44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 22, 2022 10:00AM
- Sep/22/22 3:31:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what an honour it is to have the legendary heroes of the Summit Series among us today.
It is an honour to welcome to the House today members of Team Canada for the 50-year anniversary of their victory over the Soviet national team in the 1972 Summit Series.
It was the year 1972 that the Cold War spilled into the world of sports. In July, American and world chess champion Bobby Fischer had defeated the Soviet champion and number two world competitor Boris Spassky. In the Munich Olympics, the American basketball team lost a bitter and still-contested gold medal game against the Soviet Union.
However, neither of these events produced the drama or the lasting glory that the Summit Series did. The series pitted, for the first time, the best Canadian professionals, though some of them looked too young to have been there, against the Soviet players who were, at the time, underestimated but preparing quietly for a surprise. It was to be a true test of hockey supremacy, played under the shadow of a much deadlier contest for global supremacy.
The Canadian Department of External Affairs suggested that the encounter could be called a “friendship series”. Thank goodness the players ignored that and had the good sense to compete fiercely. Although most commentators and most Canadians expected the series to be an easy one, after a shocking 7-3 loss in game one in Montreal, it became clear that the series would not be a friendly exhibition of Canada's superiority.
As the losses mounted, the pressure on our players grew, the low point being the series' game four in Vancouver when some of the crowd rained boos down on their defeated heroes. Canadians simply could not understand how these NHL all-stars, these legendary names they knew so well, could be outscored by a team of Russian amateurs.
The Canadian fans had not yet realized what had become clear to the Canadian players: These Russians were actually really good. They were playing a different game than the NHL players were used to. It was a game of speed and finesse, of long-lead breakout passes and pinpoint cross-ice accuracy.
By the end of the series, the names of those faceless Russians would be household names in Canada. We know them now. We knew them then and now many of them play in the leagues on this side of the ocean, or at least their children and grandchildren do. They have names and faces Canadians would come to know and respect in international tournaments and in exhibitions pitting Soviets against NHL competitors.
By the time the Canadian team left to train in Europe ahead of the four games in Moscow, the idea of a “friendship series” was long dead. From this side of the Cold War, knowing how it ends, we can afford to look back objectively, but in the moment, and at that time, the series had become, to borrow the name of the 40th anniversary documentary, the Cold War on Ice.
The 1972 series was the first time the term “Team Canada” was applied to a Canadian hockey team. In the minds of Canadians and fans following the series around the world, and on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Team Canada versus Team Russia had become us versus them. There were two styles, two different ways of life and two fundamentally incompatible ideologies and systems of government. It was democracy versus totalitarianism, communism versus free enterprise and freedom versus repression.
Clichés never tell the whole story, but they often tell the most important part. This is true of the stories we are told today of the 1972 series. Before the series, we told ourselves that we were the best hockey country in the world and that our way of playing was the only way to play properly.
During the series, we realized that this was not quite true. For having lost those four games and having seen the competitive grit and the finesse of a team of a different style, we learned that we needed to up our game. In the last game on home ice, the frustration of Canadian fans in Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum erupted as boos rained down from the bleachers. Team Canada lost, falling 4-2.
In a now iconic post-game interview, the legendary Phil Esposito pleaded with Canadians. To quote the elder Esposito brother, he said he was completely disappointed and he could not believe it. He said, “Some of our guys are really down in the dumps...We know we’re trying...They’ve got a good team and let’s face facts. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not giving it our 150 per cent, because we...are. Every one of us guys, 35 guys, came out to play for Team Canada. We did it because we love our country”.
On foreign ice, in front of hostile fans, with their backs against the wall, down two games, Team Canada rallied to win the last three games, each by a single goal. Each of those winning goals was scored by the great Paul Henderson. His name is immortalized in Foster Hewitt's frantic play-by-play call that erupted through hundreds of thousands or probably millions of televisions and radios in classrooms and workplaces across the country: “Henderson has scored”, and the crowd goes wild.
The ladies and gentlemen in the audience would not have been so pleased of course, but those here on the other side of the world would have applauded and cheered with such a vibrating and powerful force that it would have been heard all around the globe. It is a call that still thrills us all half a century later, even those of us who were born after 1972. We have only heard the echo of those cheers but still revel in the legacy they represent. When we hear those calls and we see those names, the names of those who are here today, Yvan Cournoyer, after the winning goal, for example, it takes us back to a different time and a different world.
