1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series

Can Hockey Skills Be Taught – Druzhba 78 Update – (XX)

Posted by Jim on August 3, 2018
Posted in: 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series, Anitoliy Buliga, Druzhba 78, Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

Follow Up On Last Blog

Druzhba 78

And A Surprise Ending

In my last blog I wrote about the singular amazing experience that had a profound impact on me and gave me proof that hockey skills (just like any skill really) can be taught.

That event was watching the Druzhba 78 team play several games in the Toronto area back in 1992.

I know  I wasn’t the only person that was in awe and affected by watching Druzhba 78 play. Quite a few people were so impressed that they organized and paid for the team to play on exhibition tours across North America. For me, I saw the possibilities for skills development for my 2 hockey playing sons. At that time I was a typical father with hopes and dreams for my boys.

Now there are a couple of reasons for this follow-up. First; just to once again emphasize, this experience was definitive proof of the possibilities of teaching and learning.  I was convinced of it then and my view has not changed. Second, there is a serious back-story that you should know about regarding the Druzhba 78 team.

The Back-Story Of Druzhba 78

At the Quebec international peewee hockey tournament in 1992, the Druzhba team from Kharkov Ukraine was a phenomena. They were so dominant in their play that everyone took notice.

They came to the Quebec tourney with hockey equipment that was worn out and older than the boys were in age. The people of Quebec in a way adopted them and donations of money, new hockey equipment and gifts poured in to the team. In true “fairy tale” fashion the team went on to win the hockey tournament. As I wrote in my previous blog, there were people who were so impressed that they made the arrangements to bring them to Toronto and that’s where I saw the team play.

But there were early hints of problems. The team’s coach, Ivan Pravilov, started to ask for donations of more money stating the team was in debt and needed funds to get though. Local Quebec residents became suspicious. The Ukrainian National Congress (who at first was so proud so the team and assisted them) checked back with the people in Kharkov and were told that the City and local government had funded the trip to Quebec.

But There’s A Lot More

Word eventually came out that the coaching and training methods of Ivan Pravilov were not particularly “enlightened”. Carefully hidden from public view was the abusive methods of Pravilov.

Word later came out of the extreme physical and mental abuse by Pravilov to his players to get results.

The players never spoke of the abuse until  years later when they had escaped from Pravilov’s influence and were then living as young men in the United States pursuing a career in hockey.

In January 2012, (by this time Pravilov was making a living off of the reputation of the Druzhba team and travelling extensively on exhibition tours) Ivan Pravilov was accused of fondling two 14-year-old Ukrainian players who he had invited to his home in the Philadelphia. He was taken into custody and placed in a Federal Detention Center but was found later to be unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the hospital. Evidence suggested was that he had committed suicide and this was confirmed by the city medical examiner’s office.

A tragic revelation and ending to what appeared to be a great fairy tale story.

However there is another “real” surprise ending to my story of Druzhba 78. You’ll find out in my next blog.

You’ll Have to Wait For An Amazing Surprise Ending

Note:

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The Truth About Hockey Continued (XIX) – Can Hockey Skills Be Taught – Druzhba 78

Posted by Jim on July 25, 2018
Posted in: 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series, Anitoliy Buliga, Druzhba 78, Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Humboldt tragedy, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

Can Hockey Skills Be Taught – Continued

This Is All The Proof I Needed

 

Some Background

In February of 1992 my 2 sons, Andrew & Michael, were into playing hockey. At that time Andrew had just turned 13 years old and Michael was 11 years old. For myself I was very much into all levels of hockey, but still very much into minor hockey and coaching in the Toronto area.

I got wind of a team that had just recently won the prestigious Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament. They were known as Druzhba from the city of Kharkov in Ukraine. The Quebec Tournament started in 1960 and quickly grew in stature to be one of the most respected and prominent hockey tournaments world-wide. Triple A hockey teams from Toronto would plan and do their best to get into the tournament as there were only a few entries available from the Toronto area.

