4 Nations Face-Off will be ‘great tournament,’ Gainey says

MONTREAL -- Bob Gainey will be in front of his TV at his country home north of Peterborough, Ontario this week, settled in to watch the start of the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off.

“There are so many great players on Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden. When they’re joined under their nation’s flag, it’s very special,” said Gainey, who proudly represented his country at the 1976 Canada Cup.

Gainey’s maple leaf-crested nation will renew international acquaintances with Sweden on Wednesday when the 4 Nations Face-Off begins at Bell Centre (8 p.m. ET, MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).

From CTV’s Sept. 7, 1976 broadcast, goals scored by Bobby Hull (off a shot by Phil Esposito), Bob Gainey, Marcel Dionne and Gainey again in Canada’s 4-0 Maple Leaf Gardens win against Sweden in the 1976 Canada Cup. Courtesy Hockey Hall of Fame/Hockey Canada and historian/video archivist Paul Patskou

Canada holds an 8-1 edge against Sweden in best-on-best play, its only loss a 4-2 round-robin defeat at the 1984 Canada Cup at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Historically outscoring Sweden 37-20, Canada has twice won by shutout -- Rogie Vachon in 1976, and 4-0 in the 1991 Canada Cup, also at Maple Leaf Gardens, backstopped by Bill Ranford.

The teams have met twice in Montreal ice, 4-3 and 5-3 decisions at the Forum in the 1981 and 1987 Canada Cup.

Their ninth meeting, in the 1996 World Cup, produced the longest game in NHL international tournament play, Canada winning 3-2 on Theo Fleury’s goal at 19:47 of double overtime.

The puck will drop Wednesday nearly 49 years after Gainey, then a 22-year-old Montreal Canadiens forward three seasons into his NHL career, made his international pro tournament debut at the 1976 Canada Cup. It was the first time the two teams met in NHL international tournament play.

Ottawa Citizen newspaper coverage of Bob Gainey’s starring role in Canada’s 4-0 win against Sweden in the 1976 Canada Cup.

Against Sweden on Sept. 7 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, in Canada’s third game of the tournament, Gainey would score twice and be named his team’s most valuable player in a 4-0 victory.

It was a sign of what was to come from the nearly indestructible 6-foot-2, 200-pound forward. Gainey would win the Stanley Cup five times with the Canadiens, serve as team captain from 1981-89 and be voted winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward the first four years it was awarded, from 1978-81. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992.

Canada would go 4-1 through the round-robin, defeating Finland, the United States, Sweden, losing 1-0 to Czechoslovakia then defeating the Soviet Union. It would vanquish the Czechoslovaks 2-0 in the best-of-3 Final to win the championship.

Sweden goalie Hardy Astrom watches the puck while teammate Thommie Bergman helps defend against Canada’s Darryl Sittler (27) and Guy Lapointe during a 1976 Canada Cup game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Gainey was a late addition to the 32 players who were invited to training camp, 25 at the time said to have survived the cut, a number since officially revised to 29.

“I went through the summer not expecting that I’d be part of that group,” he recalled, never knowing whether he got the call because of another player’s illness or injury. “I was in competition for a spot, there were never any guarantees that I’d play with others who had more experience and were more offensively skilled than I was or had been. I was just happy to be part of the group, to make the cut.”

Then, with a laugh, “I never minded getting that meal money, either,” vaguely remembering a 1970s per-diem of about $17.

Gainey was a scratch for Canada’s opener, an 11-2 win against Finland in Ottawa, and for a 4-2 win against the U.S. in Montreal. He thinks he was told at some point after the second game, probably by coach Scotty Bowman, that he’d play against Sweden in Canada’s next start. He had enough time, he remembers, to arrange for tickets for his parents and a few others.

Sweden goalie Hardy Astrom follows the puck while Stig Salming defends against Canada’s Bill Barber during 1976 Canada Cup action at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Bowman knew Gainey’s defensive strengths well, coaching him with the Canadiens, so he deployed him on a line with Toronto’s offensively gifted Darryl Sittler and Lanny McDonald. The three would suffocate Sweden’s top trio of Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg and Roland Eriksson, and provide some punch with Gainey’s two goals.

“I was really just getting started in the NHL, so to have an invitation to that training camp, then making the cut of players, was very special,” Gainey said. “Just a few years earlier, I was muddling around in Peterborough (playing major junior). It was a pretty big leap for me.