It was 17 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just a few months before the wall fell in May of 1989, a 20-year-old Alexander Mogilny would become the first Soviet star to defect to the west to play in the NHL. He was charged with deserting the Soviet Red Army, in which he was nominally an officer. Shortly after that, a crumbling and cash-strapped Soviet hockey system and Soviet Union would come crashing down as well. Two years after that, in 1991, the Soviet Union, which in 1972 had appeared almost invincible, officially came to an end. I say almost invincible because this Team Canada showed that they were anything but.
That is something the Canadian spirit brings alive in hockey, but also in all aspects of our lives. I think what is so special about the gentlemen gathered here today is that every single Canadian can see their own triumph in this legendary win. They have made us all proud. They have given us one of the defining moments of Canadian history. In fact, I think if any Canadian were asked to close their eyes and dream up the most Canadian moment, it would be hard to think of anything more Canadian than the '72 Summit series victory.
Therefore, on behalf of all Canadians I wish them a great congratulations and thank them for their contributions to our national story. May we all live up to their incredible example of grit, determination and victory.
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- Sep/22/22 3:46:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to honour the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series and the team members who captured the hearts, minds, and imagination of an entire nation. It is that rare event in sport that had all Canadians on the edge of their seat and would become a legend across the nation, creating role models, inspiring songs and establishing Canada as the dominant hockey nation on earth.
This series is so iconic that it almost has no rivals in terms of its importance to our country, except for Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope. It eclipses all other historic moments in Canadian sport, such as the Blue Jays' back-to-back championships, Donovan Bailey's gold medal sprint, and Sidney Crosby's golden goal at the Vancouver Olympic Games.
I would like to begin by thanking all the players on Team Canada 1972 for their historic win in the Canada-Russia series, including the many players who have joined us today to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
In case my colleagues did not know this, a good lot of the players originated from northern Ontario: The Esposito brothers, Phil and Tony, learned to play in Sault Ste. Marie; brothers Frank and Peter Mahovlich were from Schumacher; Mickey Redmond called Kirkland Lake home; and Gary Bergman hailed from Kenora.
I also want to give a special shout-out to the late, great Jean-Paul “J.P.” Parisé, the hard-working left-winger from Smooth Rock Falls in my riding of Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, who scored two goals and two assists, and had the single most controversial moment in the series. I will have more on that in a minute.
The series is often spoken of as a parable of the Cold War these days, but I doubt that anyone playing in the series was thinking of that. The players went out there for eight games and, through grit and determination, brought this historic win home for our great nation. They inspired a generation of young people to embrace hockey and did so much to establish it as Canada’s national sport, to the extent that this House legally declared it as such in 1994.
It is the historic moments that will be remembered forever across Canada. To quote commentator Foster Hewitt’s play-by-play at the end of game eight of the series, “Cournoyer has it on that wing. Here's a shot. Henderson made a wild stab for it and fell. Here's another shot! Right in front. They score! Henderson has scored for Canada!”
Paul Henderson’s iconic game eight winning goal, often called “the goal of the century”, will always live on as part of the Canadian psyche. Phil Esposito’s seven goals and six assists set the pace for the entire series and, of course, J.P. Parisé’s frustration at the officiating in game eight that got him ejected for game misconduct is often cited as the turning point that led to less questionable calls on the ice and strengthened the rest of the team’s resolve.
I am proud to say that Parisé's name is now permanently commemorated on a recently inaugurated sign in his home town of Smooth Rock Falls, at the suggestion of Johnny Lemieux and with support from the town council. They wanted to be sure to pay tribute to J.P while also marking the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series.
Parisé was touched to be selected to represent Canada internationally, but he was so respected in the NHL that he was asked to play for Team Canada as a surprise pick. He went on to enjoy a successful career in hockey, playing 890 games in the NHL, including two all-star games. He never won the Stanley Cup, but his widow, Donna, said that winning gold for Canada meant the world to him.
I hope I was properly able to convey just how important this event was for the history of our nation.
I will quote the lyrics of another Canadian legend, and I am not going to sing them, because I cannot do them justice. Maybe the member for Timmins—James Bay would have been able to, but not me. This is from the Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie:
If there's a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in ol' 72 We all squeezed the stick and we all pulled the triggerAnd all I remember is sitting beside you
I have also been lobbied by my colleague, the MP for Windsor West, to put in a selfless plug to have a member of the team, Paul Henderson, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and I was pleased to do that.
I thank members for their attention and, more importantly, I thank team Canada from 1972 for all it has done for this country.
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