YoubetCash.vip Agen Judi Online Aman & Terpercaya
JIMMY DEVELLANO: Growing up in America,
right or wrong, fair or unfair,
we were kind of trained to be...
"Those Russians, they're bad people.
"They're against us."
We sort of had that mentality.
Even me, a little bit.
But all I was concerned about was,
"How can I get good world-class players for the Red Wings?"
And I knew that there were good players in Russia.
The problem was you couldn't get them out to the National Hockey League.
JIM LITES: It's now four o'clock in the afternoon,
three o'clock in the afternoon in Portland.
We had arranged a car service to pick us up
at the airplane.
And we said, "Well, how are we gonna do this?"
We checked into the hotel where the Russian team was staying.
Sergei had a game that night, and we got Sergei on the phone.
He said "Let's go."
And Sergei said, "No, it's my last game.
"I wanna play in the game."
I said, "Oh, okay, here's what we'll do.
"Take the key to your room, slip it under our door,
"And we'll go up and get the luggage
"when the game's over." I said, "I'll be in the lobby,
"you come off and you follow me.
"And we go out the door, get in the car,
"get in the plane, back to Detroit right away."
NICK POLANO: The game is over. We park the limo on the side of he hotel.
It's dark back there.
The driver is asking me if we're mafia and we're gonna kill somebody.
So, I'm saying... "No, no, we're not doing anything bad like that.
"We're waiting for a hockey player."
Literally, we were making up as we went along.
I said, "Look. He's a player of action.
Your player's gonna leave the Russian team,
he's coming to play for us. We're with the Detroit Red Wings management.
I said, "Look, I'll give you an extra 100 buck tip.
"Just do what we say. Just low-key it."
So now, it's ten o'clock, it's post-game, and I'm sitting in the lobby.
This bus pulls up in front.
The last guy off the bus is Sergei Fedorov.
He walks into the lobby, looks at me and goes, "Ready to go, Jim."
So, we're passing the elevators,[ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]
...suddenly, the doors open.
And it's a guy that Sergei knows.
And Sergei says, "One minute."
I'm kind of like, "What are you doing?"
I've never been more scared in my life.
SERGEI FEDOROV: I had no idea if he might grab me
because he was twice bigger than me.
He said, "Where are you going?" "I'm going to Detroit."
He was, "Yeah, yeah, let's go have dinner. We'll talk about that later."
I'm like, "No, no, no. Here's a gentleman right there, I'm going."
So he follows me down the hall. We get in the car, and I asked him,
"Who was that and what did you say to him?"
He said, "Well, that's my roommate, and I said to him,
"'I've not been kidnapped, I'm doing this on my own free will.
"'And I will see you down the road.'"
And that's how the Russian Five started.
FEDOROV: I felt like I made a right decision.
I was ready to play hockey there.
JEFF DANIELS: The work ethic, that is the Midwest,
we have to outwork you.
You went to Yale.
I went to Central Michigan University.
So I gotta outwork you.
You can't imagine what it was like in Detroit in 1982.
The city was beaten.
Seventeen percentage interest rates. Really high unemployment.
You know, it was a mess.
I remember covering hockey games in Joe Louis Arena.
And what they call Devil's Night, the night before Halloween.
And there were cars flipped over and burning.
and that's what people remember about Detroit.
DANIELS: Back when Detroit was
truly the Motor City, in, you know, the '40's...
We were jammin' cars out of here. That's gone.
You're living in a part of the country that everybody thinks is worthless.
And the Red Wings have always been a salve
for the city of Detroit.
MICKEY REDMOND: You see, hockey players'd get either sticks or pucks in the face,
and they get stitches. As soon as they're fixed up, they're back up going again.
I think people in Detroit, Michigan,
uh, the automotive capital of the world,
really, really connected with that kind of thought process.
ANNOUNCER: The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup four times
within a six years span with what has been called the greatest team of all time.
DAVE STRADER: There hadn't been a championship in Detroit since 1955,
during the glory years of Gordie Howe
and the production line with Alex Ovechkin and Ted Lindsay.
Things really started to slide in the '70s.
And slid even further in the '80s.[CROWD CHEERS]
REDMOND: When I got traded here in '71, things were out of whack pretty good.
The Red Wings were buried
so far down, they couldn't see the top.
And it was demoralizing for a Wings fan, and you can't blame them.
