Canadian hockey was at it's best in 1972 Summit Series

Imagine it's 1972, the Cold War is in full swing; Miracle on Ice has yet to take place, and hockey supremacy still belongs, undeniably, to Canada. We're not usually known as an egotistical country, not in the tooting-ones-own-horn sense that some nations tend to be, and internationally people tend to think of us as polite, reliable and all around nice people.

But for the longest time our one vanity was hockey. It's our sport, we consider ourselves its creator, and we were definitely the country that made it popular. So when it came to winning internationally we felt then, as we do now, that it should be a given to see the Maple Leaf on the podium.

But September 2, 1972 changed that perspective for Canadian hockey fans, and it was a brutal awakening as a 7-2 loss at the hands of a USSR team no one expected to put up much of a fight. The Summit Series, as the event came to be known, had started with an explosion that was felt across the country. To lose to a team, most especially an amateur USSR team (albeit with the best players the Soviet nation had to offer) was just not possible. But to lose on home ice, in the famous Montreal Forum no less, was nothing short of blasphemous.

Pulling Ken Dryden and replacing the net-minder with Tony Esposito in the second game, played in Maple Leaf Gardens, seemed to spark the Canadian team that strolled to a 4-1 win in Toronto. But maybe it was here where it all went wrong. Hockey fans were buoyed by the win and most put the opening loss down to sheer luck on the part of the Soviet team. Yes, there was no denying they were fast, talented and smart; but when it came to hockey Canadians had those traits in spades, but we also had grit and heart, nothing could replace that, right?

The Canadians would go on to win the series 4-3-1, but not without drama, including the infamous speech made in Vancouver by Phil Esposito on behalf of the Canadian team, Paul Henderson's goal and Bobby Clarke's apparently deliberate slash on Valery Kharlamov's ankle.

The series itself proved to be an awakening because, for the first time, Canada had been able to put together a team of it's best professional players to compete internationally and here they were, against a team of unknowns, losing at their own game.

For many Canadians who weren't born in time to witness the series, its overall impact is easy to ignore because the event was not part of the Olympiad, and outside of the two represented countries, it didn't arouse much interest. However it was then that hockey really started coming into its own. Canada being forced to recognize another team as legitimate competition, the creation of a long-standing rivalry and the introduction of a whole new breed of hockey player, not only made the game more interesting, but added an additional element of competition to the sport.

Hockey was no longer solely our game.

One of the biggest names to come out of the Summit Series is that of Soviet goaltender Vladislav Tretiak, who shocked both nations with his outstanding play as a 20-year-old. Tretiak, who was the first Russian player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989, is the driving force behind this years 35th anniversary celebration of the event: Another Summit Series (technically, a Second Series was held in 1974 though it didn't garner much attention).

However as opposed to NHL players from each country, the 2007 series pitted Canadian junior stars against Russian junior stars. And unlike the original series, this year's crop of Canadians completely outplayed the opposition after winning all but one game, and tying the other. The games, which were entertaining but not highly regarded, pale in light of what the original series did for hockey, but at the same time, in today's hockey world, is it even possible to carry such a large rivalry between international teams?

Now the Olympics are no longer just about Canada, Russia or the USA. Teams from Finland, Czech Republic and Sweden offer sizeable competition, even upstarts like Belarus and Switzerland have unseated supposedly dominant teams. Nothing is a given, and hockey's better for it.

But for Canadians, nothing will compare to the original 1972 Summit Series.

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