“HENDERSON HAS SCORED FOR CANADA!” — The Goal, 37 Years Later.
Thirty seven years ago today, Paul Henderson saved the world.
Or, at least, that’s what many Canadians believed at the time.
September 1972 gave the world the single greatest hockey series of all time — The Summit Series. It isn’t often that anything can be legitimately called The Greatest _____ Ever. This series of eight hockey games, is, without question, The Greatest Hockey Series Ever. Need proof? Go look at the rosters. There’s an entire wing of the Hall of Fame on those benches, all at the peak of their careers. What’s more, as great as that lineup is, remember that Canada was without Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull.
More than the rosters, this series of games was the ultimate test of Canadian identity. Many of our brothers to the North view the game of hockey as their gift to the world, and we should all thank them for that. For decades, Canadian dominance was unquestioned…until the Soviets began to flex their muscles. The Soviets began racking up world championships and Olympic golds on a regular basis. Still, nobody could ever touch Canada at their own game, right? In 1972, that was a ludicrous idea. Why, that’d be like the Soviets beating the Americans for Olympic basketball gold.
Oh, wait…
Anyway, back to hockey.
The story has become folklore by now. The Canadians, confident to the point of hubris, strolling into the old Forum for Game One, fully convinced there was no way it could be a series. It was going to be a total blowout, eight straight wins. A 7-3 Soviet victory shocked everyone in the Forum and across Canada. Going 1-2-1 in the first four games brought the country into full blown apoplexy, to the point of fans in Vancouver booing their countrymen off the ice. How serious was this? Listen to the emotion and frustration in Phil Esposito’s voice at the end of this clip:
After dropping Game Five in Moscow, Canada would need to run the table to salvage the series. It’s debatable whether or not anyone believed that to be possible. However, a one goal victory in Game Six kept the faint glimmer alive, and after another one goal victory in Game Seven, it was all down to the final game. One game for it all.
Phil Esposito said it all: “It was a war, our society versus theirs.”
I’ve seen thousands of hockey games in my lifetime. Truth be told, I only remember a fraction of them. It says everything that I’ve only seen this game on DVD, a game that was played six years before I was born, yet it’s as vivid to me as any I have ever seen. Esposito was absolutely correct — Game Eight was as intense and as dire as anything ever witnessed on a hockey rink. It had it all: tight checking, nuclear powered checks, utter desperation on both sides, shady officiating, and because what the hell, why not, a near riot in the stands:
This was beyond hockey. This was everything we love about our game. We’ll never see anything like it ever again.
2 Responses to ““HENDERSON HAS SCORED FOR CANADA!” — The Goal, 37 Years Later.”
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This was so neat!
allokago - September 28, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I mentioned it in today’s posts, but if you liked this, I strongly suggest my buddy Andrew Bucholtz’s incredible post on this topic over at Sporting Madness. Follow the blogroll link to your left, it’s a great site with a ton of amazing writing.
magicsjohnson - September 29, 2009 at 5:57 pm