There were no fans. There was no excitement.
They were always referred to as the "Dead Wings."
STRADER: And I'm sure there was thoughts in this town,
like, "What's gonna turn this things around?"
When were you first interested in buying the Detroit Red Wings?
When my business started taking hold fairly well,
I kind of dreamt about it, but I never, honestly, thought it would happen.
REPORTER: We've had some rough sliding the last 10 years or so.
But we've had some glorious years.
KEN HOLLAND: Mr. Ilitch and Mrs. Ilitch, they bought the Detroit Red Wings.
Because they wanted to see hockey, um...
mean something again.
I plan to surround myself with lot of competent people.
And roll up my sleeves and work 24 hours a day if it's necessary.
ANNOUNCER: Ilitch's first job
was to hire the most capable general manager he could find.
And where better to look than the Stanley Cup champions.
Jimmy Devellano had been the architect of the Islanders draft.
The team I took over in 1982 was in the Detroit River, quite frankly.
You're looking to at least five hard years.
You've got nobody in the bushes, and you have the "maybe" three players
who really can play in the NHL.
Well, that's...
I'm giving you a blunt assessment. I don't mean to be rude or anything,
but you don't have any kind of a hockey club.
You're a justifiable 21st after tonight.
Well, I was hoping that maybe we could by 1990,
contend for the Stanley Cup. That's what I... 1990.[INTERVIEWER LAUGHS]
Well... Well, Dick, listen, now the...[LAUGHING]
DEVELLANO: I was completing my 10th year with the New York Islanders.
We were just coming off our third consecutive Stanley Cup.
And it was really, truly a team that was built through the draft.
And I had promised the Ilitches, I'd promised the city,
that we would build this team through the draft.
Is your owner... You think he'll have the patience, Mr. Ilitch, the Pizza King?
He tells me he has, and I have to take the man at his word.
LITES: The first draft of the Devellano-Ilitch era, was 1983.
The first round pick was Steve Yzerman.
I certainly wasn't sitting there thinking, "Oh, my God," like,
this organization had struggled.
You're bright-eyed and hopeful and there's new ownership,
there's a new general manager. You're thinking nothing but the best.
Now you pick up Stevie Yzerman. I'm interested.
And the fans get interested. And that...
goes for a while.
But when there is some mix of bad years with veterans on the way out
and it's not working.
We still need the pieces that put it all together.
And it takes a long time to build a great team.
DEVELLANO: I thought it would take forever.
And I was getting nervous.
I didn't feel you could get enough players out of one draft,
and I knew that there were good players in Europe.
Especially in Russia.
The Soviet Red Army hockey club was the gold standard
when it came to international hockey. They won everything.
DEVELLANO: Our scouts watched the Russian team
and when they came back,
they sang the praises of several young Russians.
But they really sang the praises of one Sergei Fedorov.
The problem was, there was an iron curtain.
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
LITES: No Russian player would jump as their family would be murdered.
[IMITATES NECK BREAKING] So, the feeling was
if you took a Russian or a Czech,
you were really wasting your draft choice.
But I felt if we get him in three years,
five years, ten years,
Even if we get him 10 years from now, he's only 28,
we got a world class player.
HOLLAND: When you draft a player, you own their rights, basically, forever.
But everybody was scared to use draft picks on the Russian players
because you didn't know if you'd ever see them.
And draft picks are assets, and you didn't want to use an asset
on something that you didn't know if you'd ever see.
KEITH GAVE: When Gorbachev came along, the Soviet Union began changing.
Things started to ease up.
And so, the Soviets had started to release older players.
But it didn't guarantee that the younger guys were gonna come.
At least not without a fight.
DEVELLANO: Being the general manager at the time,
I had to make the final decision.
You never know what's gonna happen in the future.
LITES: There was a certain amount of feel
that if we don't start taking these Russian players earlier,
other teams are gonna do it.
DEVELLANO: So, I used the theory.
Who are we gonna get here now in the fourth round
from North America, really?
And so it was on that basis in '89
when we got to the fourth round,
we selected Sergei Fedorov.
GAVE: When they made that pick and you could hear that, that was an audible gasp
like, "Oh, my goodness, what? The Red Wings just took a Russian,
"with their fourth pick in the draft!"
