Scott Morrison - 1972: The Series That Changed Hockey Forever

Scott Morrison

1972

The Series That Changed Hockey Forever

With a Foreword by Phil Esposito

Simon & Schuster Canada

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Copyright 2022 by Scott Morrison

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Jacket Images: Getty/Melchior DiGiacomo

Author photo Courtesy of Sportsnet

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: 1972 : the series that changed hockey forever / Scott Morrison.

Names: Morrison, Scott, 1958 editor.

Description: Simon & Schuster Canada edition.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210189258 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210189266 | ISBN 9781982154141 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982154318 (ebook)

Subjects: CSH: Canada-U.S.S.R. Hockey Series, 1972.

Classification: LCC GV847.7 .M65 2021 | DDC 796.962/66dc23

ISBN 978-1-9821-5414-1

ISBN 978-1-9821-5431-8 (ebook)

A columnist I know once wrote: Phil Esposito fell nineteen years before the Soviet Union did. Only Esposito stood back up and blew a kiss at stone-faced Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Esposito and Canada then toppled the Soviet hockey empire in the famed 1972 Summit Series.

The fall he referred to was me landing on my ass during the introductions prior to the first game in Moscow, the fifth game in the series. The Soviets were leading 2-1-1, which was a shocker to say the least and had everyone in Canada hyperventilating, except for the ones who were booing us. Brezhnev was proudly watching from a private box, figuring his boys were going to put us away in the four games on home ice and score a big win for the motherland. And, yes, I blew him a kiss and everyone around him laughed.

We went on to fall again that night, blowing a lead, losing the game, and putting ourselves in a position where we needed to win the final three games to salvage our pride and our reputation as the best hockey nation on the planet. As improbable as it once seemed that the Russians would take a stranglehold on the series, it seemed just as improbable that we would come back.

And, as if the stakes werent big enough already, we were fighting for our country.

There is a reason why, fifty years later, people are still talking about 1972. Its quite simple, actually. Its not because I got up off my ass, but because we as a team did and we won. Everybody loves a winner; nobody cares about a loser.

So, there you have it.

It was a great series, but it was also, in my opinion, something that should never have happened, at least not the way it was played. I believed it then and I believe it now. In fact, when I first got called and asked to play, I said no. Three times, in fact, I said no before Bobby Orr called and urged me to play, and I said yes. I was an NHL playerwho the hell wanted to play in an exhibition series like that? And we were told it wasnt going to be anything more than that, an exhibition series with all the intensity of an all-star game. Thats the truth. I didnt care.

I cared about my NHL team, the Boston Bruins, the Stanley Cup champions. My brother, Tony, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, cared about his NHL team, the Chicago Blackhawks. We had training camp coming up, and it was the first time I was making a half-decent salary. I didnt want to get hurt in an exhibition series. Remember, there were no guaranteed contracts back then.

I also totally disagreed with us being called Team Canada and I made that perfectly clear the very first day of training camp. If we dont have the likes of Bobby Hull and Gerry Cheevers and other stars who were going to play in the rival World Hockey Associationtheyre all Canadianshow are we called Team Canada? But that was the start of the politics in a series that became very political on so many levels.

One thing I will say: if wed had our best players (meaning the WHA guys, too) and trained for a month knowing how intense the series was going to be, the Soviets wouldnt have been able to win a game. Okay, maybe one gameand thats not taking anything away from them, because they were good. But I think having Bobby Hull, the rest of those WHA guys, and Bobby Orr would have made a huge difference. Anyway, theres lots more about that in the pages ahead.

I also didnt like that we had to play by international rules with international officials. We were the NHL, the best league in the world. So if youre going to play the best league in the world, then you should play by their rules, not by international rules. And who sets the international rules? At the time it was a guy named Bunny Ahearne, who was the head of international hockey, and you know who he wanted to win.

Thats why I said we should never have played under those circumstances. I had no interest. None.

Having said all that, fifty years later, the competitor and Canadian in me is glad I ultimately agreed to be a part of it, even though that series took a huge toll on a lot of us and we still feel it to this day. It was supposed to be nothing more than a lopsided exhibition series (and an unwelcome interruption to summer) between the so-called amateurs from the Soviet Union (trust me, they were not amateurs in any sense of the word) and what was supposed to be the best Canadian team (like I said, it wasnt) in the first ever best-on-best series.

Well, it turned out to become the greatest hockey series ever, one in which we had everything to lose and nothing to gain. And we did become Team Canada in the sense that, before it was over, we truly were representing our country, not just the NHL.

If we had lostand it damned near happened, of coursewould we still be talking about it today? I dont think so. It would have been long forgotten, at least by us. But were still talking about 1972 because everybody loves a winner. In the end, everyone was a winnerTeam Canada for sure; the Soviets feel like they were winners (and still celebrate the anniversaries) because of how well they played; and hockey fans won because the entertainment and drama was so damn good.

But only one team truly won the series on the ice!

Part of what made it the greatest series ever was that the world was a much different place in 1972. It was a hockey series with pride and bragging rights on the line, but it was also a battle of political ideals. It became country versus country, society against society. It was our way of life versus their way of life. Thats how it felt. The Russians were saying communism was better, we were saying capitalism was better. I hated communism and still do. And this battle of political and social issues was being fought on the ice. The Russians were the enemy, a big, powerful country feared on the political stage. Like I said, it wasnt just hockey pride that was on the line, it was real-life pride.