page_title: East York Lyndhursts
section_title: Reactions in Canada
hierarchical_section_title: East York Lyndhursts / 1954 World Championships / Reactions in Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Malton "TCA" Airport 1960 in Ontario, Canada. This was the third terminal at Malton Airport and was built in 1948-49. It was demolished after "Aeroquay One" came on-stream in 1964. The crowd of people are watching the planes come and go from the observation deck.
context_page_description: The East York Lyndhursts were an amateur senior ice hockey team based in East York, Ontario, Canada. The team was sponsored by Lyndhurst Motors, played in the Toronto Ice Hockey League as part of the Ontario Hockey Association, and represented the Canada men's national ice hockey team at the 1954 Ice Hockey World Championships. The Lyndhursts were the first Canadian team to play against the Soviet Union national ice hockey team and they lost by a 7–2 score, to place second overall at the World Championships.
  Canada had previously dominated international competitions, and the loss was called "a national calamity, a national humiliation, and a mortifying experience", by journalist Elmer Ferguson. It was referred to as a "day of reckoning" in Canada by writer Michael McKinley, and a symbol of what went wrong with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association's international strategy. It was the beginning of a rivalry between Canada and the Soviet Union, increased interest by the Canadian public in the Ice Hockey World Championships, and ultimately changed the Canadian approach to selecting a national team.
context_section_description: Newspaper headlines the following day in Canada included; "Reds Give Us Lesson in Game We Invented" in the Toronto Daily Star, "No one but the CAHA can be held responsible for Canada's defeat" in The London Free Press, and "Perhaps the defeat of Canada by the Russians is the best thing that could have happened" in the Winnipeg Free Press. Journalist Elmer Ferguson wrote in the Montreal Herald, that it was "a national calamity, a national humiliation, and a mortifying experience". Despite pleas from the Canada public, the Government of Canada vowed not the get involved in the business of hockey, and would not provide funds for a team to represent Canada internationally.
  Canadian reporters waited at Malton Airport to interview players as they arrived, and even questioned Eric Unger while he was in the restroom. Don Lockhart felt the Lyndhursts would have won easily if physical contact was allowed in the international game. Other players on the team were disappointed with how the loss was perceived in Canada. Reg Spragge remarked that, "You would have thought we lost World War Three, not a hockey game"; whereas George Sayliss felt that, "I think we got more publicity over losing than if we'd won it". Norm Gray summarized the financial frustrations by saying, "Nobody in this country as far as government officials would give any money towards sending us over there. The moment we lost the game, it was a whole different ball game.
  George Dudley invited suggestions on how the CAHA could better form the team. He believed that the best eligible teams were the senior A-level and junior A-level teams, but the cost of sending them was be prohibitive. He also noted that the timing of the World Championships coincided with playoffs in Canada, and it required at least 15 days away their schedule in Canada if a team travelled to Europe and return by airplane. Dudley stated that no team would agree to leave at a critical team in their domestic season, and that teams would not generate revenue for the trip without the customary series of exhibition games. Profits from the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup playoffs would not sustain the cost of flying a team to Europe annually.
caption: Malton Airport c. 1960
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