The Canada Cup of Hockey Fact and Stat Book

By H. J. Anderson

Everything you wanted to know about the Canada Cup, the predecessor of the World Cup of Hockey. The Canada Cup saw the birth of international hockey involving NHL players. Following the Summit Series in 1972 and 1974, the world would finally see the nations of Canada, Czechoslovakia, Finland, the Soviet Union, Sweden, the United States and West Germany compete with all their best players for the first time. The Canada Cup gave us some of the greatest games and never-to-be-forgotten moments in hockey history.

For more information, please visit the author's website at: www.canadacupofhockey.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 20, 2005
• ISBN: 9781412234702

H. J. Anderson

A graduate in computing and part-time hockey statistician, this is his first book.

Book preview

The 

Canada Cup of Hockey 

Fact and Stat Book

Image1084.JPG

By

H.J. Anderson

© Copyright 2005 H.J. Anderson.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Note for Librarians: a cataloguing record for this book that includes Dewey Decimal Classification and US Library of Congress numbers is available from the Library and Archives of Canada. The complete cataloguing record can be obtained from their online database at: www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html

ISBN 1-4120-5512-1

ISBN 978-1-4122-3470-2 (ebook)

Image1091.JPG

Offices in Canada, USA, Ireland and UK

This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing. On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfilment, accounting and collecting royalties on behalf of the author.

Book sales for North America and international:

Trafford Publishing, 6E—2333 Government St.,

Victoria, BC v8t 4p4 CANADA

phone [phone] (toll-free 1 888 232 4444)

fax [phone]; email to [e-mail]

Book sales in Europe:

Trafford Publishing (uk) Ltd., Enterprise House, Wistaston Road Business Centre,

Wistaston Road, Crewe, Cheshire cw2 7RP UNITED KINGDOM

phone [phone] (local rate 0845 230 9601)

facsimile 01270 254 983; [e-mail]

Order online at:

trafford.com/05-0410

10   9   8   7   6   5   4

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five 1987

Chapter Six

Chapter One

Introduction

Image1100.JPG

Featuring:

The Story of the Canada Cup

Alan Eagleson, the rise and fall of a hockey tsar

The Canada Cup trophy

Abbreviations

The story of the Canada Cup

The Canada Cup competition was the brainchild of Alan Eagleson, a lawyer from Toronto and player agent of various NHL players including superstar Bobby Orr. Inspired by the soccer World Cup, the idea was to bring together the top nations from the world of hockey. It would become a reality on September 28th 1974, after Eagleson met with the Soviets during the 1974 WHA-USSR series and, after getting a good response, started work on organizing the tournament.

Both amateurs and professionals would be allowed to compete and, unlike the Olympics and World Championships, all teams would be allowed to use all their best players, all NHL players being available for the competition. As Eagleson said, I didn’t think it was right that our national team (Canada) kept getting whipped at the world championships. We couldn’t send our best team. This was going to be a true world championships. The name of the new competition: The Canada Cup. The guest list was always kept at six throughout all the Canada Cups, due to the poor standard of the teams below the top six. All the Canada Cups would include Canada, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union, Sweden and USA, with Finland playing in all except the 1984 tournament, when they were replaced by West Germany. All the games would be played in Canada in all the tournaments, with the exception of a few round robin games involving the USA being played in America.

The Canada Cup will be remembered for producing some of the best moments in hockey history. The first Canada Cup took place in 1976, Canada defeating Czechoslovakia. The ‘76 tournament produced two classic games, the 1-0 shock victory of the Czechs over Canada in the round robin stage, then Darryl Sittler’s dramatic winning goal in overtime over the surprising Czechoslovakians at 11:33 in the first period of overtime.

The 1981 Canada Cup was no less spectacular and was the first and only time Canada failed to win the competition, with the Soviet Union routing Canada 8-1 in the final, off the back of a sublime display by netminder Vladislav Tretiak. It was the only time the final was a one-off game; all subsequent tournament finals were changed back to a best-of-three affair, like in the original 1976 Canada Cup. The Cup was reclaimed by Canada in 1984 and the tournament produced one of the all-time classic games in the semifinal, totally outshining the final, as Canada rallied late to tie the Soviet Union, then defeated them in overtime thanks to a great defensive play from much criticized defenseman Paul Coffey.

The 1987 tournament, widely acknowledged as the best of the five Canada Cups, produced some quality, entertaining and riveting hockey that rivalled, perhaps even bettered, the 1972 Summit Series. I don’t think you will ever see better hockey than what was played in that series, said Wayne Gretzky. For me it was probably the best hockey I’ve ever played. Each of the three-game final ended 6-5, with the Soviets winning the first in overtime. Canada bounced back winning the next in double overtime on a goal from Mario Lemieux, thought by many to be the best game ever played. Canada then won the third and deciding game in dramatic style with Mario Lemieux again scoring the winner with just 1:26 remaining in the third period.

