Summit Series - Organization

Organization

Hockey Canada and the Soviets met in Prague in April 1972 during the World's Championships. The two sides agreed on the terms: four games in Canada, held in Montreal (Montreal Forum), Toronto (Maple Leaf Gardens), Winnipeg (Winnipeg Arena) and Vancouver (Pacific Coliseum) and four games in the Soviet Union, all of them held in Moscow at the Luzhniki Ice Palace. The Canadians agreed to hold the series in September and play the games under international rules. The Canadians agreed to IIHF amateur referees in the Canada part of the series, and European referees in the Moscow games. Refereeing is to be done with two referees, not the one referee, two linemen system in place in the NHL, and, at the time, being introduced into international ice hockey. The Canadian side agreed to the terms under the belief that the Canadians would have no difficulty winning under any set of conditions. The CAHA's president Joe Kryzcka, who was present at the negotiations, felt however, that the Soviets had demanded the concessions for their own benefit, believing that their team was already equal to any NHL team. The NHL later requested dates in October or November.

NHL players' union president and Hockey Canada director Alan Eagleson, while not involved in the initial negotiations, became a central figure in the organization of the series. Eagleson, who could call on a network of the players, the NHL and Canadian business, would be involved in most arrangements for the Canadian team. Eagleson would confide to Toronto Star reporter Alexander Ross, that he "un-negotiated" much of what had been negotiated between the governments. Eagleson placated the NHL owners by arranging that part of the series' proceeds would go to the NHL player's pension fund, reducing payments from the owners, and threatening to have his player clients play without NHL co-operation. Before the first game, Eagleson personally paid to settle a lawsuit won by a Montreal man, whose car had been destroyed in the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The court had ordered the Soviet team's hockey equipment seized to guarantee payment, threatening the start of the series.

Former Boston Bruins' coach Harry Sinden, who had been out of hockey since leaving the Bruins in 1970, was suggested by the media as a good candidate for the job of Team Canada's coach. Ron Brown, a sportswriter from Kingston, Ontario called Sinden and in the interview, Sinden admitted that he was available and willing to take the position. After a phone call from Sinden to Alan Eagleson, it was arranged for Sinden to have an interview with Hockey Canada's steering committee for the series in June. After the one interview, Hockey Canada selected Sinden for the position. Sinden selected former player John Ferguson as his assistant coach, after initially trying to recruit Ferguson as a player.

The Soviets selected Vsevolod Bobrov as the coach for the series. Bobrov was a former player who had played against Team Canada in the 1950s and later managed the Soviet national soccer team and the Moscow Spartak ice hockey team. Bobrov had been given the job as the Soviets' national ice hockey team coach, replacing long-time coach Anatoli Tarasov after the 1972 Winter Olympics. This was his second international assignment; his first was the 1972 World Championship, where Czechoslovakia had defeated the Soviet Union, ending a run of nine consecutive championships by the Soviets.

The Canadian team would be known as Team Canada for the first time. The name and sweater design was done by advertising agency Vickers and Benson. Eagleson wanted to call the team the "NHL All-Stars", but the agency convinced Eagleson otherwise, as the teams were from the USSR and Canada. The name Team Canada was inspired by the contemporary auto-racing team Team McLaren. The name is attributed to copy writer Terry Hill, whose first choice "The Dream Team" was rejected. The design of the sweater by designer John Lloyd utilized an enormous stylized maple leaf, like the Canadian flag, that covers the front. No numbers were on the sleeves, only on the back with the wording "CANADA" above the number. The sweater used only two colours: red and white, the maple leaf in one colour and the rest of the sweater the other. The name, sweater design and a team song were all prepared in 24 hours, in time for a previously scheduled news conference. The series itself was simply known at the time as the Canada-USSR Series, although the name "Friendship Series" had been suggested by the Government of Canada Ministry of Foreign Affairs.