'72 Summit Series players share memories of Canada's hockey triumph

The '72 Summit Series, even 44 years later, is remembered as a major touchstone for Canadian sports history and culture.

Now, the players who defeated the Soviet Union and gave Canada victory are taking their stories on the road for a cross-Canada tour.

Players like Pat Stapleton and Pete Mahovlich joined fellow Summit Series vets on stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver to reminisce about the legacy of that series.

But first, Stapleton and Mahovlich joined On The Coast guest host Gloria Macarenko for an interview.

• Russian Classic marks 50 years of Canada-Russia hockey rivalry with 1966 match redux
• Hockey fans recreate famed 1975 New Year's Eve game
• J.P. Parisé, known for Summit Series meltdown, dies at 73

What did we know about the Russian hockey team and how did you and your teammates feel about them?

Mahovlich: We weren't allowed to play in the Olympics. We weren't allowed to play in the world championships, so for us to be able to play against the Russians at that time was a very special event.

We just didn't realize, at the start, how good they were. We really didn't know a lot about their players. We didn't have video like you have today, and our prior preparation certainly didn't prepare us for what happened in the first few games.

Stapleton: There's no question about that. The mystery was they were so closed about their information. Nothing came out of there. And I think there's a lesson here about curiosity: most athletes are curious about how to compete against somebody and as the series wore on, we figured out how to compete against them.

I watched the first game, and it was quite scary to think when they pointed at you and said, 'You go in the next game, OK?' I remember that fear.

After losing in Vancouver, you guys were booed. That's gotta hurt!

Stapleton: You know what, playing in Chicago, we were used to booing. Phil [Esposito] made that iconic speech, but we didn't know he made that speech until many years later. It had nothing to do with us, but it rallied the Canadian people to realize you got a competition here. There's a foe as good as you are, maybe better, and it's going to take some kind of effort to get back in it.

So how did you rebound?

Stapleton: As you start to compete against an athlete, you realize what he's good at, where you can take advantage of him. And I think each player thought the same way.

The Russians, being so organized and so structured and so disciplined, never changed their approach. We changed our approach to where they almost had to play our game. The hackin' and the whackin', that was our game. They started to play our game and got off their game.

The secret, I think, was the interpersonal actions of our team. You had 10 different team cultures coming together. We were Peter Mahovlich of the Montreal Canadiens, I was Pat Stapleton of the Chicago Blackhawks.

All of a sudden we became Pat Stapleton of Team Canada and Peter Mahovlich of Team Canada. We started to rally around the Team Canada thing.

With files form CBC Radio One's On The Coast

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity. To hear the full interview, click on the audio labelled: '72 Summit Series players share memories of Canada's hockey triumph