A Wild Stab For It by Dave Bidini

Author:Dave Bidini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2022-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

The Faint, Dying Sound

If the Russians of 1972 did help revolutionize a game that, with the exception of Bobby Orr’s reimagining of the defence position, had been played the same way for decades, it should be enough to establish them as one of the most influential teams of all time. This pedigree was never more pronounced than in the stirring middle frame of Game Eight in Moscow, one of the strongest and most dynamic overall periods of hockey played by any team.

It started with an early goal in the first minute of play by Vladimir Shadrin (Vlad the Shad) — off a spirited rush by Yakushev — and concluded with Valeri Vasiliev scoring on the power play in the dying minutes. There was another Yakushev goal in the middle — the point pushed him into the series’ scoring lead, one ahead of Esposito — and a mid-period reply by Canadian defenceman Bill White, with assists from Ratelle and Gilbert, Canada’s best player to that point. For long stretches, Canada couldn’t get near the puck, even though they were playing their best hockey of the series. The Russians seemed to toy with them the way a child teases a cat with a thread of yarn. It was as if they suddenly remembered what they were doing, why they were playing, and for whom. After a beautiful rush by Frank Mahovlich and a subsequent shot from the high slot by Phil Esposito, Viktor Kuzkin, the veteran defenceman, recklessly threw himself in front of the puck, something we hadn’t seen before. The Canadians managed to hold the game at 5–3 for Russia with a great sequence that produced White’s goal, but by the end of the period, the Big Red machine was playing as well as it had in all of September. If the whole of Canada felt sick after the loss in Montreal, fans were now reaching for their straight razors. At one point, transmission from Moscow via London broke down completely and the screen went dark. It was replaced by a series logo and the faint dying sound of the play-by-play. Not watching wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

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