The Canadian team knows how to surprise fans no less than the Russian one. Over and over again, bringing to the World Cup do not understand what composition, Canadians often get to medals, including gold. We see something similar at the tournament in Finland, where the “maple leaves” have already confounded the skeptics, removing the Swedes in the quarterfinals.

However, there were also opposite situations in history. So, in 1977, the Canadians came to the World Championships in Vienna as absolute kings, but suffered the most painful defeat in history.

Our hockey players simply crushed the vaunted professionals.

Canadians banned from Worlds for a long time

Canadians for a long time could not participate in the world hockey championships, because they were considered professionals, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was categorically against this. In 1969, after another defeat from the USSR, the leadership of Canadian hockey demanded that the IIHF let them go to the world championship, but was refused. Canadians were offended and decided to boycott six subsequent tournaments.

Everything changed in 1975, when Günther Sabetsky took over as head of the IIHF. He completely changed the approach to managing international hockey and signed an agreement with the NHL, which allowed professional players to participate in world championships. Sabetsky understood that the development of hockey was impossible without the North American teams, and there was less and less intrigue without them.

Nevertheless, the Canadians still missed the next World Cup, but returned in 1977 after an eight-year break. Although the national team included those who did not make the playoffs or were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup, the team from the founders of hockey got what they needed. There were a lot of NHL stars there. See for yourself.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Dmitry Donskoy

A bag of money and a sea of ​​beer

The Esposito Brothers, Rod Gilbert, Ron Eliis are all hockey legends who played in the 1972 Super Series. Eight other hockey players from that team took part in the All-Star Game that season. Wilf Paymant was the No. 2 pick in the 1974 draft and then shone in the National Hockey League. Karol Vadne was a two-time Stanley Cup winner. The main hope of Canada, 21-year-old Pierre LaRouche, was also present in the line-up. He was the youngest player to score 100 goals in the NHL.

On defense, the Canadians had Dallas Smith, who had previously played in pairs not with anyone, but with Bobby Orr himself. Walt McKechnie was Detroit’s leading scorer. The list goes on. Obviously, nothing but gold was expected from such a stellar team. Two Western firms at once (the automobile concern General Motors and the brewing company Curling O’Kid) announced to Canadians a serious monetary reward and other privileges. So, for the victory over the Russian team “maple leaves” promised to hand over “a suitcase of bucks and nine thousand cans of beer.” For this, one could try.

But neither a sea of ​​beer nor a bag of money helped the star professionals in their confrontation with the USSR team. The Canadians did not succeed at all. Already in the first period, they received three unanswered goals from Helmut Balderis, Valery Kharlamov and Alexander Yakushev. The opponent did not understand what was happening. Phil Esposito assured before the match that if he had to grab the Russian by the throat to beat the USSR team, he would do it.

Photo: © Jeff Goode / Contributor / Toronto Star / Gettyimages.ru

Canadians missed and were rude

However, it was the Canadians, led by Esposito, who were grabbed by the throat. Not physically, but mentally. The founders of hockey did not find anything better than to stray into rudeness and outright rudeness. They came to the World Championship to show how they play hockey, but in the end they got a resounding slap in the face.

In the second and third periods, the beating of the Canadians continued. Soviet hockey players completely dominated the site. It all ended in complete disgrace for Canada – 1:11! USSR national team goalkeeper Vladislav Tretyak later said that the Canadians were ready to fall through the ice after that meeting. They ignored the anthem of the Soviet Union and, in general, behaved in the most unsportsmanlike manner.

– We could not play with these Russians on an equal footing, so we tried to take revenge. At least in this way, – said after the match the mentor of the Canadian team Johnny Wilson.

The USSR and Canada met again at the 1977 World Cup, but already in the second stage, where the four best teams remained. Obviously, the founders of hockey longed for revenge, but again received a crushing defeat. This time they were defeated with a score of 1:8, Yakushev and Balderis scored twice.

Surprisingly, such victories did not bring the Soviet Union team the gold medals of that world championship. Our twice managed to lose to the Swedes and were left only with bronze. Team coach Boris Kulagin was fired, and Viktor Tikhonov took his place, who later created the legendary team, which the entire hockey world was afraid of.