The Global Game < 1986 IIHF World Championships >

With all the recent media chatter about the Canadian collapse at World Junior Championships in Alberta on New Year’s Eve, there has been a lot made about the “mediocre” goaltending put forth by the Maple Leaf. Many experts and hockey insiders point to the fact that there hasn’t been a dominating goalie prospect for Canada in some time. Not since Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003 and 2004 and Cam Ward in 2007. For even more to chew on there are only 12 Canadian-born goalies in the top 30 NHL net minders this season. That’s not even 50%!! And remember the long and storied roster of Canada’s masked men of International hockey legend: Ken Dryden, Tony Esposito, Rogie Vachon, Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Grant Fuhr just to name a few.

All of this controversy over the net position made me peruse through Canadian International hockey history to find another Canadian debacle between the pipes, namely, Canada’s entry at the 1986 World Hockey Championships in Moscow. Played annually at the same time as the beginning of the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, the World Championships are not high on the priority list of the Canadian hockey professional. Many experts and fans associate the tourney and especially Canada’s rosters with the also-rans of the league – tarnished star power, sub-par players on stuck on tragic, losing rosters.

Not the first time Hrudey backstopped Canada
 internationally. - Photo grab

In late April of 1986 Hockey Canada might have iced the most haphazard net-minding trio in Canuck International history. Imagine backstopping the true north, strong and free with the unfortunate goaltending pedigrees of such non-notables as Jacques Cloutier, Corrado Micalef and “bandana’ed one” Kelly Hrudey? Of the three chosen to patrol the net for Canada only Hrudey had a half-respectable playing resume at the time. Hrudey was a two-time goaltender of the year winner in the Central Hockey League (one the three NHL minor league feeder leagues) in 1982 and 1983. He was an upcoming hot rookie in the New York Islanders post Stanley Cup dynasty, with a chance at supplanting the great legend Billy Smith. Sharing the Islanders nets with Smith, Hrudey’s steady 3.21 goals against, .906 save percentage and 19-15-8 record in 45 games helped lead the Long Islanders to a 39-win season and an quick 0-3 first round playoff exit.

Micalef (left) in the pre-skate in 1986 - Photo grab

The next two goaltenders chosen would have any hockey hardcore fan wondering what Hockey Canada executives with thinking when they reached out for help in nets. The rest of this “help” came in the form of two goaltenders whom had difficulty staying in the NHL as full timers. Corrado Micalef’s unspectacular play in 1986 had him split time amongst three leagues, two of them minor, posting a dismal 5.52 goals against, .848 save percentage, winning only one game in a paltry NHL 11 games that season. His Detroit Red Wings were as unspectacular, finishing as the NHL’s cellar-dwellars. In his defense, Micalef might have been asked by Hockey Canada because of his work for his country in an early version of the World Junior Championships in 1980 at Helsinki, Finland. Micalef backstopped his country to one win in the tourney as Canada finished a disappointing fifth. As an interesting side note, Micalef never played in an NHL game after 1986. He headed to Europe the next season, ending his professional playing career in 2002.  

Cloutier wears the Maple Leaf for
the first and last time in international
compeition. - Photo grab

The third of this regrettable goaltending lineup was Buffalo Sabres backup Jacques Cloutier. Cloutier had been up and down from Buffalo’s farm team in Rochester over a seven-year span since being drafted by the Sabres in 1979. In fact Cloutier hadn’t seen a minute of NHL action until a year before this tournament in 1985, albeit only one single game. By 1986, Cloutier only saw 15 games in which his 3.37 goals against, .886 save percentage and 5-9-1 record certainly wasn’t enough to challenge Sabre’s star starter and reigning NHL goalie of the year, American Tom Barasso.

So let’s total up the damage that piled up on Hockey Canada brass’ feet. One average goaltender, who just broke through to have a reasonably successful first NHL campaign – Hrudey. Two career minor leaguers in Micalef and Cloutier, with the latter playing only 16 total NHL games in his seven year professional career. Not a lineup you’d have any hint of confidence in at all especially for this Canadian version as they were putting on the Maple Leaf in the den of Soviet Mother Russia’s bear.     

Hrudey in action in 1986

Moscow seemed like an easy place for a Canadian hockey player to get up for and play in. With storied Soviet-Canadian hockey battles over the years, it should have motivated even the weakest of squads to come out and prove to the world that Canada and the NHL rules. But that was not to be the case for the Canucks in 1986. Canada finished 4^th in the prelims with a lackluster 3-4-0 record, allowing 22 and scoring 24 in seven games. All four losses came at the hands of tourney contenders 4-1 Sweden, 3-2 Finland, 3-1 Czechoslovakia and one completely forgettable 4-0 blowout at the hands of the top of their game Krutov, Larionov, Makarov “green line” home team Soviet Union. Included in those losses, an anemic Canadian offense only could generate a lowly 4 goals in four games.

In the final round Canada was served another humiliating loss to the Soviets 7-4 in the first game. The Canadians made a valiant comeback in their second round robin tilt, pushing the Swedes to a 6-5 win, setting up a bronze medal game with Finland. A deadlocked 3-3 score heading into the third period gave Canada a breath of life and a reasonable shot at salvaging a disastrous tournament with a medal. With under three minutes to play, tiny Vancouver Canucks sniper Tony Tanti ( a man who once broke Wayne Gretzky OHL rookie goal scoring with 81 goals in 67 games) scored his 5^th goal of the tournament, capturing the bronze medal.