this hockey game between the Montreal
Canadiens and Russia’s Red Army has been
called the greatest game ever played hi
I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
learning more about the New Year’s Eve
classic of 1975 the book delves into the
backstory of the Soviets and the
Montreal Canadiens and the years leading
up to this game so tell us about that
time this game took place three years
after the 1972 Summit Series and even
before then there had been a gradual
recognition of the threat of the Soviet
Union to Canada’s role as the
all-consuming power in the hockey world
this game was the culmination of a lot
of that and it represented the first
time that you had the Montreal Canadiens
the most successful team in the NHL
versus the central Red Army the most
successful team in the Russian league
and this was their first meeting so
there’s a lot of hype going into the
game and was one of those rare moments
where the hype was surpassed by the
actual events of the game can you give
us some historical context about the
political atmosphere at this time beyond
hockey this game also took place during
the Cold War which was you know us
versus them East versus West democracy
versus communism a whole lot of
political cultural societal factors went
into this game that went beyond the rink
it was very important for both countries
much less both teams and the Canadians
that night were a team that represented
Canada not just the Montreal Canadiens
tell us what some of the players who
took part in this game the game featured
a veritable who’s who of the Hockey Hall
of Fame
just alone even on the Canadians you had
Ken Dryden Larry Robinson search Savard
keep the point and keep Lafleur Jacques
Lemaire Steve shot Eve on corn why a Bob
Gainey all in the Hockey Hall of Fame
it’s like an all-star team that we’d
never see today and the Russians had the
great Vladislav Tretiak and valerie
harlem off and they were basically as
well the Russian national team so it was
a true best on best competition is there
anyone who stood out on the Russian side
Tretiak would clearly be was the first
star of the game and clearly he was the
main reason the game was a tie and not
perhaps a Canadiens victory in the
research for the book Scotty Bowman told
me that treks performance that night was
as good a game as he’d ever seen anybody
playing ball which is pretty high praise
and he was undoubtedly the first star of
the night and it’s really his night and
as dick Irvin said that game more than
anything else probably put him in the
Hockey Hall of Fame
now tell us about gameplay the game
itself what happened in the game the
game itself was such a huge event
television of course beamed it to Canada
and it was the first game actually
carried live in the Soviet Union at 3:00
in the morning the game ended in a 3-3
tie and for all those who suggest that
the Canadians should have won it’s
interesting to note that with a couple
minutes left to go in the game with the
game tied that the Red Army actually
hits the post behind Dryden so the
Canadians could easily have lost that
game and there was a real sense that if
the Canadians had lost that game somehow
there was a part of hockey in this
country that had been lost to the point
that I was told by dick Irvin that if
the Canadians had lost that game there
was a plan for them to actually bring
Roche to set the anthem singer back out
at the end of the game to single Canada
again
why is this called the greatest game
ever played
obviously the term is a very debatable
point but maybe my greatest game may not
be yours but that game in the 35 years
since it’s been played has been held up
as the standard when people talk about
the greatest game they talk about
December 31st 1975 the game had it all
it had politics it had the spectacle it
was just one of those rare one-off
events that you know transcended sports
but also exceeded the hype an
expectation that had come before
would you say we’ll ever see another
game this significant today when we have
a Canada Russia game the game is a big
deal of course but then they go back and
play for their NHL teams and some of the
Russian players are teammates with the
Canadian players it just doesn’t quite
have that us-versus-them mentality
anymore that it used to and I think
would be hard to recreate that given
that all the best players as I said play
in the NHL would you say that we see
lasting effects of this game on the NHL
today in that game conclusively proved
even after the deaths of 72 that
Vladislav Tretiak was one of the
greatest goalies in the world that
Valeri Harlem off was one of the
greatest forwards and led to what we had
for the next two decades which was a
wealth of Canada cops challenged cups
all these best on best competitions
until the late 80s when the Soviet
players finally start joining the NHL
and today you have a league where all
the best players play in the NHL whether
they’re Russian Finnish Swedish and you
have a real global NHL and I think you
can trace that back to that evening on
December 31st
thank you very much thanks for having me
