Ice Wars

This aspect of domestic hockey has never been written about so harshly and in detail before; it was only mentioned in passing, trying to quickly gloss over the heavy topic. Fifty years ago, in the history of world sports, one of the most striking events occurred: the first series of matches in hockey history between the USSR national team and Canadian professionals. The players of the Maple Leafs, millionaires, superheroes, who effortlessly smashed all the teams of the world, met the Soviet team with contempt, calling it a bunch of amateurs, with a goalkeeper who is a hole. Almost all sports commentators in the world predicted a shameful defeat for our team. But then the referee's whistle blew, and within thirty seconds, Phil Esposito opened the scoring. Six minutes later, the score doubled, and amid the mocking laughter of local fans, the funeral march sounded over the ice arena. The pianist of the Montreal stadium would have been better off not doing that. Our hockey players seemed to be resurrected and began to brutally smear the Canadian professionals across the ice. The Canadians broke the rules, the referees turned a blind eye to it, the world fell silent in shock—but the Russians methodically and confidently beat their arrogant opponents... And then it became clear: this was no longer just a sports competition. In front of millions of viewers, two worlds, two ideologies, and two moralities clashed in a brutal struggle… The book tells about: - How our team was robbed of the coveted Canada Cup. - Why God and the NHL king were called a hockey hooligan. - What the Canadian players did in the airplane salon regarding the referees. - How Canadians accredited Bandera at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. - How an NHL coach forced his players to physically eliminate our hockey players. - How Canadian journalists ate their newspaper articles after losing a bet. The book will not only remind us of the courage and sporting heroism of our celebrated hockey players in all Soviet-Canadian hockey competitions since 1954. It will help us understand ourselves. Our national spirit. Our will. Our faith in victory.