The second the players walked into the lobby of the Intourist Hotel, designated solely for foreigners, they were welcomed with warm hugs and kisses from their wives, which they had expected. But they also received booming cheers from some 3,000 raucous Canadian tourists, which they definitely had not expected.

The Canadians, Sports Illustrated reported, came “supplied with beer, Scotch, mineral water, steak, Coca-Cola, towels, soap, toilet paper, miniature maple leaf buttons, regulation Canadian flags, enough gum to dam the Moskva River, and enough clothes to outfit the Soviet Army for the next 10 years.”

The Canadian travel agents had gotten the fans into the hotel the day before the players arrived, and they seemed to have spent the entire 24 hours getting a head start on the hotel’s ample sup- plies of world-class vodka. It was immediately clear that the hearty souls who made the rigorous and expensive trip were hard-core fans. There were no lightweights in that lobby.

Before meeting up at the Toronto airport for their flight, the wives knew only the women whose husbands played for the same team. The spouses effectively lived in the same silos the NHL had built for their husbands. But unlike their husbands, these women didn’t hesitate to get to know each other, so by the time they landed in Moscow they had already made lifelong friends. They’d also made a few friends among the fans, who had starting their ascent well before the plane’s.