Hockey legends celebrated 50 years of the Super Series between the USSR and Canada

Hockey legends celebrated 50 years of the Super Series between the USSR and Canada



The first Super Series between the USSR and Canada began on September 2, 1972 and ended on the 28th. It was after that series, which consisted of eight matches, that the world learned that hockey is well played in Europe. Soviet hockey players led by Vsevolod Bobrov went to Canada to show how to play against professionals. The guests of MK were the heroes of this greatest hockey event - the best scorer of that series Alexander Yakushev, Yuri Lyapkin and Vyacheslav Anisin. These people inscribed their names in golden letters in the history of Soviet hockey.

— That episode was preceded by a lot of political talk. There were negotiations between Leonid Brezhnev and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Kosygin's visit to the NHL match, the issue was resolved, including at the Politburo. The chairman of the Sports Committee, Sergei Pavlov, was told: if you lose all eight matches, put your party card on the table. Did you feel that these issues were resolved at such a high state level?

Yakushev: — The fact that such a series is coming, we became aware somewhere in April. But I personally did not have any special excitement. We all calmly prepared for the season, for the USSR championship.

- Yuri Evgenievich, when Nikolai Epstein saw you on the football field in Balashikha and invited you to play hockey for the Resurrection Khimik, could you imagine that you would participate in such a tournament and become the captain of the Spartak hockey team? What future did you see at that moment?

Lyapkin: - At that time, I didn’t see much at all - I was too young. For Epstein, it was important whether you understood something in the game or not. If there is game thinking, then, as they say, if there were bones, the meat would grow. I remember coming home, telling my mother that I had to pay at the factory and go to Voskresensk to play hockey. She was very surprised and asked: will I still be paid money for this? For us boys, it was primarily just a game. I personally did not think that I would grow up to be a player of the USSR national team. Vyacheslav Fetisov once said that one cannot become a world champion without first becoming a court champion. That's how we started.

- The story of a Canadian journalist who promised to eat his report in the newspaper if the USSR national team won at least one match is quite famous. Did you see him try to keep his word?

Anisin: - I argued with him. He approached me on the plane and asked if we could win at least one game. I thought: we are training, the loads are decent, the bones are the same ... I decided that we would win one game one hundred percent. And he told me: if you win at least one, I'll eat my newspaper. Come on, let's argue. Come on!

We arrive in Toronto after the first game. Cameras, lights... And this one is sitting! With pans as aluminum as they used to be in pioneer camps. I approached him: so what? He opened the pot, and there was cabbage soup. He crumbled some newspaper into it. I say no, that won't work. He tore the whole thick newspaper and threw it into his cabbage soup. He then five years later came to my house, I communicated with him through an interpreter. Shchi I have eaten. But he is a good man, he kept his word.

Yakushev: - He ate conscientiously, added sour cream there ...

— Alexander Sergeevich, what were your feelings when Esposito scored in the 30th second? Only everything seems to start, and the puck is already in the goal.

Yakushev: - Feelings began already at the time of the announcement of the compositions. It is clear that no one knew us, there was thin applause. And when Canadians began to be announced, after each name the hall stood up! A roar, a scream... We've never seen anything like it. Even then I thought it would be hard. And then once - they score the first goal, then in the seventh minute - the second. The thought crept in: where did you go ?!

What was happening on the bench at that moment?

Lyapkin: Everything was calm, there was no panic.

Anisin: - Vyacheslav Ivanovich Starshinov and I talked. There was such a din that it was simply impossible to say, it was necessary to speak in the ear. But after two goals scored, I see that it is better to play a pass. Starshinov also says: wait, it's not evening yet. The Canadians began to fail, they began to be cut off, and when Zhenya Zimin scored, God rest him, we began to show a fig to the stands: they say, here you are!

Yakushev: - So after the second goal scored by the Canadians, a funeral march played, and this also made a powerful impression. It was important to score...

Anisin: - Yes, and when they scored one, then the second, the Canadians began to be perplexed. What's happening? The puck moves, everyone moves, it is not clear who is running where and where. Well, after two goals from Valerka Kharlamov, the stadium fell silent. Starshinov and I could already talk calmly. As a result, 7:3. After that, Trudeau signed the wheat for us.

— Wheat?

- After the game, they went into the locker room, they were happy, of course, but they didn’t jump to the ceiling. And the diplomats are jumping for joy! What's going on, we ask? And they tell me: you have no idea what you have done! Trudeau will sign a contract tomorrow for the sale of wheat at a good price… We have been trying for two years, and you did it in two hours.

- How did you go to the second match? With the understanding that predators have been tamed a little?

Yakushev: - It cannot be said that we caught the star fever, but were internally devastated. When we arrived in Toronto, we were no longer so determined to fight. We played well, but something was missing at the last moment. Somewhere someone did not run, someone did not open, someone did not quit ... And the Canadians looked at us differently. They realized that not only they can play hockey. It was fair that they won the second match.

— Yuri Evgenievich, was it hard to play against the Canadian forwards? Esposito, Cournoyer...

Lyapkin: - Of course, it's hard. They are machine-sized. If you get upset on a penny, you won’t move it.

- Since when did Canadian fans change their attitude towards you and start supporting you?

Yakushev: - Already during the first game, when Kharlamov scored two magnificent goals, they began to applaud. We saw beautiful combinational hockey.

- In Canada, you had two wins, one draw, one defeat. The USSR had five points, the Canadians had three. No one expected such a result, but in Moscow you lost three games out of four. What has affected? A long break before the Moscow part?

Yakushev: - We finished in Vancouver on the eighth, and only on the 11th we had a flight from Montreal. Because there was a flight only once a week. We had receptions for two and a half days. Good receptions, bread and salt. Everything in Russian. That's the mood we flew to Moscow.

Lyapkin: - We flew in - first acclimatization, then we were quickly gathered in Novogorsk for preparation. But it all came together. And acclimatization, and that we won the first game in Moscow and relaxed.

- The stands during the Moscow matches are a different story, because more than three thousand Canadian fans flew to the capital, but our ordinary fans were not allowed. Played as if on someone else's ice?

Anisin: - Tickets officially cost 10 rubles for this match, even we bought them with our own money. And on the black market in general they asked for 300 rubles. There are solid white shirts and ties in the stands - these are representatives of the party committees who flew in from all the Union republics. Ordinary fans simply did not get tickets. Kharlamov also told me: are we playing in Canada? ..

Did the lack of support from the stands also affect? After all, you had devoted fans, you were recognized on the street, you stood in lines for autographs ... Was it a kind of pain point?

Yakushev: - It played a role, but this is not the main reason. Still, after we won the fifth match in Moscow, everyone relaxed a little. We only needed to win one more match, and everyone was sure that we would definitely win one game.

Anisin: - Well, in general - this is the Canadian team! They made some conclusions. They didn’t even fly to the attack, they began to play more cautiously in defense.

- If we talk about the final. Henderson puck - what happened in the last seconds of the last match?

Lyapkin: - We ran into ourselves, lost the puck, it fell off the hook. The puck flew under Tretiak and got lost, and after a split second it crawls out from under him, and straight to Henderson. He waved the whisk anywhere, but it hit the gate.

You know, whether Henderson hit or would not have hit, millions of people still live with this feeling that half a century ago they saw real gladiators on the ice. Thank you very much for this!

You can watch the full interview in the Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) group In contact with.



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