Looking back at the Top Ten of the Big Red Machine

Originally published on IIHF.com in 2002

By Lucas Aykroyd

There will be no “Miracle on Ice” at the Salt Lake City Olympics. That’s not because the USA doesn’t have a good shot at winning the gold medal, but because there is no opponent with the sheer overwhelming presence of the old Soviet national team.

From 1956 to 1988, the “Big Red Machine” captured seven gold medals at the Games, plus a silver and a bronze. The Soviets excelled both offensively and defensively, posting such stunning goal differentials as 54-10 in Innsbruck (1964) and 42-5 in Sarajevo (1984). When they suffered their most famous failure in Lake Placid (1980), coach Viktor Tikhonov wept when he visited Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to apologize for losing to the decadent bourgeois capitalist college students.

Another legendary Soviet coach, Anatoli Tarasov, is credited with originating the classic Soviet attacking style. He preached on-ice collectivism at all times. Tarasov liked to tell winger Valeri Kharlamov: “The puck carrier is the servant of the other players.” Therefore, he would undoubtedly be displeased with the notion of a list of the top ten individual Soviet Olympic performers of all time.

But since we have been living in the post-USSR world for more than a decade, let’s look back on the men who made the letters “CCCP” the most feared emblem in Olympic hockey.

1: Vladislav Tretiak

The best goaltender ever spawned by the Soviet system, Tretiak captured Olympic gold in 1972, 1976 and 1984, adding a silver at Lake Placid. Besides Czech forward Jiri Holik (two silver, two bronze), he is the only hockey player with four Olympic medals. Rangy, acrobatic and focused, Tretiak could probably have made it to another Games, but he retired at age 32, frustrated by the constraints of Tikhonov’s training system.

2: Anatoli Firsov

Known for his booming slapshot, Firsov might have rivalled Canada’s Bobby Hull if he had been permitted to play in the NHL. Instead, the 5-9, 154-pound left wing enjoyed three straight Olympic gold medals from 1964 to 1972. His most commanding performance came at the 1968 Grenoble Games, where he led the tournament with 12 goals and four assists. But when Tarasov was deposed as national team head coach, Firsov’s career went into rapid decline. He died July 24, 2000 at age 59.

3: Viacheslav Fetisov

Fetisov is overseeing Team Russia at the 2002 Olympics, but he made his name as the top international defenseman of the 1980’s. Often dubbed an on-ice general, Fetisov recovered from the disappointment of Lake Placid to captain the Soviets to victory in 1984 and 1988. In those two tournaments, the CSKA Moscow veteran finished fourth and third respectively in overall scoring.

4: Vitali Davydov

Despite the crushing power of their attack, the Soviets could not have dominated the Olympics as they did in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s without rock-solid defensemen like Vitali Davydov. Though smaller than average, the Dynamo Moscow product played on three golden Olympic squads, highlighting an international career that also included nine consecutive World Championships from 1963 to 1971. He took such pride in his on-ice presence that he claimed he would have quit hockey without a moment’s hesitation if he heard fans yelling: “Time to retire, Davydov!”

5: Boris Mikhailov

One of the toughest players ever to don the national team colors, Mikhailov played right wing on the Soviet Union’s top offensive line of the 1970’s along with Vladimir Petrov and Valeri Kharlamov. With two golds and a silver between 1972 and 1980, he established himself as an Olympic force, but perhaps gained more notoriety for his games against Canadian pros. Mikhailov might have coached the Russian team at these Olympics, but his hardline tactics would not have gone over well with the NHL players, and hence he lost the job to Fetisov in August 2001.

6: Valeri Kharlamov

“I like to play beautifully,” Kharlamov once said. And the CSKA Moscow winger’s high-speed game with artistic dekes achieved a rare beauty at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, where he led the tournament with six goals and nine assists. He added another gold in 1976 and a silver in 1980. Kharlamov remains arguably the most revered player in Soviet history after his tragic death in a 1981 car accident.

7: Sergei Makarov

An offensive wizard with incredible lateral skating and on-ice vision, Makarov won the Soviet scoring title every year in the 1980’s except 1983. In Olympic competition, the right winger from Chelyabinsk accumulated 28 points in 22 games from 1980 to 1988. The American gold medallists in Lake Placid said they feared Makarov far more in their climactic 4-3 victory over the Soviets than the likes of the aging Petrov and Mikhailov.

8: Vladimir Krutov

It’s unfortunate that Krutov’s disastrous 1989-90 stint with the Vancouver Canucks has overshadowed one of the finest international careers in hockey history. “The Tank” led the 1988 Olympics in scoring, as he did two World Junior Championships. Today, Krutov coaches Central Army in the Russian League.

9: Alexei Kasatonov

Less renowned than his defensive partner Fetisov, Kasatonov nonetheless excelled in all aspects of the game in the 1980’s. He won two golds and a silver in Olympic competition. He and Fetisov had a nasty falling out due to the latter’s allegation that Kasatonov was reporting his activities to Viktor Tikhonov. Like the other members of the “Green Unit,” Kasatonov went on to an NHL career, and he served as the general manager of Russia’s 11th-place squad at the 2000 World Championships.

10: Alexander Maltsev

In the United States, Maltsev is best remembered for scoring a goal while skating backwards in the Soviet Union’s 10-3 win over the Americans in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden shortly before the 1980 Olympics. The cunning Dynamo Moscow right wing finished sixth in Olympic scoring in 1972 and second in 1976. He finished his career with two golds and a silver.