bandy as a handy propaganda tool in the Cold War against the U.S. in the late 1940s. Stalin’s philosophy was that vigorously trained athletes winning global championships would best spread the word on the advantages and glory of the Communist system. A healthy population from participation in sports was another goal. Through a strong system of sports schools and clubs, elite Russian athletes received the best possible training from a young age, leading to many exceptional accomplishments in figure skating and a multitude of Olympic sports, and such team games as soccer, volleyball and hockey.
HOCKEY HANDBOOK BECOMES SOVIET BIBLE
When a concentrated effort under coach Anatoly Tarasov—known as the “godfather” of Russian hockey—produced the 1954 World Championship team, the era of the Big Red Machine was launched on the world hockey stage. Using The Hockey Handbook, a book written by Canadian fitness and sports guru Lloyd Percival, as his guideline, Tarasov devised on-and-off-ice conditioning programs, skill-teaching methods, and the “collective” approach to total team play that stressed skating and passing the puck. The NHL had ignored Percival’s work, many of the pros scoffing that a man with a background in track and field had nothing to teach hockey experts.
BACK IN THE USSR
Over the next 35 years, the USSR produced three incredible national teams that dominated the World Championship and other tournaments, led by many of the highest skilled players ever to play the game. Their teamwork was honed sharply by the many months the national team trained as a unit. In addition, the core of the team was part of the perennial Russian major league champs, Central Red Army, who had the pick of the talent from all areas of USSR hockey. The first of those clubs grew out of the Tarasov scheme in the 1950s and won nine consecutive World Championships plus two Olympic golds from 1963 to 1971. Anchored by the sterling defence pair of Nikolai Sologubov and Ivan Tregubov plus brilliant forwards Anatoly Firsov, considered by many the greatest Russian player, Veniamin Alexandrov, Konstantin Loktev, Boris and Evgeny Mayorov, and Vyacheslav Starshinov, the Russians easily overpowered the world’s amateurs.
STRONG IN THE SEVENTIES
That team slowly changed into another extraordinary club for the 1970s, a decade highlighted by the Summit Series when the Soviets finally agreed to meet a Canadian team stocked with the best NHL players. Goaltending long had been a weakness of the USSR teams, which was viewed by the NHL as the big reason why the Soviets declined opportunities to play NHL clubs, but when Vladislav Tretiak developed into an extraordinary goalie at age 20, the Soviets accepted the challenge.
The USSR’s player development system through sports clubs had built a splendid new team with Starshinov, Viktor Kuzkin and large defenceman Alexander Ragulin the only holdovers from the previous decade. The forward line of center Vladimir Petrov flanked by Boris Mikhailov and the breathtaking Valeri Kharlamov plus Alexander Yakushev, Alexander Maltsev, and Vladimir Shadrin gave the team a strong attack, and defencemen Valeri Vasiliev and Sergei Liapkin were strong in front of Tretiak. Team Canada won the Summit by the slimmest of margins—Paul Henderson’s famous goal in the final minute of the eighth game—and that Russian roster excelled on through the 1970s with five world and two Olympic titles and a win over the NHL All-Stars in the 1979 Challenge Cup. But they stuck with that basic lineup too long and lost the 1980 Olympics to the U.S. at Lake Placid.
THE FINAL HURRAH
Another brilliant cast arose for the 1980s, when the Russians won six world and two Olympic titles. Leading the way was the excellent “Green Unit” of forwards Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and Vladimir Krutov with defencemen Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, named for the color of their practice uniforms. Perhaps that team’s most memorable series was the 1987 Canada Cup tournament, the best-of-three final decided late in game three when Wayne Gretzky set up Mario Lemieux for the goal that gave Team Canada the crown. But the fall of the Iron Curtain and the breakup of the USSR and the democratizing of Russia around 1990 saw the entire Green Unit and many other Russian players jump to the NHL for their first big paydays. Since then, Russian players have flocked not only to the NHL but to Canadian junior hockey.
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“He brings something special. I don’t know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn’t understand his answer.”
—Wayne Gretzky on Oilers linemate Esa Tikkanen
“They do a lot of talking, but I’m not sure they actually underst
and each other.”
—Darren McCarty on Red Wings teammate
Vladimir Konstantinov and rival Claude Lemieux
“American professional athletes are bilingual; they speak English and profanity.”