Some Background On Druzhba

In Ukrainian Druzhba means friendship. The team was from Kharkov located on the eastern border not far from Russia. In 1992 it was just 1 year since the fall of the iron curtain and the end of the Soviet Union. My understanding is that they were all students at the same school and that their hockey coach was also their soccer coach. Somehow they obtained entry into the Quebec International hockey tournament and were able to raise the funds to make the trip to Canada. I wasn’t in Quebec to watch any of the tournament, but my understanding is that they came with the most dilapidated used and worn out equipment. The people of Quebec City were so taken by the skills of the team that they arranged to buy and supply the team with new equipment.

The team was so dominant and spectacular that someone put together the money and paid to bring them to a Toronto tournament that was being held at the then named Double Rinks arena; now named The Vaughn Iceplex (which was at that time and still is today a real crap hole of a facility; but I digress). I watched them play in the tournament and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. At the same time while they were in the middle of the tournament someone arranged for the Druzhba team to play a Bantam all-star team of players for Vaughan. The results of the game against the Bantam Vaughan all-star team (these players were 2 years older) was the same; I couldn’t believe my eyes.

What I Witnessed

The players from the Druzba team covered the full range of sizes; from quite tall to quite small.

There was only one coach on the bench. On changes on the fly from the bench, the first player on the bench on the offence side of the bench opened the gate and any to follow whether a forward or a defense man  would be right behind. The spare goalie opened the gate on the defensive side and all players leaving the ice whether a forward or defense man came off the ice the defense side gate. The team more often that not changed on the fly and it could be at any time during any situation on the ice. I witnessed a kid peel off in the middle of a prolonged power play in the other team’s end and go back to the bench. This was almost unheard of in our Canadian hockey system and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the change was made at that time. The players leaving to go back to the bench when changing on the fly were skating so hard that at the end of the period the snow from their hard stops was piled up the boards.

In the play of the game Druzhba controlled the play. The skating, puck handling, passing and play making was almost magical. They played the typical Soviet style of hockey of absolute puck control and never giving away the puck. Amazingly they refused to shoot on goal in many instance where a a Canadian hockey player would be coached to shoot opting instead to make a play that ended in a tricky tip-in type goal from an unexpected series of passes that had all of the opposition out of position.

There was one diminutive player named Anatoliy Buliga; nicknamed Anatoliy “The Magician”. He could go into the corner with the puck and have up to 3 guys try to take it away from him and somehow come out of the corner with the puck.

This Was All I Needed As Proof

After watching Druzhba in about 4 games back in 1992, that was all the proof I needed that hockey skills could be taught. Eleven of the team members went on to a pro hockey career and Dainius Zubrus and  Andrei Zyuzin were first round NHL draft picks and went on to successful NHL careers. Not at all bad for one team of students from one school in Ukraine.

Can Hockey Skills Be Taught? – Yes They Can!

 

PostScript

There’s a lot more you need to know about the Druzhba 78 team. So this segment absolutely has to be extended. It will probably be in 3 parts and in the end there’s one hell-of-a surprise; something that I just found out about today.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Truth About Hockey Continued (XVIII) – Can Hockey Skills Be Taught – Part 3D

Posted by Jim on July 19, 2018
Posted in: 1972 Canada Russia Hockey Series, Hockey, hockey Skills, how to succeed in hockey, Jim Serba, mike serba, mike serba memorial golf tournament, NHL Playofs, Russian hockey skills, understanding hockey.

 

The Greatest Day In Canadian Hockey 

Or Was It

A Setback For The Development Of Canadian Hockey?

 

In the 1970’s I had season tickets to the Toronto Maple Leafs and went to every home season and post season game at the famous Maple Leafs Gardens. During that time the Leafs met the Philadelphia Flyers, the famous “Broad Street Bullies”, a couple of years in a row during the play-offs. During that era, mostly what mattered in a hockey player was that you were big as hell and tough as hell and as long as you could shuffle along the ice; you were pretty much good to go. As with a lot of things, much of what happens at the NHL level, filters down to hockey at the lower levels.

Even into the nineties when my son Michael played triple A hockey in the then MTHL, it was still the case coaches were looking for size in recruiting players. There was one famous coach with the Toronto Marlies that went around recruiting in the arenas the biggest players from the other teams to come to his team for the next year. Now actively recruiting a player from another team during a season is known as tampering by the GTHL and not allowed but; a lot of coaches do it because they can’t really coach so, recruiting is their only option.

