40 Years Ago Today The Sabres Beat The Soviet Wings

[Brawndo]

Forty years ago today the Sabres became the First NHL Team to beat a Soviet Club, when the beat the Wings 12-6. Per O-Pee-Chee Twitter Handle

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_nMPXasFhY&feature=youtu.be

[Neo]

Awesome, Brawndo ... A favorite sports memory of all time ...

 

The link is very cool ... I think it'd be worthwhile for the younger among us to click and listen to the players announced and a few minutes of play ... and contrast the game day experience of the time as it compares to today.

 

How about those gloves!

 

I've watched more .... Crowd noise, and the voice of Milt Ellis.

 

1,2,3,4,5,6 ..... we want 7

 

No kiss cams, video boards, hip hop songs, ice girls, bloated fuzzy mascots .... just hockey, soda, popcorn, cheering .... dark hallways and steep rows of small seats

Edited January 5, 2016 by N'eo

[thewookie1]

We had quite a good record against the Soviet teams. 

[sabills]

This is cool. I've always meant to watch this, and its been posted on this board a couple times, but I never got to sit down and watch it so its pretty awesome. 

 

Question for you old timers: is the way this game is called about right for the time? Penalty wise I mean. To start the first there was a thirty second period where I thought about 5 penalties could have been called, haha. When I watched "Of Miracles and Men" I know some of the Russian players felt the officiating was a little lop-sided, but the NHL game was a rougher, tougher game than the Russians were used to anyways, so I wasn't sure if this was in line for the times, or if there were some no-calls the refs could have called but didn't.

 

That being said, my dad always talked to me about this game as if we just beat the Russians into submission, that Jerry Korab was just out there crushing skulls. From what I've seen in the first period so far, though, the Sabres are just straight up out-playing the Russians. This must have been a really fun team to watch, back in the day.

Edited January 5, 2016 by sabills

[Neo]

I'd say it was pretty much how it was called, yes. You'll see a charging call against Korab at 33:40. That was a charge even then. But, yes, I'd say it was a pretty typical game. That particular Soviet team may have been more physical than some others. Notice Rico's sneering interview at the end. Canadians despised Soviet "machine" players and used the word as a dig. I'll let my Canadian brothers speak for themselves, but I think they resented struggling against Soviet all star teams that practiced together for months and years. Beating the Reds was big, very big.

Edited January 5, 2016 by N'eo

[Stoner]

And the Sabres got a standing ovation before the next NHL game they played — in the Montreal Forum.

[Neo]

pA ... Awesome memory ... I'd forgotten all about that!

[Stoner]

Don Luce=Jack Eichel? (Looks)

 

The way Milt said "Gil."

 

Spinner getting the biggest cheer.

 

Korab sprinting down the runway onto the ice. He was stoked! Then Punch said it looked like some of the Sabres had been shot out of a gun onto the ice.

 

You could really hear the Let's Go Buffalo chant starting before the opening faceoff. It almost sounded like it began with one leather lung. The acoustics of the buildings, then vs. now, is huge. That and the fact only the organ was playing, no WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU to drown out the fans.

 

Good stuff! And the game hasn't started yet.

[DR HOLLIDAY]

Forty years ago today the Sabres became the First NHL Team to beat a Soviet Club, when the beat the Wings 12-6. Per O-Pee-Chee Twitter Handle

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_nMPXasFhY&feature=youtu.be

 

I have that hockey card, love the goalie pads

[blade58]

I went to the game with my mom. We had seasons, and my dad was so sure the Sabres would lose, he refused to go. Needless to say, he was a little po'd afterwards. The only game I can compare it to was the Bills -Raiders AFC championship game. The pre-game excitement, the intensity of the players, and the feeling that we just couldn't lose. Magic. Best game I've ever attended in any sport

[Neo]

I went to the game with my mom. We had seasons, and my dad was so sure the Sabres would lose, he refused to go. Needless to say, he was a little po'd afterwards. The only game I can compare it to was the Bills -Raiders AFC championship game. The pre-game excitement, the intensity of the players, and the feeling that we just couldn't lose. Magic. Best game I've ever attended in any sport

Good to meet you .... I watched the game on television with my grandmother, sitting on a family room sofa, in Blasdell ... I remember marking the score on my Sabres season calendar of scheduled blue (home) and gold (road) games. It hadn't been scheduled at printing. TWELVE, I wrote TWELVE.

Edited January 5, 2016 by N'eo

[TheAud]

I was a bit young when the 12-6 game vs. the Soviets occurred (although it was always in my consciousness as a young Sabres fan) but this thread spurred on a search for highlights of this game, a 3-2 win for USA vs. Czechoslovakia in the Canada Cup series in a game played in the Aud. The link is a bit weird in that it shows an early US goal and then just a couple minutes of random shots on goal. I couldn't find a longer clip. 

 

 

I attended it with my father and a couple things stick with me to this day. The crowd was electric as the Miracle on Ice buzz from 1980 was still present in terms of USA Hockey popularity. And it was Buffalo...

Housely and Barrasso were both on team USA and Barrasso was phenomenal. I remember after some save sequences late in the game the Czech players were tapping his goalie pads in recognition of how badly he was robbing them.  Hasek is obviously the greatest goalie to play as a Sabre, and Ryan Miller had his moments, but I think people tend to forget how good Barrasso was in those early years in his career in Buffalo. 

 

Speaking of Hasek...I have to admit that until I searched for this video I did not realize he was the Czech goalie that day...and at age 19 no less!

[SwampD]

Forty years ago today the Sabres became the First NHL Team to beat a Soviet Club, when the beat the Wings 12-6. Per O-Pee-Chee Twitter Handle

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_nMPXasFhY&feature=youtu.be

Home whites. :wub:

[mphs mike]

Good to meet you .... I watched the game on television with my grandmother, sitting on a family room sofa, in Blasdell ... I remember marking the score on my Sabres season calendar of scheduled blue (home) and gold (road) games. It hadn't been scheduled at printing. TWELVE, I wrote TWELVE.

 

I remember doing the same with those calendars. A few years ago my mom found a couple of them, with the scores for all season in the attic - a great trip down memory lane!

[nfreeman]

Awesome.

[Weave]

My dad had tickets to that game.  I was sooooo disappointed he went with a co-worker and I couldn't go.  I don't recall the game being televised.  I remember listening to it in my room on the radio.

[mphs mike]

My dad had tickets to that game.  I was sooooo disappointed he went with a co-worker and I couldn't go.  I don't recall the game being televised.  I remember listening to it in my room on the radio.

 

 

O, it was televised. Sabres were up early by the time I got back from church and turned it on!

[Claude_Verret]

Good to meet you .... I watched the game on television with my grandmother, sitting on a family room sofa, in Blasdell ... I remember marking the score on my Sabres season calendar of scheduled blue (home) and gold (road) games. It hadn't been scheduled at printing. TWELVE, I wrote TWELVE.

 

 

Damn......I remember those calendars.  Would have it posted on my BB in my bedroom and wrote in all the scores too. 

[qwksndmonster]

I watched this game a couple years ago while near-blackout. It'll be nice to watch it somewhat coherent.

 

Korab was a monster.