—Gordie Howe
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS
Hockey people are extremely superstitious, idiosyncratic devotees of rituals and habits.
In the slot directly in front of the opposition net with the puck on his stick, even with the defenders hacking, chopping and harassing him, Phil Esposito was among the most confident players in NHL history. He fought through maximum efforts to stop him from unloading the deadly accurate shot that made him one of the best pure goal-scorers ever to play.
In the dressing room before the game? A completely different Espo, a man full of superstitions, a creature of habit with a carefully crafted routine that had to be followed to the letter or he felt his game would disintegrate. This is something Esposito has shared with many players. Pro athletes are among the most superstitious people extant and hockey folks are in the front ranks.
WHAT WOULD HE HAVE TO DO FOR THREE GOALS?
Esposito’s teammates with the Boston Bruins in the 1970s were in awe of his scoring feats but they enjoyed recounting the long list of his pre-game rituals. Center Derek “Turk” Sanderson was recruited by Espo to help ward off evil while preparing for a game. Sanderson would adjust Esposito’s shoulder pads until they felt comfortable and put the suspenders holding up his mate’s hockey pants in place. “Phil said that when I did it, there was chance he would score a goal or two in that game,” Sanderson said.
BEWARE THE EVIL EYE
While suiting up for the game, Esposito would stand and wink at a red horn hanging on the shelf above his seat. His grandmother gave him the horn because she claimed it would ward off malocchio, the evil eye. Esposito always wore the same tattered black T-shirt inside-out and backwards and pinned a St. Christopher’s medal to his suspenders. He would place his stick on the floor between his outstretched legs, then place his hockey gloves palms-up beside the butt end of the stick. That’s when trainer Frosty Forristall would shake white power on the stick blade. “Phil would check the room for bad omens, such as an upside-down paper cup or crossed hockey sticks,” said defenceman Bobby Orr. “We would leave them that way deliberately just to shake him up.”
TOSSING THE COOKIES
Goalie Glenn Hall was a rock in the nets who played in a record 502 consecutive complete games for Detroit and Chicago and was sick to his stomach before them all. At first, Hall claimed that he vomited because of pre-game stress but slowly became convinced that his “cookie flipping” had a ritual value and if it didn’t happen, he wouldn’t play well. Late in his career, Hall gave the expansion St. Louis Blue great goaltending, vomiting all the way to the Stanley Cup final in the club’s first three seasons. Before the seventh game of a 1968 playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers, Blues’ coach Scotty Bowman was very worried when Hall approached him with bad news.
“Glenn told me that he hadn’t thrown up and if he looked shaky early in the game, I was to pull him out,” Bowman said. “I had a moment of panic, then looked in the washroom and saw a pair of pads sticking out of one of the stalls, and I knew everything was fine. Glenn played a terrific game and we won the series.” Hall had another ritual: He would not retrieve the puck from the net behind him when a goal was scored, saying, “I didn’t put it there so why should I get it out?”
99 QUIRKS
Wayne Gretzky produced points at a rate so far above any other player that it seemed no superstitions should have concerned him. But No. 99 had his fair share of quirks. Gretzky’s most visible hang-up was having half his team sweater hanging free, half tucked into his hockey pants. Through a big part of his career, Velcro was fixed to his pants and sweater to hold his favored arrangement in place. “I started tucking half the sweater into my pants in kids’ hockey when it happened one game by accident and I had a good offensive night,” Gretzky said. “I just kept doing it and started to think it brought me luck.”
NO FEAR OF FLYING ON ICE
Gretzky had more than superstitions when he boarded an airplane for a road trip. What he had was sheer terror—a deep fear of flying—and a shirt soaked with perspiration, especially if even the slightest bit of turbulence was encountered. At one time, he had psychological help with his phobia. “It got better when I asked to see the cockpit and, on some flights, I was allowed to sit there for a time, watch how they were flying the plane even if I never understood it, and it helped me relax a little,” Gretzky said.
HELLO LEFT POST
Other idiosyncracies and rituals:
Patrick Roy: The brilliant goalie often “talked” to the goal posts, standing a few feet in front of the net and chatting away to the metal. “The posts were my friends so I just said hello to them,” Roy once said. “If I missed a shot, maybe it would hit them and stay out of the net.”