“We were still somewhat playing in a style with offensive lines and a defensive line. Even though Darryl and Lanny were both prolific offensive players, we were slotted as the checking or two-way line. It was a super strong team, there were no weaknesses. Offense could come from everywhere.”

Bob Gainey watches the action from the bench during a Montreal Canadiens game against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 16, 1987, at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

And it did that night, legendary snipers Bobby Hull and Marcel Dionne beating Sweden’s Hardy Astrom, Gainey finding the range twice.

If you listen closely, you might still hear the sound of Hull twice crushing Swedish defenseman Borje Salming, two late legends meeting with bone-jarring force.

Hull, known as the “Golden Jet,” was most famous for his blazing speed and his tremendous shot; even then at age 37 with the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets, almost two decades into his professional career, his acceleration was still awe-inspiring and his slap shot greatly feared.

But despite being widely regarded as hockey’s most muscular player, very rarely did Hull throw a bodycheck, seemingly more focused on his offense.

“Now we know that he could have been a destructive hitter all along, if he’d chosen to be,” Toronto Star columnist Jim Proudfoot wrote the next morning. “He delivered two thunderous slams in the first period of last night’s Canada Cup tussle, levelling Salming each time, and Maple Leaf Gardens is still quivering from the impact.”

Canada’s Bobby Hull skates in front of Czechoslovakia goalie Vladimir Dzurilla and defenseman Milan Chalupa during a 1976 Canada Cup game at the Montreal Forum.

Team Canada captain Bobby Clarke was among the many in the building that night who knew Salming was the proverbial straw that stirred Sweden’s drink.

“It’s nothing new, eh?” Clarke said. “Just like playing the Leafs in the NHL. Everybody knows you’ve got to control Salming or he’ll murder you. The Swedes built their whole offense around him. He’s the guy who brings the puck out of their zone and he’s the man they want to get the puck to on the power play.”

Bill Barber, a Clarke linemate and Philadelphia Flyers teammate, sent the first message to Salming with a solid check.

The superb Swede shook it off and soon unleashed a long shot that was Vachon’s stiffest test of the night.

But then came the freight train wearing Hull’s sweater.

“Salming wasn’t the same player we saw in Sweden’s first two games,” goalie Gerry Cheevers said, having witnessed the wreckage from Canada’s bench as Vachon’s backup. “We can thank Hull for that. Those hits would have stopped a Clydesdale.”

Canada went into the game a bit on its heels, having had all it could handle with the U.S. after having eased past Finland to begin the tournament.

Borje Salming gives a tour to Swedish hockey players at Hockey SENSE, in partnership with the NHL, NHLPA and Beyond Sport at the World Cup of Hockey 2016 at the Hockey Hall of Fame. At right, Salming in action during the 1991 Canada Cup.

With Hull’s quick goal then his wrecking-ball treatment of Salming, leaving Maple Leafs fans a little conflicted as they saw their star defenseman steamrolled, the game’s tone was quickly set. Hedberg, a feared Swedish sniper, would prove to be a non-factor.

In the end, the resilient Salming would play 26:16 of the 60 minutes, having been celebrated during pregame introductions with a prolonged standing ovation from adoring Maple Leafs fans.

In praising his linemates, Gainey told reporters the game’s intensity rivalled that of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was uneasy talking about his two goals, suggesting that “maybe or two or three times” previously had he scored twice in a game.

In fact, in 224 regular-season NHL games to that point, he’d scored twice on four occasions, accounting for eight of his 35 goals.

Bob Gainey salutes Bell Centre fans during a pregame ceremony in Montreal on Oct. 22, 2024.

“This is quite a change for me. I’m not used to it,” Gainey joked.

He would finish the tournament with two goals and a championship, suiting up for Canada again in the 1981 Canada Cup, when he had four points (one goal, three assists) as part of a team that suffered an 8-1 Montreal Forum humiliation at the hands of the Soviet Union in the Final.

Now, nearly a half-century after his memorable night against Sweden, he’s eager to watch his country play that opponent again to lift the 4 Nations Face-Off curtain.

“You’ll get excellent play from everyone,” he said. “They’re all really strong teams with dynamic players, so I think it will be a great tournament.”

Top photo: Canada’s Bob Gainey skates between Czechoslovakia goalie Vladimir Dzurilla and defenseman Milan Kajkl during Game 1 of the 1976 Canada Cup Final, played at Maple Leaf Gardens.