USSR ICE HOCKEY TEAM
1954-1991
PLAYED............... 900 WON.................... 725 LOST.................... 110 DREW.................. 65 WIN RATIO......... 81 per cent OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS: 1956, 19641976, 1984-1988 WORLD CHAMPIONS: 19/27 times
competed [three Olympic titles doubled as the world champs] Hollywood would have had these guys painted as cold thugs – programmed to thump and bump their way across the ice to destroy all things in their path.
But while there is no doubt the Soviet ice hockey side were physical and determined, they were also highly skilled and creative. They were certainly hugely successful over a 35-year period. They won 19 world championships and failed to win a medal on only one occasion – 1962 – because they didn’t enter [the tournament was in the US at the height of the Cold War]. At the Olympics, they won seven of nine golds between 1956 and 1988 [at the 1976 Innsbruck Games, they won all five games by a combined score of 40-11]. SCORES ON THE DOORS LONGEVITY 9/10 They were at the top of their game for a long, long time. It’s hard enough to go back-to back just once at major tournaments but to manage it four times in a row as the Soviets did when they won four consecutive Olympic golds is just incredible. INTENSITY OF COMPETITION 7/10 Ice hockey might not be a game that is played all over the world but there are a handful of nations that specialise in it and see it as a major sport. Among those would be Canada, USA and Sweden, and they are all capable. PINNACLE TOURNAMENTS 10/10 Eh...seven Olympic golds and 19 world championships. They smashed it bro. WINNING RECORD 8/10 They played an enormous amount of games and won four of every five. That’s a great record but – and this may be ridiculous to say – there was room for improvement. SPORTING FOOTPRINT 8/10 Soviet teams were never easy to love. Partly because Western minds were poisoned against them but partly also because the players could be a little unsmiling and rigid. But the Soviet team had a bit of class and imagination and in Vladislav Tretiak, Vyacheslav Fetisov, Valeri Kharlamov and Sergei Makarov they had some all time great players.