That wasn't hockey...........
Have you had a chance to watch ESPN's 30 for 30? It's airing right now...........
It gives great insight into what the Russian players had to truly endure in order to remain on the team........for them it was hockey or nothing, with "nothing" meaning exactly that.
Of course we here in the United States can rejoice from that outcome but there were dramatic repercussions for the actual players of that team in the years that followed.
Am I a sympathizer for that Russian team? Considering what their lives were like playing for their communist national team as compared to the lives of our own skaters, yea, I truly am.
And while the 1980 soviet team included Slava Fetisov, who is currently in the NHL hall of fame, there should be a special award made to him for personally opening the soviet door to Russian hockey players to come to this country........
“...That wasn’t hockey....”
Yes, it was, in the 1970s. The sport has changed a lot, but that’s the way it was back then. A LOT more hitting, a lot more fighting, and a lot more penalties.
Was it better? No, not really. But it would be false to say that that’s not what the public wanted to see back then.
“...Am I a sympathizer for that Russian team? ...”
I’m not. I have no sympathy whatsoever for communist anything.
Just a different perspective than yours, that’s all.