Hello
Not that I consider myself an expert but I have studied Soviet sport for a long time.Way back when I was a fledgeling college football player I came across translated Soviet sport material in the university library. It was very different and frankly more advanced than anything I had encountered up to that time. When I tried my hand at being an Olympic weightlifter I found that the more I found out the less I really knew(and that goes for the vast majority of my fellow Americans). In a nutshell the Soviets thought "Athlete first,specialist after". The Eastern Bloc in general was a mirror image of the USSR sport system,with a "tweak" here and there. Here's the thing- It was a SYSTEM!
But the same thing will happen to the athletes from these countries in virtually every sport that happened to ICE HOCKEY!As the SYSTEM degrades the whole infrastructure will collapse. Then those nations (former and present) will gradually over time cease to produce these athletes. Motivation was high in the Eastern Bloc during those days (some of it forced) and you had the best that could be produced in training,restoration,pharmacology,biomechanics etc. To be the best they needed all of that. Their raw talent was NEVER enough. The key is to learn from them ,apply what we can and discard the rest.(Bruce Lee)