It was an absurd situation. These recruiting “so-called” hockey coaches hung around arenas talking to the parents of the biggest and toughest players in the league.  Their “shtick” went something like this: “your son is really a great hockey player and he would look good wearing a (take you pick; Marlie ,Red Wing, Young Nats,) jersey. I’ve got a solid base this year and a some really great players already committed to next year’s team. Your son is a great player and would fit right in; in fact I think he’s so good that he would be a key part of our success. I’ll make him an assistant captain or maybe even team captain. I’ll double shift him at center and he’ll be a key part of our power play. I’ve got a great program in place for next year and don’t forget; next year is a big year for scouts watching the team and with the ice time he gets, he’ll be assured him of a lot of exposure and it will be great for his draft prospects.” This was all just a complete load of F’n bull shit.

In my mind, here’s the tragic result of all the “BS” that was going on at that time. In a previous Blog I talked about all of the hockey schools that had opened up at that time. Now most of them really sucked in terms of true skills development, however, there were a few that were trying to give a good effort and a couple (a very few really) that were actually starting to get it right. The problem was (and personally I always thought this was tragic) that all of the naturally big kids and their parents were constantly being told that they were great. For the most part they were hearing the same “load” from more than just one so-called coach. The result was that none of these kids ever worked on their hockey skills. Why would they? They were being told they were already great and they believed it; and why wouldn’t they?

 

An Awful Thing That Happened To Canadian Hockey?

I remember being on a plane coming back home to Toronto as the first game of the 72 Canada Russia summit series started. Virtually every Canadian was extremely confident that the best Canadian hockey players in the NHL would demolish the best of the Russians. As we were leaving the plane the pilot announced the score was 2 nothing after the first 7 minutes into the game. Of course, a big cheer went up and hearing that confirmed our confidence the Russians would be toast.

By the time I got home to watch the end of the game; the Canadians had lost by a score of 7 to 3. In the following 3 games in Canada things didn’t exactly go Canada’s way. After losing game 4 in Vancouver, the team Canada was roundly booed by the Canadian home crowd.

Watch this video of Phil Esposito being interviewed after the game in Vancouver.

Canada went on to lose the 5th game which was the first game played in the Soviet Union. At that point the record was 3 wins for the Soviet team and only 1 win for Canada with 1 game played to a draw. Things were looking more bleak for Canada as the next 4 games would be played in the Soviet Union therefor having the disadvantage of playing on Russia’s turf and using their referees.

The Canadians lost game 5; the first game in Russia. And then, amazingly, the Canadians rallied to win the final 3 games in the Soviet Union. The final Game was a 6 to 5 win on the strength of Paul Henderson’s famous winning goal with just 36 seconds remaining in the period. The Canadians won the series by the slimmest of margins.

Henderson’s Goal Changed Everything

To this day Henderson’s last-minute winning goal is the single most remembered event of the series.

Instead of a devastating and crushing blow to the very core of Canadian identity, the country was actually reveling in what was seen simply as a win; that somehow became to be seen as a triumph and proof that Canadians were still the best hockey players in the world.

I always thought that we missed learning a valuable lesson. We failed to see the development by the Soviets when it came to their incredible individual skills of skating and stick handling and also their team skills of passing, puck control and play making. Ignoring what was right in front of your face and failing to recognize this set back hockey skills development in Canada for at least a decade.

A Setback For The Development Of Canadian Hockey?

 

Postscript 

Interesting Followup – Phil Esposito

Interesting Followup on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 72 Summit Series. Watch this to the end and you will probably come to understand why Canada came back and prevailed in the end; if only by the slimmest of margins. This video is really interesting in many ways.

 Post Postscript

I hope you don’t misunderstand my intentions. I have a great amount of respect for the players of that era and their skill level. It was a different time and a different game that was played in a different way. As a result of doing my research for this blog and watching the videos of Phil Esposito, I have to say I have a tremendous respect for him (as I do for all of the team Canada players) and actually I love the guy.

I think the game over all has changed a lot since that era and I think it’s changed for the better. I don’t think we’re all the way there yet, but we’re getting closer.

Note:

If you’re new to this blog and reading it from Facebook or Twitter, make sure to click on the BLOG/NEWS link in the menu at the top of the page and scroll down to read previous blogs on this and other subjects.