DEVELLANO: I'm sure a few teams snickered,
"There goes Devellano wasting a draft pick."
But I thought that the best 18-year-old in Russia
would be able to come over here and be a pretty good player.
When we got to the 11th round, we did the same thing with Vladimir Konstantinov.
I believe he was 22-23 years of age.
LITES: An established player, captain in the Russian military,
a wife, a child.
There's ever a communist guy that would be hard into the Russian system.
The last guy that's ever gonna come is Vladimir Konstantinov.
DEVELLANO: To be fair to ownership,
I'm sure at times they wondered if it was a good strategy.
But I didn't feel it was a big gamble if you could get the players.
And I turned around and looked at our executive vice-president at the table.
I said, "Now we got a superstar here.
"You find a way to get him."
LITES: There's no book, you know. You couldn't anywhere and say,
"Okay. How do you get a guy to defect?"
I knew one guy that spoke Russian.
that was involved in hockey in Detroit
a beat writer with the Detroit Free Press, Keith Gave.
Usually, I didn't hear from Jim Lites
unless he had something to complain about,
something that I'd written or whatever.
He said, "Okay, here's why I asked you to lunch."
"You're the only Russian speaker I know that knows hockey.
'Would you consider possibly helping us make contact with these players?"
I'd read enough about reporters
being used as pawns in the middle of espionage
And I'm thinking, "Why not me?"
I said, "You know, the only thing I ask...
"I want the story first.
"If you can give me that, I'll pass along your message to these guys."
Couple of weeks later, I was on my way to Helsinki, Finland.
LITES: We created letters.
The one that Fedorov was basically had been drafted by the Detroit Red Wings,
and "We will do anything we can to help facilitate
"your decision to come to North America to play."
We wrote a second letter to Vladimir Konstantinov.
"If there's ever a change in the political climate,
"we would love to have you be a part of the Detroit Red wings."
We had to take the position that
he would report us to the authorities for just even making contact with him.
GAVE: I get to Helsinki with my reporter's credentials.
And the guy took me to the dressing room area.
And brought out Sergei and Vladdy, and they're both dripping wet.
He just yanked him right out of the showers and brought them out there.
I shook their hands...
I spoke to them in Russian a little bit.
And I was getting a little nervous
'cause I noticed a guy who kept leaning forward, leaning forward.
I'm convinced that he was their KGB guy
who made sure that none of these guys defected.
And I said, "Oh, yeah, I got this media guide."
And I can see Sergei thumbing through the book.
He sees the little thing I had tucked in the way,
and he took the book and he kind of put it behind his back.
I had the Detroit draft list and it showed Sergei,
"There you are, fourth round by Detroit, 74th overall."
And, Sergei, he'd be a great card player, 'cause he showed no emotion at all.
Then I showed Vladdy.
I said, "Look, and the Wings drafted you in the 11th round, here, Vladimir Konstantinov."
Vladimir Konstantinov was like the little kid who got the shiny blue bike for Christmas.
He was bouncing around. He was really excited.
Couldn't wait to get on the phone and call Jim Lites and say,
"Jim, mission accomplished."
We felt lucky. We had made contact with them.
They knew we had drafted them within a month
of the actual draft occurring.
So this was the first year of the Super Series.
where three different Russian teams
had a goodwill tour of NHL franchises.
But Red Army team were playing in Chicago.
We had a goalie coach named Phil Myre.
He said he's got a good friend who knows the Russian players.
The official photographer for the Red Army team.
And I got on the phone with Michel right away.
And he had Sergei on the phone.
And we made an arrangement at that time
that Michel and I would meet with Sergei at the Drake hotel
during his two night stay in Chicago.
It was interesting for me. It was like little bit exciting
more than scary.
I have a guy from KGB and I choose not to tell him
'cause I don't wanna get anybody in trouble.
[DOOR OPENS] Sergei comes in. Dressed in his best suit.
When I say a good Russian suit for a 20-year-old kid,
it looked like something that you gotten out of Goodwill.
We ordered dinner, talked for four hours.
And I armed myself with an NHL Standard Players Contract.
It was identical to the contract Steve Yzerman was playing under at the time.
I had $10,000 in U.S. cash.
And I had a nice brochure of the Riverfront Apartments.
And I'd gone to a Chevrolet dealer and gotten a beautiful, glossy photograph
of a brand new Corvette.
