"The Red Army" and Russian hockey

I am not a hockey fan, but "Red Army"  (2014) brought back memories and an appreciation of how great hockey can be.

I remember the buildup to the first Summit Series vs the Russians in 1974.  They had only played against amateur teams and were sure to be humiliated when they played our pros.  In fact the result was close to the reverse, the Canadians were humiliated in the first few games on Canadian soil.  

Bobby Clarke deliberately injured Valerie Kharmalov, a dangerous scorer which in the end might have been the difference.  The Canadians, woke up and played much better on the Russian part of the tour.  Paul Henderson made the most famous goal in Canadian history and the Canucks pulled it off.

Showed a clip of Don Cherry expressing that the Russians should not be allowed to play in the NHL   Harold Ballard was famous for not letting any Russian play for the Leafs.  They were not alone, some of it no doubt for anti Communist sentiments then common, but others I think were afraid of the competition.

The film reminded me why I lost interest in hockey and why the Russians revived my interest.  They were very skilled at passing and stick handling and a joy to watch.  As a Canadian I had mixed feelings.  I wanted Canada to win, especially at our national game, but I liked the way the Russians played, better than the NHLers.  

I watched one televised game with co-workers which I remember not so much for the excitement as I had a few alcoholic drinks  My job at the time was working with newspaper carriers and the game took place when the kids were in school.  When I got back to work I realized I was in no condition to talk to kids about anything.  Since then I have avoided drinking during work hours.

One of the benefits I got out of it was that the Russians were humans.  They had relationships, although often the coaching made life difficult for them.  The film really made more of that when some of participating Russian players  (and wives) got to explain themselves.  I was also surprised to learn of some coaching politics. Anatoli Tarasov was replaced by Viktor Tikhonov

Russians did make a success in the NHL, lots of them helping to win Stanley Cups and become all stars.  It opened them up to capitalism.  We love to be entertained.  I remember hearing Hillary Clinton commenting that Alexander Ovechkin was more popular than most politicians in Washington.

The Soviet players were regarded as national heroes and were treated as such by the authorities.  Although eastern bloc countries had to contend with defectors in different sports, the Soviet hockey players for the most part were very content.  That changed in 1989.  Alexander Mogilny was an outstanding young (honoured as best junior hockey player in the world) prospect who had already played at the top level. After the 1989 world championships held in Sweden he disappeared and found his way to the Buffalo Sabres who had earlier drafted him.

There were a wide variety of interviews, but the main spokesperson for the Soviet side was Vlacheslav "Slava" Fetisov who had a disdain for the interviewer.  Fetisov, a defenseman was a key  person in a group of five players who were very difficult to stop.  He wanted to be able to negotiate with the NHL and although threatened with the end of his hockey career or a demotion he was able to gather a few others and forced the issue.  Part of their salary was to be returned to Russia and they were to play for the national Russian team.  This opened the floodgates and turned out to be very successful.  Fetisov earned two Stanley Cups as a player and one as an assistant coach.  He insisted to Gary Bettman that he be allowed to take the trophy to Moscow.  Despite a total refusal at one time he was able to accomplish this feat.  Fetisov is now involved with the Russian hockey program.

One enlightening moment was when Fetisov was  asked about his younger brother after bragging about how much potential he had.  It turned out that he had died from a car accident.  Then it was admitted that he, Fetisov had been driving.  Another clip with his wife Lata Fetisov explained how she felt ostracized by other NHL wives who treated her as an outsider.

Scotty Bowman, considered one of the best hockey coaches ever was a great believer in Russian players and coached over time, 5 Russian players who helped him win three Stanley Cups for the Detroit Red Wings.

Another interviewee was Vladimir Tretiak who developed a lot of fans in Canada.  He never played in the NHL, although a primary target by the league.  He is now involved with Russian hockey.

There was a lot of politics, captured on archival resources.  Starting with Joseph Stalin who made the decision to make hockey a higher national priority.  Nikita Kruschev and Mikhail Gorbachev each got involved with the hockey program  The KGB was used to minimize chance of defection.  On the other side there was a brief clip of Ronald Reagan and one of Jimmy Carter when he declared the United States would not participate in the Moscow Olympics.  Alan Eagleson was shown as an organizer of the Summit series.  As it happened I had arranged for Alan to be declared the first to be honored on a Wall of Fame for former newspaper carriers when I worked for the Etobicoke Guardian.  Also arranged for a photo at his office and an interview with one of my carriers.  When his fraud was uncovered  I was already gone from that job.

The Soviets had a system and a national feeder network.  That was lost when the Soviet Union collapsed and when players left for the NHL. Russia (and their former states) still turn out exciting hockey players and the world is better for it.

Gabe Polsky was writer, director, producer and  interviewer.  This film won audience awards at film festivals in Chicago and Zurich.  He produced "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans" (2009) which was directed by Werner Herzog.  He also was nominated for an Emmy for the television series, "Genius" (2017).