Derek Sanderson: The Bruin center wore a piece of Italian ram’s horn, given to him by a friend, on a chain around his neck, and had few injuries after he started wearing it.
Steve Shutt: If anyone touched the carefully prepared sticks of the Montreal Canadiens sniper before a game, he immediately changed to other “untouched” sticks. Asked why, Shutt had a simple explanation: “I just don’t like anyone touching my sticks.”
Mike Palmateer: The nickname for the Maple Leaf and Washington Caps goalie was “The Popcorn Kid,” because he liked to eat a large box of freshly popped corn brought to him by the team’s trainers just before the warmup.
Gordie Howe: The 32-season veteran felt that his pre-game preparation wasn’t complete if his midday meal was not a steak with a coating of blue cheese and a baked potato. “No special reason,” No. 9 said. “I just liked it that way.”
Bruce Gardiner: After this Ottawa Senators center had a bad game during the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, his teammate Tom Chorske cryptically suggested he was treating his stick too well. Gardiner sought to change his luck by dunking his stick in the toilet before his next game. After playing well that night, Gardiner dipped his blade before every game from then on.
8 PLACES TO SK8 BEFORE YOU DIE
The thing that makes ice hockey the elegant, fast, beautiful sport it is? Skating. It’s a wonderful thing to do all on its own—especially in amazing places. Here are a few that you might want to put on your “frozen bucket” list.
1. SOMERSET HOUSE RINK (London, England). This rink is made by flooding the courtyard of Somerset House, an 18th-century mansion overlooking the River Thames right in the heart of London. (Once someone’s home, it’s now a music and art center.) Since the rink opened in 2000, skating here has become a hugely popular winter event in London, especially at night, as you can skate directly below the mansion’s imposing and colorfully illuminated facade. (Skating season: November to January.)
2. SOHO SQUARE ICE RINK (Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt). You went snorkeling in the Red Sea, stepped into the blistering heat of the southern Sinai Peninsula, gazed across the water to the hazy desert mountains of Saudi Arabia—and now you could really go for some ice skating. And you can, at the indoor ice rink at Soho Square, an entertainment complex built on the coast in this world famous resort city. Guaranteed to be the finest desert ice skating you’ll ever experience. (Season: Year round.)
3. EIFFEL TOWER ICE RINK (Paris, France). In 2004 the Parisians decided the Eiffel Tower wasn’t spectacular enough as it was—so they built an ice rink into the tower’s iron lattice work, 188 feet off the ground. The rink is pretty small, but who cares? You’re skating inside the Eiffel Tower! And looking out over Paris! (Season: November to January.)
4. CURRY VILLAGE SKATING RINK (Yosemite Valley, California). Yes, you can actually ice skate in the shadow of the famous Half Dome, while looking out at the grandeur that is California’s Yosemite National Park. It’s been a tradition since 1928, when the Yosemite Winter Club, a group formed that year to promote winter
sports in the park, flooded a parking lot in Curry Village (the park’s hub) for a skating rink. Bonus: They keep an outdoor fire going in a pit—and a nearby store sells ingredients for making s’mores. (Season: November to March.)
5. BONDI BEACH ICE RINK (Sydney, Australia). This 1,600-square-foot ice rink is built right on the sand at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. You can actually ice skate while watching people surf nearby waves. The rink was first built in July 2011 as part of the Bondi Winter Festival, but organizers promise it will be a regular feature of the annual event in the future. (Festival runs for two-and-a-half weeks every July.)
6. FLEVONICE (The Netherlands). This winding, curving, looping, 16-foot-wide, three-mile-long ice skating track winds around a small, rural lake in the Dutch province of Flevoland. And it’s artificially cooled—so it operates even during warm spells. The rink offers public skating and is also the site of speed-skating competitions every year, including one that goes for 124 miles. (Season: November to March.)
7. FUJI-Q HIGHLAND (Fujiyoshida, Japan). Fuji-Q Highland is an amusement park about 50 miles southeast of Tokyo on Japan’s Honshu Island. Every winter, a 3.8-acre pond in the park—known as the “Crystal Lagoon”—becomes a skating rink. You can skate around little garden islands and beneath gigantic roller coasters and other amusement park rides. Oh yeah—and it’s right at the base of Japan’s highest mountain, Mount Fuji, so it offers some breathtaking views. (Season: December to February.)
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