Gretzky’s greatest match, Kamensky’s brilliant goal and Belosheikin’s heavy burden. The second game of the Canada Cup-87

Two overtimes – and the victory of the Maple.

Good hockey can be reviewed every few years, like a good movie. A couple of weeks ago, Sergey Fedotov came to visit me, and I suggested that he watch something from the 1987 Canada Cup. And you thought I only watch retro with Vitaly Magranov? Ha!

Sergey immediately said that since they were going to watch that final, then the second match would certainly be – after all, he was the best.

And do not argue with this.

At times, I wanted to cry with delight. There is no middle zone, one attack follows another, save after save, goal after goal… Then I decided to cut gifs to illustrate Ed Willis’s book. True, I was told that the more gifs, the worse the material is loaded in the application, so I had to beat myself on the hands and not cut every shift. Although I really wanted to.

In today’s chapter, there are especially many interesting things – about the young Lemieux, about the pissed (yes-yes) Gretzky, about Kamensky’s goal, about Belosheikin … In general, I will not detain you. Down there, as always, there are kilometers of letters.

I remind you, if you need the autobiographies of Sean Avery and Phil Esposito in EPUB format, as well as other books, write to me here in a personal on Sports.ru. To do this, you must first add me as a friend. There are six books in total. Besides old Sean and Phil, these are:

– “While the Lights Burn” about youth hockey in Canada (my personal favorite) – “Hockey Analytics” – Theo Fleury’s autobiography (my first translation, crooked by today’s standards, but someone saved it) – Surprise (pleasant)

If you want to help the project financially, there is a card number below. Thanks to everyone who donates – it gives creative energy, on which the entire blog rests.

Chapter V. The True State of Affairs

Based on the results of the first battle, it was difficult to determine who emerged victorious – the Soviet Union or Canada.

Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Keenan noted that the Canadians were playing out the third period with a truncated squad, and chuckled when someone pointed out the Russians’ superiority in terms of fitness.

“Who got tired in the third period – us or they? – rhetorically threw the coach. “We were essentially playing nine forwards and four defenders, and still forced them to retreat. What is more likely to be the case here – a combination of fatigue and physical fitness or motivation and psychology? 

And although no one really understood Keenan’s words, Messier enthusiastically talked about how Canadian pressure made the usually unshakable Russians worry. In the end, the hosts of the tournament bounced back from the score 1:4, although they played only 20 minutes. Just think what they can achieve if they give all 60.

“I’ve played against the Russians many times, but this is the first time I’ve seen them swim like that,” Messier said. “I’ve never seen them crumble under pressure like that, and it certainly added a lot of confidence to us.”

A win would probably help a little more. And while the Canadians boasted of their moral victories, things were not so smooth in the locker room. The team approached the second match with nine forwards, as Tocquet joined Dinin and Claude Lemieux in the infirmary. 

That is, for a match on which the fate of the tournament depended, against one of the best teams in the history of hockey, Canadians declared one player less. Keenan again assigned James Patrick to the role of seventh guard and intermittent right winger, but with a truncated line-up, fatigue became a significant factor in the series.