And I fully intended at that time
for Sergei to leave the Drake Hotel with me.
I have no idea how my mum, my dad would react.
I have no idea how government react.
Those thoughts were on my mind.
I said, "Sergei, this money's yours if you leave now."
You never know what's gonna happen. This is world politics.
FEDOROV: I understand what they make, what they drive.
It would be interesting to play in front of 20,000 people every night.
LITES: He said, "No, I do not want to desert from the military."
And I felt bad that I didn't bring the player back with me.
FEDOROV: Most important feeling from the exhibition
I knew I can play against those guys.
And to me they were superheroes.
DEVELLANO: In 1987, I went to see a Four Nations Tournament
and I'm looking at the Russian team and I see a player without a number.
I found out it was a young boy by the name of Slava Kozlov.
I got on the phone to my ownership, Mike and Marian.
I said, "I've just seen the best 15-year-old player I've ever seen
"in my lifetime."
HOLLAND: We knew he was a fabulous talent.
But, again, you didn't know if you'd ever get him.
DEVELLANO: So, in 1990, I got bold, I got cocky,
and I said, "We're taking him in the third round."
[EXHALES]
Third round, you can get some North American players.
It's not the fourth round, it's the third round.
LITES: So now we had the three Russians to shoot for.
And to be honest with you, I had no idea how we were gonna be able to do that.
FEDOROV: I was living at the hockey base.
Those trainings, those bags were so heavy.
Just sleeping, resting, eating, and training.
There was no internet. There was no newspaper sometime.
We were so secluded eleven month.
It kind of get us a little bit down, you know.
And when you're in the cage, when you're on that island, I would say,
you start to think and feel different.
You just want freedom, I guess.
ANNOUNCER: Sergei Fedorov's team came to America for some good hockey and goodwill.
Instead of Fedorov, it was goodbye.
The CBS and NBC affiliates are reporting
that Fedorov has defected one station
reporting that he is already in Detroit.
LITES: I moved Sergei and the interpreter right into my house
and my home phone rings.
[PHONE RINGS] And it's some guy from the State Department.
"Mr. Lites, do you know the whereabouts of Sergei Fedorov?"
So I basically said, "Yes."
I'm on the couch in the basement, watching this crazy TV
with colors and all that stuff.
LITES: It was a night of about six phone calls back and forth
with the State Department, Russian officials, and myself
with Sergei sitting on the couch, laughing.
And I'm like holding the phone over,
"You got any intention to going back to Russia?"
And he's like, "No. Nyet."
FEDOROV: I don't wanna go back home, you know.
And the issue was over.
A little bit of tension here. The calls were nasty.
Quite fun, to be honest with you. I had a pretty good time with it.
DEVELLANO: And later on, it just so happened
that the team that Konstantinov played on,
was going to play the Red Wings, here at Joe Louis Arena.
We arranged that at two o'clock in the morning,[ALARM BEEPING]
when the Russian team was sound asleep,
that he would sneak down the back stairs of the Pontchartrain hotel
across the road, into Joe Louis Arena. I had the door open.
In the meantime, I got two great, big satchels full of money.
Just wanted to emphasize how his life could change over here.
I mean, I knew it was a struggle over there.
Here, you're gonna be... You're gonna be rich, Vladdy. You're gonna be rich.
I said, "Vladimir, you're an NHL player,
"we'd like to have you.
"And we want you to stay."
And he looked at me sadly, and he said,
"I would like to come,
"but I have a wife and a daughter.
"I can't desert them."
Plus, he's a captain in the Russian military.
So, if he deserted,
he'd be considered a felon in Russia which would make him, automatically,
incapable of getting an H1 visa to play in the National Hockey League.
I said, "I understand, Vladdy,
"I want you to come over here with your family.
"We're gonna find a way to get to you down the road.
"Don't forget us."
FEDOROV: It was exciting time.
I understood I'm gonna live right next to Joe Louis Arena.
I understood I'm gonna have a Corvette.
I was like, "Wow, this is nice.
"All that just to play?"
I took my Corvette and just drove to the malls.
It was fun. Just go there and just, I guess, learn everything.
How you put gasoline in a car.
Simple things like that.
Where we're gonna have lunch,
what do I need for apartment?
Pillows, draperies. [CHUCKLES]
There were a few guys who were upset with Sergei coming in and having these things
lavished on him. They didn't think he paid his dues.
