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International hockey is riding a perhaps unprecedented
high in recent years. Canada’s overwhelming
success at the 2002 Olympics and 2003 and 2004 World
Championships have created a thirst for
international hockey not seen in hockey’s homeland
since Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux teamed up to
barely beat the Soviets in the classic 1987 Canada
Cup. World junior victories by Russia and USA have
raised great expectations in those countries for the
future. The Czechs, the Slovaks, the Swedes and the
Finns are always making noise on the international
scene. Fans around the globe can’t get enough of
the cataclysmic international hockey wars.
While international hockey is exciting and
entertaining, the wars certainly aren’t like they
used to be.
The days of Bobby Clarke chopping down Valeri
Kharlamov with his stick, or Boris Mikhailov
bloodying Gary Bergman’s shins with his skate
blades are over. The famous “Punch Up In Piestany”
brawl between Canada and the Soviets at the 1987
World Junior Hockey championships will never be
relived. And Gary Suter won’t be breaking sticks
over the face of Andrei Lomakin or the back of Wayne
Gretzky anymore.
And that is a good thing. But hockey is often a game
that is at it’s absolute best when the two teams
have a healthy hatred for one another.
Take, for instance, the World Cup of Hockey. The World
Cup of Hockey desperately lacks a certain intangible
that its predecessor, the Canada Cups, always had.
There is no hatred involved. The key combatants at
World Cup are almost all entirely NHL players. These
NHLPA union-due paying millionaires are businessmen
and friends, not national warriors. In the Canada
Cups they would do just about anything to win for
their country. In these union member vs. union
member games, integrity of play may have been
compromised.
Case in point - Mark Messier. The legendary monster
who, perhaps more than any other player, would never
think twice of doing whatever it took for his team
to win, thought twice. In the 1996 World Cup
of Hockey he had an opportunity to level a star
American blueliner. He could have plastered him into
the front row like he did so many times to an Igor
Larionov or an Igor Stelnov or a Vladimir Kovin. But
no, he let up, and let his New York Ranger teammate
and close friend Brian Leetch off lightly.
"I wasn't about to try and hurt Brian. That just
doesn't make sense," said Messier of the new
era of international hockey.
Had that Leetch been wearing a red Soviet
jersey back in 1987 he would have had no problem
taking the extra step, maybe even raising the elbow
just a bit, and trying to put the guy out for the
series. Sure it was dirty, but all is fair in love
and war and hockey, right?
Messier agreed that such a scenario makes it hard for
hockey to recapture the levels it did in the Canada
Cups, particularly 1987.
"It wasn't easy to focus on the intricacies of
the game - intimidation - and to be willing to do
what you had to do to win,” he said of the World
Cup. “I would think that in the future, with the
Olympics, that's going to be a major concern,
especially since you have to play with a
take-no-prisoners attitude to win."
Would have Canada won if Messier plastered Leetch?
Probably not. But how many other players were doing
the same? Did Eric Lindros let up on John Leclair?
Adam Foote on Peter Forsberg? Vice Versa?
Back in 1996 NHLPA president Bob Goodenow downplayed
the growing sentiment.
"Its not a problem because I don't there are any
more than four or five guys whose trademark game is
intimidation like Mark's. I can see Mark's
difficulty because of the unique type of player he
is, but you have to look at the overall product and
the product was great. The players played
hard."
Indeed, the games were played at a high tempo, and the
finals especially were tremendous. And Canada’s
many subsequent successes in international hockey in
the new millennium may be overshadowing that
concern. But when no less an authority on hockey
wars than Mark Messier tells us it wasn't the
no-holds-barred contest we thought it was, there is
reason for concern.
The players don’t hate each other anymore because
they all know each other. The fans don’t really
hate the other teams because the enemy is made up of
players they cheer for regularly. All the great
rivalries – Canada vs. Russia, Canada vs. USA, USA
vs. Russia, Sweden vs. Finland, Czechs vs. Slovaks
– just aren’t quite the same anymore. There are
no new rivalries to be created. We can’t hate
upstarts like Switzerland or Kazakhstan or, unless
you’re Tommy Salo, Belarus.
If you want to watch high quality international hockey
where two teams do seem to have a true dislike for
each other, try watching top-level women’s events
between Canada and the USA. Now that’s hockey!
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