- Не могли бы вы определить это понятие - "канадский хоккей"? Что это для вас значит?

- Скажу вам, что я не большой поклонник того хоккея, в который сейчас играют команды НХЛ. Я бы с большим удовольствием посмотрел, как в сегодняшней лиге играет Павел Буре - он бы, с его умением играть в открытый хоккей, забивал бы сейчас по 70 голов. Он, кстати, - мой любимый русский игрок всех времен.

- Честно говоря, вы только что меня ошеломили. Насколько я помню, именно о нем вы отзывались очень нелестно.

- Одно время - да. Если помните, в самом начале его карьеры я один раз обозвал Павла. Это случилось после того, как он исподтишка сделал подножку Кэму Нили (бывшая звезда "Бостона", один из величайших "больших" форвардов в истории НХЛ. - Прим. С.М.). Я тогда здорово по нему прошелся. Но Павел превратился в моего любимчика после того, как ударил локтем в голову Шейна Чурлу (бывший форвард "Далласа". - Прим. С.М.) - когда я это увидел, сразу сказал: "Этот парень мне по вкусу!"

- А как вы его назвали, когда он подкосил Нили?

- Хорьком (эквивалентно русской "крысе". - Прим. С.М.). Но он, повторяю, мне очень полюбился. У парня было мужество, он играл в хоккей так, как надо в него играть. Очень жаль, что его подвело колено...

- Вы видели многих российских игроков. Почему все-таки именно Буре?

- Смелость. Своей любовью к риску он напомнил мне Бобби Орра. Кстати, как и Бобби, из-за этого ему пришлось покинуть хоккей молодым. Если видел "дырку" - лез туда, если надо было идти на контакт - не боялся, не жался к бортам. Такие, к сожалению, долго в хоккее не живут. Да, с моей точки зрения, он должен быть эталоном для всех русских игроков. Лучшего я пока не видел.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oYABjkWiJc
грязный хит Буре

а Чирий Гандон и есть гандон. быстрее бы сдох, клоун

Это да. Но руссо-туристо облико-морале. В смысле не такими методами надо было. Еще чуток прыти, правильный угол и он мог реально его инвалидом сделать.

Кстати, а Чирию когда-нибудь нравилось что беззубую хуету Бобега Кларка ебашили?

Где-то я читал мнение одного канадоса, что он осуждает поступок Кларка против Харламова... Не Чирий ли это был.

Кстати, мечтаю о дуэли в ПО Ваши-спидозные фильки. Месть будет такой сладкой.

Черри конечно поц, но костюмы у него -высший пилотаж. Мне бы такой, хотя бы один.

Где-то я читал мнение одного канадоса, что он осуждает поступок Кларка против Харламова... Не Чирий ли это был.

September 18, 2002

Slashing back at Clarke

By JACK TODD
Montreal Gazette

Henderson scores! Henderson scores!Henderson scores!

And how. The biggest hero of the biggest hockey series ever played unloaded with a two-handed smash right between the eyes of Bobby Clarke Monday, and if Clarke isn't feeling a little woozy today, he should be.

Amid all the touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy stuff associated with the 30th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series, Henderson broke out the heavy lumber and went after his former linemate for that vicious, two-handed whack Clarke delivered to the ankle of Valeri Kharlamov in Game 6.

Henderson unloaded on Clarke the way Clarke unloaded on Kharlamov. Henderson's remarks were so explosive they bear quoting in full:

'Low Point of Series'

"To me, that was the low point of the series. ... If Clarke hits him with a bodycheck and knocks him out, that's fair and square. To go out and deliberately try to take somebody out, there's no sportsmanship in that.

"To me, it's the same as shooting a guy in the hallway. Clarke was probably the only guy on the whole team that would have done it.

"We had a lot of tough guys on that team, but there weren't many guys who played hockey that way. We had guys who would stand up and look you right in the eye, punch you in the nose if you had a fight, but I don't think they would bushwhack.

"But that's the way Clarke was as a player, and that's the team he's put together down in Philadelphia. That's been his trademark. But it's a free country. You can do that. You have a choice.

"It's not something I would subscribe to. That's not sportmanship. If you can't beat a guy straight up ...

"Can you imagine a golfer going out and whacking a guy in the leg? Can you imagine a tennis player doing that?

What An Opinion

"Hockey is meant to be a tough game, and it's a physical game, but to go out and deliberately try to take a guy out, I don't think there's any place in hockey for that. I don't think there ever has been, and I don't think there ever will be. But that's just my opinion."

But what an opinion. For Canadians, Clarke's slash has been little more than a minor footnote to what might have been the greatest sports series ever played, never mind the greatest hockey series. But now Canada's hero has spoken, and the conclusions he draws are not pretty.

Clarke's career, of course, was full of such incidents. As a player he was a more talented Darcy Tucker, a serial spit disturber who used his stick to stir up trouble, then hid behind Dave Schultz when opposing players tried to retaliate.

"If I hadn't learned to lay on a two-hander once in a while," Clarke said at the time, "I'd never have left Flin Flon."

That isn't true. Clarke was a skilled player who was also a cheap-shot artist for reasons that aren't immediately obvious.

He didn't have to be a dirty player; he chose to be one.

On the biggest stage of them all, Clarke could not avoid his nature. His personality expressed itself on Kharlamov's ankle, leaving us to wonder how the series might have turned out had one of the Soviet Union's most dangerous players not missed one of the final three games and been a shadow of his self through the other two? Could Canada have won if the Soviets had hobbled Phil Esposito?

We'll never know. Even the Russians seem to have forgotten the slash. In Moscow three years ago, I had lengthy interviews with Viktor Tikhonov, coach of that famous Soviet team, and star player Alexander Yakushev. We spent a great deal of time talking about the Summit Series, but neither so much as mentioned the incident.

Henderson's comments put Canadians in a tough position. Do you back Henderson, and admit that Canada might have won the series because of a cheap shot? Or do you say that all's fair in love and war and that if the Russkies can't stand the heat, they should get out of our kitchen?

Unfortunately, Clarke, like Don Cherry and Alan Eagleson, represents all that is worst about Canadian hockey, the sordid underbelly of a great sport. Cherry made himself wealthy by spewing bile at the Europeans in the sport and telling kids not to wear visors; Eagleson got rich by ripping the players he was supposed to represent; Clarke made it by dishing out the occasional two-hander as a player and as a GM.

His treatment of Roger Neilson alone tells you all you need to know about Clarke's lack of class. He might have been the only GM in the history of the game who could make the Lindros family look good.

Were Henderson not a born-again Christian, he might have kept his opinions of Clarke's slash to himself, but it should be interesting to see how the neanderthals in the sport react. This isn't coming from some cowardly columnist who never hit anyone in the mouth with a stick; it's coming from the guy who scored The Goal.

At the very least, Call Me Bob has to be dying to swing that stick at Henderson's ankle - as long as Dave Schultz is around in case Henderson wants to duke it out.

The real shame is that a series as great as that one should have any taint at all attached to it. The Summit Series doesn't deserve an asterisk like the one attached to Barry Bonds's home-run record, but you have to wish that Canada had beaten a Soviet team with a healthy Kharlamov.