I think they felt that he walked into this goldmine.
And that they were going to be put aside.
It just appeared to me 'cause I was in the front of the plane.
that they were being not so inclusive to him.
And it wasn't everybody. But you could see it and you could feel it.
And I know he felt it.
BRYAN MURRAY: Language was a little bit of an issue.
Style of play was an issue. Newness to the NHL was an issue.
But Sergei was a good guy. He really wanted to be good.
REPORTER: How do you like the American girls?
[TRANSLATOR TRANSLATING IN RUSSIAN]
[SPEAKS RUSSIAN]
TRANSLATOR: They're really pretty.
REPORTER: Can he speak any English to us now?
I just like to try to get him speaking some English to us if...
[TRANSLATOR TRANSLATING IN RUSSIAN]
YZERMAN: It was hard to get to know him because, you know,
I couldn't speak a word of Russian.
And he was starting from scratch, trying to figure everything out.
NICKLAS LIDSTROM: When we were roommates,
I would wake up in the middle of the night
hearing someone talking in Russian.
kind of, you know, under the sheets.
And I see a cord from the phone going in under the sheets...
Sergei's talking to someone over in Russia.
LITES: For the next draft,
Sergei's agent comes in my office and says,
"I can get Konstantinov out." And he said, "I need cash.
"I need a car," as he put it.
I have to work with some doctors.
GAVE: The doctors said, "He needs to go to America for treatment."
And the doctor said that because they were being bribed.
LITES: They all swore
that he had inoperable sarcoma and in a flick of a pen,
He got discharged from the military.
And I never asked any qu... That's where the money went.
They got everything together
for Vladdy and his wife, Irina, and daughter, Anastasia to come to Detroit.
And that's when the hardline communists tried to get their country back.
LITES: I get a frantic call that says:
The Russian military is taking over the country again.
They had closed the airport in Moscow.
I said, "Just get them out of Russia."
He said, "I can get them to Budapest."
I said, "And I'll meet you in Budapest."
We get to Budapest,
picked up Vladdy, Irina, and their baby.
Headed right for the American consulate.
There was a delay in getting Irina and the baby out.
HARRIS: Vladimir was having really strong opinions
that he did not want to go without her and their daughter.
And we were going, "Vladdy, we need to get out of here."
LITES: Irina was very powerful and said,
"No, Vladdy, you go and get started. And we'll be right behind you.
[PLANE TAKING OFF]
JOHN WHARTON: I think it was harder for Sergei because he was the first.
When Vladdy came, you couldn't separate Sergei and Vladdy.
FEDOROV: We were roommates in Red Army for a couple of years, actually.
When he came, I was like,
"Oh, cool, I get the chance t hang out with somebody from back home."
MICHAEL CHOVICH: I think that the homesickness
eased when he had somebody he could grasp onto.
They go Blockbuster. They get movies.
And Sergei got theTerminator movies.
And he got Vladdy watching them with him.
They got started on the American culture,
and they really dove right into it right away.
After Vladdy arrived, his wife, Irina,
and his daughter, Anastasia, arrived also.
They were overwhelmed with relief when they got over here.
IRINA: I feel wonderful support from the Red Wings, and it's really, really
gives us great feeling.
REPORTER: Was this a dream come true for you
when you arrived here and when you were playing
in the NHL, as you call it, the best league in the world?
Yes, was dream come true
because I always want to play in the best league in the world.
LITES: Our first meeting with Slava Kozlov was interesting, to say the least.
He'd been in a car accident and he was in the hospital.
POLANO: The other player with him in the car was killed.
His agent called me and he said, "Nick,
"can you do me a big, big favor and go over to see him?
I didn't even hesitate.
[SLAVA KOZLOV SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
POLANO: Going in the Red Army hospital, my heart was pumping.
Especially when I saw the soldiers in there.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
LITES: We were prepared to take the risk.
Get him out of Russia. Get him into the care of our doctors.
And we've got a world-class talent.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
LITES: And in two years, we'd gone from being the Red Wings
to being "the Red Wings."
REPORTER: The Red Wings Soviet players, obviously, have a close bond.
Not only through their on-ice comradery,
but Sergei Fedorov, Vladimir Konstantinov
Slava Kozlov have had to learn the English language from scratch.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
Yeah. What'd he say?
