“[Benching Tretiak was] the biggest mistake of my career,” Tikhonov told Coffey through an interpreter. “Tretiak always played better after he gave up a goal. The decision was a result of getting caught up in emotions. After Tretiak gave up the rebound and let in the soft goal by Johnson, my blood was boiling. It was my worst mistake, my biggest regret.”
Also:
“We were already celebrating,” defenseman Valery Vasiliev said. “Nobody can skate with us in the third period.”
I mean, a lot went into the why we won, and why they lost, but I would say that that quote (“we were already celebrating”) did more to contribute to the United States winning than anything else. I don’t want to take away from the Americans accomplishments. Yes, the Russians were over-confident and so they made some terrible mental errors. They didn’t respect the American team, thought they could breeze through the night. The Americans were so much of a team, and so hungry for success, that they jumped on those crucial errors and turned the situation around – (Mark Johnson’s goal with one second to go is the perfect example).
So yeah. The Russians messed up. But only a true team could cohere enough to fully take advantage of the situation, and the US team, led by Herb Brooks, did.
More interesting quotes from a new book out – telling the Russian side of the miracle on ice.
Bear in mind too that every last player that played for Tikhonov thought he was a colossal schmuck. He screwed every player on every team he ever coached, and given that they all had army rank and Tikhonov outranked them, there was a lot of terrible things he could and did do to them.
I spent some time working for Stan Fischler, the hockey writer, at the point he was working on a book on the Russians in the NHL. Everybody that came over, including Fetisov and Larionov (the former, I think, was on the ’80 team) said they wanted to get as far from Tikhonov as possible.
One factor that needs to be considered are the opinions the players had of their coaches. The US players would have jumped in front of a bus if Herbie had asked them to. The Soviets would have pushed Tikhonov right into the Greyhound’s (or the Soviet equivalent) path.
Interesting, dan – thanks for the insider’s view.
One other thing, though: Assistant coach for the US team Craig Patrick said that it was “Herbie-bashing” from the start up until the last day of the Olympics. The team bonded in their hatred of Herb Brooks (and this was part of Brooks’ plan – to unite them – give them a common enemy). Mike Eruzione said that years later – even after their great triumph – he still felt afraid of Herb Brooks, and awkward in his presence.
Is there a difference between the two hatreds (hatred of Tikhonov and hatred of Brooks)?
I’m sure there is. Just not sure WHAT the difference is. Thoughts?
About nine Hall of Fame players from the Montreal Canadiens all hated Scotty Bowman as their coach.All they did under him, was win and become immortalized in hockey history.
I think the difference lies in the player’s understanding of what their coach was doing. The US players, I suspect, understood that Brooks was trying to get them to win. They may not have grasped his purpose in everything, but they believed he was doing it for them.
Tikhonov, from what I’ve read, was doing things TO his players, not FOR them. Tikhonov was playing power games, proving that he held his player’s fate in his hands. Fear will only get you so far, and in this case it wasn’t enough to overcome Brooks’ efforts and the US players’ tenacity.
I could get into a whole philosophic thing here about how this proves the US approach is clearly better than how the Soviets did things, freedom better than oppression, etc. Given the Soviets’ success over the years in international play, however, I don’t think that cuts it. You needed a genius like Brooks combined with dedicated US players and mistakes on the Soviet side.
In this one glorious instance, everything came together for the US, and gave us a sports moment for the ages.
PS I admit I’m shocked Tikhonov kept his job. Normally, colossal failures like his mean a trip to the gulag, or more permanent “reassignment”