47th Anniversary: Joe Watson Recalls Red Army Game

The 47th anniversary of the Philadelphia Flyers' famous 4-1 win at the Spectrum in 1976 against the world-renowned CSKA (Red Army) team is on January 11. PhiladelphiaFlyers.com contributing writer Bill Meltzer sat down with Flyers Hall of Fame defenseman Joe Watson to look back on the game.Following is a Q& A discussion about the Red Army game.

Note: Watson and Meltzer are working together on Joe's autobiography, with the working title of "Thundermouth: My Seven Decades in Hockey". Look for the book in late 2023.
Q. The Red Army team was undefeated heading into the final game of their North American tour of games against NHL clubs. The Montreal Canadiens had tied them, but no one had beaten them before they came to Philly. Did the Flyers. as defending two-time Stanley Cup champions, feel pressure to uphold the honor of the NHL?
A. I wouldn't say pressure. We understood this was different. Even when we played in Toronto, where everyone hated us, people were wishing us luck against the Russians. [League president Clarence] Campbell hated us and he told Mr. Snider and our organization that it was up to us to win it for Canada and win it for the NHL. But we didn't care about that. It was our team against their team; the two best teams in the world at that time. Damn right we wanted to win, but we wanted to win for ourselves.
Q. Bob Clarke had played against the Soviets in the Summit Series in 1972 but for most of you, it was your first time playing against them. Even then, the Red Army team had a mystique about them. Were you curious to see firsthand what they were all about?
A. Yes, but Freddie Shero had us thoroughly prepared. We knew what to expect and we knew what we had to do to win. We were a very confident team. They had to come into our building and beat us. and we weren't going to let them do that.
Q I know that Shero looked forward to coaching against the Red Army every bit as much as he relished coaching the Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals. He was probably the first NHL coach of the time period who'd studied Soviet hockey in-depth, correct?
A. Absolutely right. There probably was not one person outside of Russia who knew and understood Russian hockey as well as Freddie did. He used to travel to the Soviet Union in the offseason to do international coach's clinics. I think he was the only North American coach who went. He also became friends with [Anatoli] Tarasov, the guy who created the system that Red Army played. They called Tarasov the "Father of Russian Hockey."
Freddie's parents were from Russia and then immigrated to Winnipeg. I don't think Freddie spoke the Russian language, though. Tarasov didn't speak English. But they spoke the language of hockey and they spoke vodka! Apparently, Tarasov had Freddie over as a guest at his home in Moscow. They'd sit up all night, diagramming hockey plays and sharing a big bottle of vodka.
Freddie loved to talk about his trips to Russia. He brought back some practice drills from Russia that he used with the Flyers.
Anyway, Freddie knew the Red Army system inside and out. He studied it and he knew how to beat it. The way to beat it was to let them circle and weave all they wanted. Don't chase the puck. Keep 'em to the perimeter. The key for us to control the netfront areas and the corners. I remember that Freddie told us before the game. "We'll show them a real 'Iron Curtain', and that's what he did.
Q. Bernie Parent was injured at the time, and unavailable to play against the Red Army. He was the two-time defending Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner. Was that of any concern going into the game?
A. Not really. Obviously, Bernie is a Hall of Fame goalie and he was a big part of our two Stanley Cup championships. But, by our second Cup year, there were a lot of nights when we held teams to about 15 to 20 shots. Especially at the Spectrum, we expected to win every night, no matter what team we were playing. Boston, Montreal, Buffalo, the freakin' Red Army: It didn't matter. We played the same kind of game, and had the same identity. We knew who we were and we knew we had great coaching, too. We didn't get outworked by anyone. Also, Wayne Stephenson was a pretty good goalie in his own right. Not on Bernie's level when Bernie was at his best but solid.
Q. The Flyers outshot the Red Army in the game, 49-13. That's pretty dominant, even against what was very much a pass-oriented team.
A, Yup. The Russians never adjusted, at all. They were still doing the same thing in the third period -- weaving around the perimeter, back passing -- they did in the first period. A lot of their players were also pretty reluctant to battle on the boards and especially to go into the corners with our players. We didn't run around, but we hit them every chance we had. They didn't like that. As skilled as they were, I think they were a little intimidated by us.
Q: That's a natural segway to Ed van Impe's hit on [Valeri] Kharlamov and Red Army's coach, Konstantin Loktev, pulling his team off the ice in protest of van Impe not receiving an elbowing penalty. Were you caught off guard by the walk off, and were you aware of the drama and negotiation that took place before the Red Army returned?
A. I think everyone was a little confused at first but, apparently, it wasn't the first time the Soviets pulled that stunt when they wanted to stall or try to intimidate officials.
Freddie said, "They'll be back." He was right, as usual.
All the stuff with Mr. Snider and [Alan] Eagleson and [Clarence] Campbell telling the Soviet officials they wouldn't get paid for the tour if they didn't come back finish the game: We heard about it after the fact. That wasn't our job to negotiate the situation. We stayed focused on the game.
Q. Red Army didn't get anything they wanted from the walk-off. They didn't get a penalty called on van Impe. They didn't get the delay of game penalty that [referee] Lloyd Gilmour called for the walk-off to be rescinded. Supposedly, Loktev ranted and raved at his players after he was done yelling at the referee. It backfired. Is that an accurate retelling?
A: Holy smokes, did it ever backfire on them. [Reggie] Leach scored on our power play right after they came back. A few minutes later, Rick MacLeish scored and we were up, 2-0.
Q. Red Army had one of the best goalies in hockey history: Vladislav Tretiak. What was it like playing against him?
A. He was their best player. We probably would have won this game by a much bigger score than 4-1 if not for him. He played well.
Q: While we're discussing Tretiak, Im sure you already know the next question...
[A: [Chuckles] Yup, yup. My shorthanded goal.
Q: First, walk me through the play.
A. Moose [Dupont] was in the box. Bird [Don Saleski] carried the puck into the zone and got off a shot at the net. I had nothing but open ice in front of me so I joined in the attack all the way to the net. The rebound came right to me and I scored. It wasn't a fancy goal but I still get asked about after all these years. I didn't score many goals, and it was pretty neat to get one shorthanded in a big game like that.

