 The incident was widely reported and condemned by the Soviet press . Kharlamov himself believed that " Bobby Clarke was given the job of taking me out of the game . " The slash was apparently done at the instigation of assistant coach John Ferguson . " I remember that Kharlamov 's ankle was hurting pretty bad . I called Clarke over to the bench , looked over at Kharlamov and said , ' I think he needs a tap on the ankle . ' I didn 't think twice about it . It was Us versus Them . And Kharlamov was killing us . I mean , somebody had to do it . " Canadian journalist Dick Beddoes asked Clarke about it later at a team reunion , calling it a " wicked two @-@ hander " , to which Clarke replied " Dick , if I hadn 't learned how to lay on a two @-@ hander once in a while , I 'd never have left <unk> <unk> . " 