Yeah, he said he can understand some words, you know.
REPORTER: For Kozlov, learning has been slow.
He's the least developed of the three.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
REPORTER: Can he say pizza yet?
[TRANSLATES IN RUSSIAN]
Pizza? Yeah.
He can say pizza.
COMMENTATOR: Quintal rolls it back. Kozlov has it there.
This kid can move. He's got great speed.
And Ysebaert back to Fedorov.
Fedorov goes to Ysebaert,
He goes to Kozlov, back for Fedorov for shot.
...score!
Kozlov will get an assist!COMMENTATOR 2: Oh, boy!
COMMENTATOR 1: And his first shift around the ice...
STRADER: We were seeing different kind of Red Wings team
with all these Europeans coming in.
Really fun to watch. Five, six, seven goals, ever night, it seemed like.
And it got everybody's attention.
[INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT ON PA][CROWD CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR 1: From behind on Fedorov.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
I understand some players and organizations worried
that they might be out of the NHL
if many Russian players or European players
came over at that time, but, they were better than a lot of our players.
DEVELLANO: I'll tell you frankly, and I'm not gonna reveal the person's name.
A good guy, but he gave me shit.
He said, "What are you doing bringing all these Russians over?
"They're gonna take my job. I'm a Canadian.
"And I've worked all my life."
And this person's still a friend of mine' today. Good guy. Good guy.
But he gave me hell
for drafting all these Russians.
GERARD GALLANT: You know, let's face it. Hockey was Canada's game then.
They're coming over, they're gonna have to play the Canadian way.
They're gonna have to toughen up.
YZERMAN: Their ideology is different, their values are different.
It's just they grew up in a different system.
and as a result, they thought differently than us.
DON CHERRY: You know, I was gonna come on here and be a good guy,
You know, right at the first show.
"Don't talk about the Russians," and you know, and all that stuff.
And, you know... Well, let them come over here. No way!
I don't want them here.
The players don't want them here.
What is this? Hockey Night In Canada?
Or Hockey Night In Russia?
You saw a Russian, you were, basically, you were gonna slash him
or try to intimidate him, crosscheck him,
show him no respect.
GAVE: All those guys took a fair share of abuse.
But at the same time,
Detroit started winning a lot of hockey games.
COMMENTATOR: Here's a chance for Fedorov.
He's being chased by Murray Baron!
Gets a shot and he scores!
What a shot by Fedorov!
And the Red Wings lead by a pair.
STRADER: This team was getting a lot of buzz.
But when they faced teams that were playing good shut down defense,
it was a struggle.
They won a lot of hockey games. They couldn't win in the playoffs.
COMMENTATOR: ...cross-ice, Rouse got a shot and they score!
And an overtime goal here in game 7.
So just an incredible end to the season for the Red Wings.
I don't think it was a case of running out of gas or anything, it was just...
We didn't play well down the stretch. And that continued into the playoffs.
DEVELLANO: There was a feeling that we needed to see if we couldn't bring in
a guy that had won cups, numerous cups before.
And we were able to bring in Scotty Bowman.
Scotty Bowman is somebody that knows how to win.
He's won. I know what he can do.
And I feel good about it.
Scotty Bowman came to Detroit with a reputation as the best coach
in the history of the game.
When Jim Devellano contacted me,
and asked if I wanted to come to Detroit,
I didn't know a lot about Sergei.
But then when I got to Detroit, you could see the skill level was
right off the charts.
FEDOROV: It was hard in the first year
to understand what's going on.
Scotty was a little bit more tricky.
He is not gonna prepare you everyday, like babysitter, no.
He will actually make you understand
you gotta do this plus
double that more.
SCOTTY BOWMAN: Well, I'm demanding. I feel the players want that.
I'm a stickler for detail
and maybe in some eyes they're wondering,
"What is he worried about all those little things for?"
But I think if you get all those things done,
the rest takes care of itself.
He could do something that a lot of coaches aren't able to do with elite players.
He could push them hard to make them the best they could be.
A part of the reason he could it is he had rings on all his fingers.
COMMENTATOR 1: ...in return for Phil Housley,
Emerson and Quintal, here's Ysebaert now.
...try to play his own cast off the board.
Now Yzerman. COMMENTATOR 2: Steve Yzerman got decked.
