The Russian Five by Keith Gave

Author:Keith Gave [Gave, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Game-Changers: On and Off the Ice

Detroit Red Wings television broadcaster Dave Strader knew he was witness to history in the National Hockey League on October 27, 1995, at Calgary’s Olympic Saddledome, and he had the presence of mind to do something about it. When the game ended in a lopsided 3-0 Detroit victory, Strader carefully tucked away two copies of the final score sheet when he left the arena, intent on preserving a piece of that history.

Four months earlier, the Wings had advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, only to be humiliated in a four-game sweep by the New Jersey Devils. Nevertheless, expectations among fans and the media were sky-high once again. But the new season began with a bit of a hangover. Detroit had won just four games, lost three and tied two in its first nine games that fall. Playing win-some-lose-some-tie-some hockey wasn’t quite what fans – or team management – had in mind. But change came swiftly and dramatically on that night in Calgary, when anyone on either bench or among the near sellout crowd of 19,001 could sense that a seismic shift had taken place in the NHL. It happened in the early minutes of the game, when Detroit coach Scotty Bowman sent the first all-Russian five-man unit over the boards.

Newly acquired Igor Larionov was at center, flanked by Sergei Fedorov on one wing and Slava Kozlov on the other. On the blue line were two former Soviet national team captains, Slava Fetisov and Vladimir Konstantinov. International hockey was crashing the NHL party, and this would prove to be kryptonite against the long-held view – predominantly throughout Canada – that the more Europeans on a team the less likely it would succeed. Wings executive Jim Devellano said he heard it in his own dressing room from one of his most reliable veterans, who was blunt in his warning about relying too much on imports: “You keep drafting them Europeans, Jimmy, and they’re soft,” the unidentified player said. “We’ll never win a Stanley Cup here with those guys.”

Larionov, one of the more analytical minds the game has seen, understood the significance of the moment in Calgary and what it meant for his country and the pride Soviet players and fans had in their game. The “Us vs. Them” rivalry between the Soviet Union and Canada was celebrated in both nations for its fury, always passionate and often brutal. Like when a Canadian player used his stick as poleax to chop at the ankle of the best Russian player, sending him off the ice with broken bones. Throughout history, this was a battle of nations among worthy adversaries. Now the Red Wings were planning to deploy five Russians in a single unit on an NHL roster, melding two distinctly different systems. So, yes, Larionov acknowledged in a conversation with reporters hours before that game in Calgary, those five Soviet players carried no small burden into this historic moment.

“It’s a lot of pressure because it’s the first time in NHL history five Russian guys play on the same unit,” he said.

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