By 1991 the world was changing, with the changing political situation in Eastern Europe. The ‘91 Canada Cup would lack the quality of the other competitions and would prove to be the last in its current guise. However, after a five-year gap, the competition would be reborn as the World Cup of Hockey 1996, a collaboration between the National Hockey League (NHL), NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA) and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), under a slightly different format, with part of the competition being played in Europe, although the majority of it still being played in North America.

Alan Eagleson, the rise and fall of a hockey tsar

In 1968, Hockey Canada was formed to create an opportunity for Canada’s best to participate with other countries best players. Alan Eagleson was one of the original members, and it was Eagleson who was instrumental in the creation of the 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet Union and Canada, taking charge of the program, negotiating with the Russians and promoting the series. From the Summit Series he went on to organize the Canada Cups. Eagleson also came to prominence as a players’ agent when he negotiated a record contract with the Boston Bruins for teenage superstar Bobby Orr. Eagleson was also seen as the players’ saviour when he was the first to effectively organize professional hockey players in North America (including players he was already representing as an agent) into forming a players’ union, the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA), which was officially recognised on June 7th 1967.

For services to hockey, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada on April 20th 1989 and in the same year was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the ‘builders’ category.

Although many players had complained about Eagleson for years, concerning his conflicting roles not just as President of the NHLPA, but as a players’ agent, international hockey tsar, and his close friendship with many NHL owners and management, it was Carl Brewer, a former Maple Leafs defenseman (he had actually hired Eagleson as his agent back in the mid-60s) who started to have major doubts about Eagleson’s handling of the players’ money, in particular money relating to pension funds.

Eagleson always dismissed these apparent conflicts by saying they were not illegal, but eventually a large group of players, including Brewer, finally hired Ed Garvey, former head of the National Football League Players’ Association, to investigate Eagleson’s work as union head. Garvey’s 1989 report made numerous allegations regarding Eagleson. The Garvey Report cited Eagleson’s conflicts of interest over his relationship with NHL President John Ziegler and Bill Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and Chairman of the NHL Board of Governors. The report stated, the conflicts of interest involving Eagleson are shocking, but even more shocking is a pattern of sweetheart agreements with the NHL over all these years, saying that Eagleson had worked with the league and owners to keep player salaries down, basically selling out the very players he was paid to represent, in exchange for the ability to draw profits from international tournaments. It also criticized Eagleson for withholding information regarding international hockey, the NHL, the players’ union and the pension fund, all required to be disclosed by law. Eagleson kept his executive director job, but agreed that a committee should search for his replacement. However, through the mounting pressure he hung onto his position for another two and a half years.

In 1990, following on from Garvey’s report on Eagleson, player agent Rich Winter filed a complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) alleging that that Eagleson breached his trust as head of the NHLPA and that he also took secret commissions from the sales of advertising at the Canada Cup tournaments. However, the RCMP decided the matter was out of their jurisdiction, and handed the case over to the Metropolitan Toronto Police’s fraud squad. It wasn’t until Liberal house leader David Dingwall started asking questions in Parliament in late 1992 that the RCMP began a full investigation.

Meanwhile, Russ Conway, an editor of a small suburban Boston newspaper, had became interested in Eagleson and pursued him writing a series of reports for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Massachusetts in 1991, information that would eventually be used by federal investigators to indict and send Eagleson to jail. Among the information compiled by Conway, that would later become a book called, Game Misconduct, Alan Eagleson and the Corruption of Hockey (1995), was information from former Bruins disillusioned with Eagleson, including a key piece of evidence provided by Brad Park. Park had a letter from Eagleson, who had always claimed he didn’t take ‘a dime’ from international hockey, saying that neither he, nor any family member, nor any company connected to him had ever received money from the Canada Cup tournaments. Because this misinformation had been sent to players by post, it constituted mail fraud.

From early 1991 Eagleson was under investigation by the FBI, and, with suspicions growing, he finally stepped down as head of the NHLPA, handing over control to Bob Goodenow, although he still remained onboard as a paid consultant. By 1992 a U.S. grand jury began investigating Eagleson and he was finally indicted on March 3rd 1994, in Boston, on 32 counts of racketeering, fraud and embezzlement.

Among the allegations were:

Taking advantage of players who suffered career-ending injuries, such as former Boston Bruin’s player Mike Gillis. Eagleson agreed to help him secure his disability insurance for a 15 percent cut of any payment awarded; however, the insurer had already notified Eagleson that Gillis’s claim had been approved. Eagleson also allegedly worked with insurance companies to keep disability payouts low, demanding kickbacks in return.

Eagleson also claimed that money from international tournaments went into the pension fund for ex-NHL players, but it appeared that the money was used to merely reduce what the NHL and teams were supposed to pay into the fund.

Despite often stating the contrary, Eagleson, his family and associates made millions in contracts associated with international tournaments, such as making hundreds of thousands of dollars from selling advertising spots on rink boards.