Oh, did he get hit? Oh, this play. Boom.
I was just sad as most of the fans in Detroit that Stevie went down.
He is going right down to the Red Wing dressing room. Yeah.
FEDOROV: Nobody knew when he's coming back.
But out of bad, always happens some good.
I started receiving a lot of ice time.
COMMENTATOR: ...back at Fedorov and he slams it home!
I think he took it upon himself when Stevie got hurt.
that "I have to lead this team offensively."
COMMENTATOR: ...drops it back instead. Here's Fedorov into the play.
Fedorov snaps a shot. ...goal!
FEDOROV: I remember first three-five games.
Twenty-nine, 30 face-offs.
I couldn't catch my breath.
When I start playing those heavy minutes,
no matter what pressure I received from opponent,
everything's standing still.
COMMENTATOR: Score!
I thought it was gonna be for a couple of weeks, not more.
All of a sudden, I'm running like that, almost all year.
COMMENTATOR: Fedorov, Fedorov...
Scores!
GAVE: Sergei was on fire.
And suddenly, we noticed that he was in a pretty good race
with the highest scoring player in the history of the world, Wayne Gretzky.
WAYNE GRETZKY: Listen, we all knew how good Sergei was.
He's one of the most talented players I ever saw in my life.
And he's got a special unique talent.
COMMENTATOR: Fedorov to center ice,
Fedorov playing hook,
Back hand and scores!
COMMENTATOR 2: That ties Fedorov with Gretzky.
GAVE: When you're going head-to-head against Gretzky, you've sort of arrived.
COMMENTATOR: Sergei Fedorov on a penalty shot!
[CROWD CHEERING]
Really fun to watch, and really ramped up the excitement
and expectations in the city.
And then Sergei suffered a concussion.
COMMENTATOR 1: Here comes Fedorov 91 in the right.
Burr's gonna come from the left.
There it is. Oh, my! COMMENTATOR 2: Oh, jeez.
He never even saw him coming. Wow.
And hope that...
he can regain...
GAVE: He had missed three or four games.
Wound up losing their scoring race by ten points.
STRADER: There were whispers,
"Will he play every night. Will he play hurt?"
Is Sergei Fedorov a guy
that's gonna understand what it takes to win a championship?
After all, he's a Russian.
And then we get to the playoffs.
The Wings were gonna start with San Jose
and just roll to the Stanley Cup finals.
That's what the expectations were.
Didn't work out that way.
COMMENTATOR: And that is gonna do it for these series
as the third year of San Jose Sharks...
have won four games to three...
FEDOROV: It was pretty upsetting
after that kind of a season.
But things were not going our way.
GAVE: Igor Larionov just took control.
He was one of the older generation
who had somehow escaped the Soviet Union.
He was one of the smartest hockey players we have ever seen.
Larionov is frustrating to play against. He'd make these passes that nobody else made.
You know like, why is that puck going over there?
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
By the time you figure, "Oh, it's in the back of the net..."
That sucked. You know I... Still bugs me.
GAVE: It shocked everybody.
A number eight seat beating a number one seat.
[CROWD BOOING]
COMMENTATOR: And where do you begin to even think about
what the off-season of 1994 is going to bring to the Red Wings
with this disappointing elimination?
And I would have to look into that locker room and figure out
why this team in these situations,
does not rise to the occasion.
BOWMAN: So we had the three and we were getting better.
But we didn't win, of course.
We were trying to get defense depth.
DEVELLANO: Scotty came to Kenny and I, he said,
would we be interested in Fetisov?
BOWMAN: Viacheslav Fetisov, he was going down history
as the greatest Russian defenseman of all time.
He was with New Jersey.
DEVELLANO: I said, "Well, what would you have to give up for him?"
I can get him for a third round pick.
Certainly, I was wondering,
you know, what we were doing.
Using a third round draft pick for an old defenseman.
Kenny asked me and I tell him, "Absolutely."
Simple as that.
Five second conversation.
Would you or would you not? I said, "Absolutely.
"It would be good for our team."
GAVE: The two key players for the Soviet National team.
The captain of the team was Viacheslav Fetisov.
And Igor Larionov,
led the way for the younger generation of players.
DAVE LEWIS: As soon as Slava came in,
the Russian guys, they didn't bow,
but they really respected who he was.
