Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team
Dominant international hockey team from 1954 to 1991.
Last updated
The Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team was formed shortly after the Soviet Championship League was established in 1946, playing their first matches against LTC Praha in 1948.[1] The IIHF Milestone Award was presented to the Soviet national team in 2013, recognizing their first World Championship gold and the start of the Canada–Soviet rivalry.[2]
Life and work
Soviet officials first got the idea of establishing an ice hockey program during a tour of FC Dynamo Moscow in the United Kingdom in 1945.[1] At the 1980 Winter Olympics, the Soviets lost 4–3 to the United States in a match later dubbed the Miracle on Ice.[3] Bandy had been a long-established sport in the Soviet Union, but ice hockey was not formally introduced there until the 1940s.[1] A planned Soviet appearance at the 1953 World Championships was cancelled because star player Vsevolod Bobrov was injured.[4]
A 1957 exhibition tour of Canada by the Soviets helped fuel the ongoing rivalry between the two nations.[5] Canada clinched the series in the eighth game with 34 seconds left, winning four games to three with one draw.[6]
What the cited sources add
Vinokur reported that Soviet athletes trained year-round for eight hours per day under heavy load programs, and during intensive periods even contacts with families were forbidden.[7] The Daily Hive article noted that the Soviet Union dominated the pre-professional Olympics, winning six gold medals in seven Games between 1964 and 1988.[8] That same article stated that Canada withdrew from the Olympic tournament in 1972 and 1976 over a dispute about what constituted a professional hockey player.[8]
References
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martin, "The Red Machine: The Soviet Quest to Dominate Canada's Game", Doubleday Canada, 1990, p. 25–26; Martin, "The Red Machine", p. 31–32 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: IIHF, "Soviets hammer Canada, win gold at their first Worlds", IIHF.com, 2008; "Canada's Paul Henderson, Danielle Goyette enter IIHF Hall of Fame", CBC Sports, 19 May 2013; McKinley, "It's Our Game: Celebrating 100 Years Of Hockey Canada", Viking Press, 2014, p. 100–103, 151–152 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Coffey, "The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team", Crown Publishers, 2005 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Martin, "The Red Machine", p. 34 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Red Pucksters To Tour Canada", Medicine Hat News, 26 August 1957, p. 7 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: MacSkimming, "Cold War: The Amazing Canada-Soviet Hockey Series of 1972", Greystone Books, 1996 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "How the Russians break the Olympic rules", The Christian Science Monitor, 15 April 1980. facts only, no text reused. csmonitor.com
- "What the Olympic hockey tournament looked like before NHL participation", The Daily Hive, 3 April 2017. facts only, no text reused. dailyhive.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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