Canadian Hockey Mythology Following the Summit Series of 1972

Canadian Hockey Mythology Following the Summit Series of 1972

The sport by the name of “Hockey” has always been part of Canada’s history and it will be a significant aspect of our culture until the day we run out of rubber for new pucks. There have been many great hockey moments for our country recently in international hockey, but the most significant international spectacle happened over 30 years ago. The Summit Series of 1972 made a significant contribution towards Canadian mythology beginning with the mental resilience of Canadian hockey players, the increasing tenacity of Canadian hockey players, and the establishment of Canada as the world’s leading hockey authority.

        Primarily, the Summit Series of 1972 worked towards building the mental resilience of Canadian hockey players which contributed to the present day’s Canadian hockey mythology. During the starting period of the whole Summit Series of 1972, Canada had found themselves in a tough spot, competitively, against the Soviet Union. However, the disappointing response from Canadians back home served as an immense motivation for the team, something that would have made a mentally weaker team crumble. Due to their mental resilience against their initial failures, the Canadian hockey team rallied together and ended up having very successful victories during their last three games. Canadian success at the summit Series was definitely not expected after their unimpressible start. Therefore, the amount of character and mental strength it took for the Canadian hockey players at that time to keep fighting and make a comeback is astounding. Richard Gruneau and David Whitson in, “Hockey Night in Canada”, mention that the way Canada won “Game eight” in Moscow: “led to an orgy of self-congratulation about the triumph of Canadian virtues – individualism, flair, and most of all, character – over the machine – like the soviet system”(263). Hockey’s most famous goal was actually made by a Canadian player during this series named Paul Henderson, with only thirty-four seconds left in the third period of “Game eight”.

In addition, the Summit Series of 1972 proved to show the tenacity of Canadian Hockey players as part of the Canadian hockey mythology. For example, one of the Canadian hockey players during the series, Bobby Clarke, hacked Valeri Kharlamov as a means to take him out of the series since Kharlamov was the Soviet Union’s hockey superstar. Canadian hockey players were also unafraid to block a shot with anything they could, even their faces. The amount of penalty minutes held by Team Canada (147) versus the amount of penalty minutes held by the Soviet Union (87) means that the Canadian team  was down one man from eleven to twelve times per game while the Soviet team was down a man only five to six times. Richard Gruneau and David Whitson explain this sort of attitude in their book, “Hockey Night in Canada”, by stating that: “many people in and around the game, view fighting and intimidation not only as good tactics but also as essential dimensions of both the hockey culture and the Canadian tradition” (176). Canadian hockey and its players’ tenacity in terms of strength and ferocity is a vital part of Canadian hockey mythology and its prominence was evidently demonstrated during the Summit Series of 1972.