Having read tons of articles and books about Bobby Clarke I clearly have the strange impression as if all of this staff is written about two completely different persons. Don't you have the same test? Here are two more of them
By Jeff Z. Klein. The New York Times
Czech Television gives us this fast-paced compilation of blood-curdling incidents at the IIHF World Championship down through the years. There are many here (which we’ll get to below), but none is more horrifying than one that took place not during a World Championship but rather during a 1972 “friendly” between Canada and Czechoslovakia: Bobby Clarke’s butt-end to the face of Czechoslovak captain František Pospíšil:
That Canada-Czechoslovakia game was played in Prague one day after the famous last-minute Canadian victory over the USSR in the Summit Series. Team Canada were traveling back from Moscow, and you’d figure they’d be happy and triumphant. But instead they were as truculent as they ever were in the Soviet Union, and Clarke, fresh off breaking the ankle of Valeri Kharlamov at the direction of assistant coach John Ferguson, went after Pospisil’s face with what might be the dirtiest play ever captured on film.
By the way, the Czechoslovak referee gave Clarke only a five-minute major for this act, and Canada wound up earning a 3-3 draw on Serge Savard’s goal with 4 seconds left — all in all a perfect reflection of Team Canada in 1972.
Other incidents highlighted on the Czech Television compilation of international aggro since the late 1940s include Canada’s Ryan Smyth hacking at Czech defenceman Jiri Fischer’s ankles at least eight times during the 2005 World Championship; Claude Lemieux and Keith Tkachuk mixing it up during the 1996 World Cup; extended mayhem at the 2001 WC, starting with Italy’s Mario Chitarroni clotheslining and then pummeling a prone Swiss player, followed by a vicious sucker punch by Italy’s Anthony Iob — apt name — that knocked out Jean Jaques Aeschlimann; and Canada’s Owen Nolan dropping a Czech player with a gloved sucker punch while the Czech was surrounded by three Canadians.
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There’s no doubt in my mind that Bobby Clarke was mentally ill. This incident was just one of several incidents where he used his stick as a makeshift machette. What’s even more disgusting as that NHL Linesmen turned a blind eye to it for years. The Clarke style of hacking and slashing your way to puck possession has become acceptable practice ’till this day. One of the reasons the Islanders will always have a place in my heart is that they were one of the few teams to stand up to the Broadstreet Bullies and end their reign of terror.
ReplyDelete— Martin Smith
I hope they play this video at Clarke’s induction to the hall of fame. No more sob stories about playing with diabetes etc. The ultimate cheap shot artist. Did not have to worry about retaliation thanks to Dave Schultz or the passivity of international players. Bobby Clarke defines the word “coward.”
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