Canadiens and Russia’s Red Army has been
called the greatest game ever played hi
I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
learning more about the New Year’s Eve
classic of 1975 the book delves into the
backstory of the Soviets and the
Montreal Canadiens and the years leading
up to this game so tell us about that
time this game took place three years
after the 1972 Summit Series and even
before then there had been a gradual
recognition of the threat of the Soviet
Union to Canada’s role as the
all-consuming power in the hockey world
this game was the culmination of a lot
of that and it represented the first
time that you had the Montreal Canadiens
the most successful team in the NHL
versus the central Red Army the most
successful team in the Russian league
and this was their first meeting so
there’s a lot of hype going into the
game and was one of those rare moments
where the hype was surpassed by the
actual events of the game can you give
us some historical context about the
political atmosphere at this time beyond
hockey this game also took place during
the Cold War which was you know us
versus them East versus West democracy
versus communism a whole lot of
political cultural societal factors went
into this game that went beyond the rink
it was very important for both countries
much less both teams and the Canadians
that night were a team that represented
Canada not just the Montreal Canadiens
tell us what some of the players who
took part in this game the game featured
a veritable who’s who of the Hockey Hall
of Fame
just alone even on the Canadians you had
Ken Dryden Larry Robinson search Savard
keep the point and keep Lafleur Jacques
Lemaire Steve shot Eve on corn why a Bob
Gainey all in the Hockey Hall of Fame
it’s like an all-star team that we’d
never see today and the Russians had the
great Vladislav Tretiak and valerie
harlem off and they were basically as
well the Russian national team so it was
a true best on best competition is there
anyone who stood out on the Russian side
Tretiak would clearly be was the first
star of the game and clearly he was the
main reason the game was a tie and not
perhaps a Canadiens victory in the
research for the book Scotty Bowman told
me that treks performance that night was
as good a game as he’d ever seen anybody
playing ball which is pretty high praise
and he was undoubtedly the first star of
the night and it’s really his night and
as dick Irvin said that game more than
anything else probably put him in the
Hockey Hall of Fame
now tell us about gameplay the game
itself what happened in the game the
game itself was such a huge event
television of course beamed it to Canada
and it was the first game actually
carried live in the Soviet Union at 3:00
in the morning the game ended in a 3-3
tie and for all those who suggest that
the Canadians should have won it’s
interesting to note that with a couple
minutes left to go in the game with the
game tied that the Red Army actually
hits the post behind Dryden so the
Canadians could easily have lost that
game and there was a real sense that if
the Canadians had lost that game somehow
there was a part of hockey in this
country that had been lost to the point
that I was told by dick Irvin that if
the Canadians had lost that game there
was a plan for them to actually bring
Roche to set the anthem singer back out
at the end of the game to single Canada
again
why is this called the greatest game
ever played
obviously the term is a very debatable
point but maybe my greatest game may not
be yours but that game in the 35 years
since it’s been played has been held up
as the standard when people talk about
the greatest game they talk about
December 31st 1975 the game had it all
it had politics it had the spectacle it
was just one of those rare one-off
events that you know transcended sports
but also exceeded the hype an
expectation that had come before
would you say we’ll ever see another
game this significant today when we have
a Canada Russia game the game is a big
deal of course but then they go back and
play for their NHL teams and some of the
Russian players are teammates with the
Canadian players it just doesn’t quite
have that us-versus-them mentality
anymore that it used to and I think
would be hard to recreate that given
that all the best players as I said play
in the NHL would you say that we see
lasting effects of this game on the NHL
today in that game conclusively proved
even after the deaths of 72 that
Vladislav Tretiak was one of the
greatest goalies in the world that
Valeri Harlem off was one of the
greatest forwards and led to what we had
for the next two decades which was a
wealth of Canada cops challenged cups
all these best on best competitions
until the late 80s when the Soviet
players finally start joining the NHL
and today you have a league where all
the best players play in the NHL whether
they’re Russian Finnish Swedish and you
have a real global NHL and I think you
can trace that back to that evening on
December 31st
thank you very much thanks for having me
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