Q. Shero said you'd set Russian hockey back 20 years in one play.
A. [Chuckles] Yup, that's what he said. Actually, Gene Hart used to tell a joke that he was in Russia many years later and he saw a chain gang hard at work. They looked old and hunched over but they were doing hard labor. He asked their translator, "Who are those men?" The guy said. "Oh, those were our players on the ice when Joe Watson scored shorthanded!" [Laughs again]. But I was told something like 150 million people in the Soviet Union watched the game on their state-run television station. Red Army versus Stanley Cup champions. In 2017, I was with the Flyers Alumni Team on a hockey tour of Russia to play against Russian alumni teams. Everywhere we went -- Kazan, St. Petersburg and Moscow -- there were Russian sports media to cover the game. They all asked me about that game from 1976 and the goal I scored.
Q. Is it true that a group of Flyers players went over to the Red Army's dressing room after the game? No team or government officials, no interpreters, just fellow hockey players.I saw that mentioned in a retrospective on Puckstruck.
A. Yup, it's true. They let us in and we shook hands. They were sitting in the room, drinking straight vodka and beer. We drank with them. They were good guys and, obviously, good hockey players. There was a lot of respect.
Q. But there was also a lot of tension before the game, if the stories are accurate.
A. There definitely was tension.Before the game, we had this "Goodwill Summit", or whatever they called it. Speeches, handshakes, all that jazz. But the whole time, their players were staring at us and we stared back at them.
Q. Gamesmanship?
A, That's exactly what it was. They were trying to figure out which one of us was [Dave] Schultz, because they'd heard stories about him. We wanted to beat them, real bad. Mr. Snider wanted it just as much as the guys who played. We all wanted to show our team was better than theirs. To feel that way, even though you don't like the other team, you've got to respect them. We didn't fear them. We respected them, and they respected us, too. Beating them the way we did was one of the best experiences in my career.