Also revealing was Eagleson’s relationship with Bobby Orr. With his career nearing an end, Eagleson had negotiated a deal for Orr to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks, owned by his close friend Bill Wirtz, failing to tell Orr about an offer from the Bruins including an 18.5 percent ownership stake in the team, if he’d have stayed in Boston. By the time his most famous client severed ties with Eagleson, accounting, legal bills and taxes owed had left Orr bankrupt.

After a lethargic campaign the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1996 finally charged Eagleson with four counts of fraud and theft. Then finally on January 6th 1998, in Boston, Alan Eagleson pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud in exchange for having the racketeering charges dropped, and was sentenced to one year’s probation and a fine of $1 million. Eagleson was then turned over to the Canadian authorities, and pleaded guilty in Toronto the following day, where he stood up and apologized to the players he had hurt. I sincerely apologize for any harm I might have caused and I hope I will have the opportunity in the future to make a positive contribution.

Eagleson was stripped of his Order of Canada and lost his right to practice law. With many players including Gordie Howe, Brad Park, and Bobby Orr, threatening to be removed from the Hockey Hall of Fame if Eagleson remained as a member, before any vote could be taken, Eagleson resigned.

Alan Eagleson was sentenced to serve 18 months in a Canadian prison but due to good behaviour he served just six months, released on July 7 th, 1998.

The Canada Cup Trophy

The original Canada Cup trophy was made from Inco nickel: weight 120 lbs, height 30-3/4". It was cast in two parts: the leaf (upper part) and the base (lower part). The top and larger section, the half maple leaf was one of the biggest pure nickel castings in Canadian history.

The original trophy was so heavy that it could not be taken by the Canadians on their victory parade around the ice after their 1976 win, remaining on the presentation table. So for the 1981 tournament a lighter replica was made, but was somehow damaged when the Soviets tried to smuggle the trophy out of Canada. A further replica was used for the 1984 tournament, which was also used for the final two Canada Cups in 1987 and 1991. The Soviets would eventually receive their own replica of the trophy after Winnipeg trucker George Smith, who went on to arrange old-timer hockey exchanges with the Soviets, made a collection and travelled to Moscow to present it.

Image1108.JPG

Abbreviations

Chapter Two

1976 Canada Cup

Image1148.JPG

Featuring:

Team Canada

Team Czechoslovakia

Team Finland

Team Soviet Union

Team Sweden Team USA

Winner: Canada

Runner up: Czechoslovakia

1976 Canada Cup: Build-up to the Tournament

Sam Pollock, GM of Team Canada, named four coaches: Scotty Bowman of the Montreal Canadiens, Don Cherry of the Boston Bruins, Bobby Kromm of the Winnipeg Jets (of the WHA), and Al MacNeil of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs (of the American Hockey League), with MacNeil out scouting, as most of the opposition was unknown.

The Canadian team was filled with stars, many of whom had played on Team Canada in ‘72 and ‘74, and included such hockey legends as Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. Bobby Hull at the age of 37 had missed the chance to play in the Summit Series ‘72 because just three months before the series he had jumped ship from the NHL to the WHA, and the NHL wouldn’t let players who hadn’t signed NHL contracts be eligible for Team Canada. This time WHA players would be allowed to play, but at first Hull received a chilly reception when he arrived at the 1976 training camp. When I walked in, icicles were hanging all over the dressing room. I think some were told a bunch of crap about my jump to the WHA. Things warmed up after a clash with Bobby Clarke during practice, but Hull was later appointed alternate captain, and the ‘Golden Jet’ turned out to be Team Canada’s most effective forward, with five goals and three assists in seven games.

Bobby Orr, the NHL’s greatest defenseman, had missed the Summit Series ‘72 versus the Soviets due to knee surgery. Although Orr’s career was almost over, he returned from his fifth operation on his knees to play in the tournament. It was Bobby’s last hurrah, said Phil Esposito. Orr didn’t show up the first week of training camp because of his knee problems, recalled Bobby Hull, and we had some pretty imposing defensemen there. But when he arrived it was the man with the boys. He was just head and shoulders above the rest of us. It was an amazing performance from Orr, who suffered not only between games but also during periods. I used to watch him, said Bobby Clarke, after games he could hardly walk. And then he’d go out there again and play like hell. I think he played on straight determination. It’s amazing what he did. During the tournament Orr controlled most of the games and finished as Team Canada’s top scorer. Orr went out in style being named the tournament MVP.

In net Ken Dryden was lost through off-season knee surgery; Dan Bouchard of the Atlanta Flames replaced him. Bernie Parent was still recovering from neck surgery. So Glen ‘Chico’ Resch and Gerry Cheevers were expected to vie for the number one spot, but Rogatien Vachon of the L.A. Kings took the position. After starting out as fourth choice Vachon got hot at the right time, winning and then, with superb displays, holding the starting spot in the Team Canada net.

Left-winger Marc Tardif of the Quebec Nordiques (of the World Hockey Association) was recovering from a severe beating in a fight with Rick Jodzio of the Calgary Cowboys during the previous WHA playoffs. Bob Gainey from the Montreal Canadiens replaced him. The withdrawal of Tardif left only two members of the WHA: Bobby