Werner Herzog, a prominent documentary maker was an executive producer on this film.  He had been a producer, director actor "and writer.   "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" (2010) and "Grizzly Man," (2005) were two of his noted works.  More on Werner:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/08/werner-herzog.html

Christophe Beck born in Montreal worked on music for "Frozen" for which he shared an award.  He also was awarded a Prime Time Emmy for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997).  He worked on the music for "The Hangover," (2009) "The Muppets," (2011) and "Ant-Man" (2015)  During this research it dawned on me that there are many people involved in the music--not just the composer, or someone who writes a song, but ask producers and co-ordinators.  Leo Birenberg also worked on "Frozen" as a score co-ordinator.

Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger had worked with Werner Herzog on "Bad Lieutenant:  Port of New Orleans," and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" and "Grizzly Man."  The second cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko had worked "Inside Job," (2010) "Merchants of Doubt," (2014) and "Inequality for All" (2013) for which I included in another blog: http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2014/10/capital-in-twenty-first-century.html

As with music and cinematography with two people listed there are also two editors.  As the film took place in North America and Russia the work load  needed to be spread around.  Eli B Despres had written and edited two outstanding documentaries, "Weiner" (2016) and "Blackfish" (2013).  Kurt Engfehrk, the other editor had worked with Michael Moore on  "Bowling for Columbine" (2002) and "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004).

If you are a hockey fan you will enjoy this film and if you are not you will appreciate there is a lot of beauty in the game.

I have bolded the movie titles that I have actually seen.

Bill Russell and the rise of defence

At an early age I was very much a hockey fan, as I grew older I gravitated towards basketball.

At the time you could watch hockey any Saturday night and during Stanley Cup playoffs more often and it was a family ritual.  It was difficult to watch basketball as they didn't have the big US tv contracts.  I read a lot about the NBA and college basketball from magazines.  At  the time Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell were very big rivals.  I didn't see too many of their games, but I was very conscious that Wilt was a phenomenal scoring whiz and physically bigger.  Bill Russell was given almost as much coverage and respect by sports writers, but wasn't a scoring whiz or even close to it.  The key thing was his defensive play which was credited with the Boston Celtics winning a huge number of championships.

People do not normally associate basketball and defense with many Canadians at the time dismissing basketball as a real sport because of the high scoring.  Nonetheless if you think about it by just disrupting the opponent's scoring pattern just a tiny bit your team could win even without big scoring.  Scoring was far from automatic, but it did seem players were able to score both easily, and often spectacularly on an almost routine basis.  The scores tended to yo yo back and forth.  Every now and then someone would do something spectacular to stop the offense, but more often not noticed was just make scoring more difficult.

As I got older the tv contracts made basketball more accessible and I got to watch a bit more of my basketball heroes.   Blocking shots was one of the more spectacular things Bill Russell did, but he explained his secret was not to try to block every shot, just, the ones he was sure he could block.  Ideally the opponents would be psyched out and take evasive actions that often resulted in a poor shot.  Bill Russell retired, but was hired to comment on games, later he did some coaching.  I was very impressed with his analysis. Once when a player was injured he talked about compensating actions--you could tell one of his strengths was reading what the other person was about to do.

In some ways I was fortunate at 5"7" to be in places where I would get a chance to play.  Despite my height I was a pretty good jumper and was able to out rebound and even block shots of much taller players occasionally.  Timing and positioning were vital.  Unfortunately I was not a very good shooter.  Another player I modeled on was Dennis Awtrey, a very tall and apparently clumsy player for the Chicago Bulls (before the Raptors my favorite team even before Michael Jordan).  He just seemed to get in the way of very good players.  I could do that.  My favorite memories were playing defense as I just didn't score very often and never when it really counted.  I was  most often assigned to cover the main ball handler of the other team.  I am vain about all that, but realize I would have gotten a lot more attention if I could have shot better.

Hockey was very much followed by my family.  Oshawa was my home town and we had a connection to the Boston Bruins.  Bobby Orr was a local hero who I met once at a track meet where we were both entered in the long jump.  Ironically we were the first two jumpers not to qualify for the next stage.  I then was introduced to him when I had moved to Haliburton and he was hired to work at a hockey camp.   He was a great defensive player, but most noted for being the highest scoring defenseman.  A real joy to watch.

Like most youngsters I loved watching scorers.  Gordie Howe played for Detroit and we didn't get to see him so much except for the playoffs and I became a fan of him.  Many years later I met Gordie at a book promotion and had a private talk with him away from the crowds.  Although slow to appreciate defense I did catch on.  Stopping the offense was routine in hockey.  In reality a system was at least as important as an individual player, but then an individual could really stymie an effort and inspire his team mates.  Two defensive players caught my attention Bill Gadsby of Detroit and Doug Harvey of Montreal and they were spectacular doing almost anything to throw themselves in front of the puck.

These days the talk in all sports seems to be defense.  It makes the critical difference, but for most fans it is boring.  It is hard to beat the excitement of a goal, basket or touchdown, but it is possible to get almost as much enjoyment out of a good defensive move or even a team defense.  As I get older I realize a good defensive player is every bit as critical to winning a game as the scoring heroes.  Bill Russell was the first to start my education.

The photo is from a biography of Bill Russell written by Murry R Nelson.