Its time for the look back at the 1977 International World Hockey Championship! As usual the United States were slated to be heavy underdogs as the Soviet Union were once again sending their professionals, and so were Team Canada. Anyone from the NHL not playing in the playoffs was eligible for Team Canada's roster so they were supposed to compete with the Soviets for the gold. But what about the Americans? The Americans got to use pro's too, but they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. The previous year the US at least got to the medal round by tying Finland then beating Sweden, West Germany and Poland. They got absolutely annihilated by the Soviets, Czechs and in a rematch with the Swedes, but at least they got there. So let's see who came to play in 1977.
The Soviets were bringing their usual aces Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov, Valeri Kharlamov, Vladimir Lutchenko and Vladislav Tretyak and the Canadians were bringing the Esposito brothers Phil & Tony along with Carol Vadnais, Dally Smith, Eric Vail and Pierre Larouche. Unfortunately for them, they could have been even stronger but the first round of the NHL playoffs hadn't ended yet. For whatever stupid reason, the IIHF decided to have the World Championship in late April rather than wait till May to see if anyone else from the NHL wanted to suit up.
As you can see, Team USA was a motley mix of washed up NHL veterans, AHL tag-alongs and college kids. One of the reasons the team was so motley was back in 1977, the NHL was about 90 percent Canadian with the odd American, Finn, Czech or Swede tossed in. Not even Mike Milbury could have helped the Americans and he was with the Bruins on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Quite frankly amateur hockey in the United States was a joke up until a certain miracle a few years later, but that's a story for another day.
As if things weren't bad enough, the World Championship began in Vienna, Austria on April 21, 1977 and the first game out of the gate would be Team USA taking on the Esposito brothers and Team Canada. Let's see how that game turned out.