FETISOV: Then I realized, "Why am I came to Detroit?"
Maybe to help the guys to realize their talent
their potential.
LIDSTROM: Growing up as a little kid,
I watched the Soviet Union dominate in the hockey world,
so I was just thrilled to be able to play with him.
YZERMAN: It was intriguing for us because it was...
Pretty big name. Didn't know him, I knew of him.
He got on the ice with us very quickly.
We were like, "Hey, this guy's pretty good." You know.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
GAVE: And Fetisov was able to get the best out of those guys.
Primary example, Sergei had banged up his shoulder.
VIACHESLAV FETISOV: I call and I said, "Let's go for dinner."
And he said, "I'm not feeling like going to play tomorrow."
He said, "It's so painful."
And I said, "Let's go."
Slava Fetisov, myself and Sergei Fedorov were at Joe Louis Arena,
the night before the game till 3:30 in the morning.
Sergei Fedorov running into the glass,
wearing Slava Fetisov's shoulder pads.
So Slava Fetisov was working on this, while I was working on this.
STRADER: They get on a roll and they get to the finals.
against New Jersey with the chance to win the Stanley Cup
for the first time in 40 years.
BOWMAN: I thought for sure in '95,
we would win the Stanley Cup.
We marched through the first three rounds
and we had home ice advantage.
Well...
COMMENTATOR: Fedorov... Oh, Stevens gave up...
We got swept by the Devils very unceremoniously.
COMMENTATOR: And the bodycheck of the playoffs.
You don't believe me, ask Kozlov.
Talk about metaphors for the series, that's as good as any, right there.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Two to nothing, New Jersey.
I thought very comfortably we could turn around and win it.
I'm like, "Guys, we're not excited." Like, "Why are we not excited?"
We are a great team.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
We didn't get all the guns
pointed at the enemy.
COMMENTATOR: The Devils have won the Stanley Cup.
[CROWD CHEERS]
[HORN TOOTING]
Reality is the best possible cure for your dreams, I would say.
Fetisov, Scotty Stevens' teammates,
even this season, before Fetisov was traded.
HARRIS: The younger Russians were in shock to see Slava emote so much
over this loss.
DEVELLANO: Fetisov was the star of the Soviet system, Olympic gold medal winner,
but he yet hadn't won the Stanley Cup.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
HARRIS: It was a long
quiet ride back to Detroit that night.
We have this incredible hockey player
and he's crushed.
And here comes Vladimir who wanted to help him feel better.
DEVELLANO: We should've won it.
And now people are starting to ask questions.
We were too soft. We had too many Europeans.
You can't win with Russians. You can't win with Swedes.
They just doubted the team from top to bottom.
People questioned Scotty Bowman.
They questioned if we could get it done.
But we had no choice to stick with that team.
We'd gone to the finals in '95.
You're not gonna change a lot.
You just can't.
BOWMAN: The first time I ever saw Soviet hockey
was with a junior team as assistant coach
in Ottawa, Canada. And we had a...
A game against the Soviet National team.
We got beat 10 to 1.
They played a different style.
They didn't worry about checking. They were good passers.
We never had the puck.
Scotty Bowman, he appreciated the system. And he knew one thing.
That the Russian game is played in five-man units.
Scotty came in one day and said to me,
"Jimmy, I got a chance to get Larionov"
I said, "Scotty, how old is he? Isn't he 36?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know, but he'll go good with all those Russians."
I said, "Well, who you gonna give to San Jose?"
"I'll raise Sheppard."
I said, "Scotty, like, you know, he gets 35-40 goals."
[INHALES] "Yeah, I know, I know, but he's done that. We haven't won, Jimmy."
When they traded Ray Sheppard at the time,
he was the most prolific goal scorer in the National Hockey League.
He had a couple of 50 goals seasons.
The rest of the Wings management were furious that he gave up a 50 goal scorer.
DEVELLANO: Was I on board?
Not totally.
REPORTER: Tonight, the Wings are in Calgary to face
the winless and surly Calgary Flames.
And tonight with newcomer Igor Larionov, they'll add a dimension,
never before seen in the National Hockey League.
FEDOROV: Coming to the ring couple of hours before the game, we learned
we're going to play together, like...
casually, like, all of a sudden they announce we're in.
IGOR LARIONOV: First time in the NHL history,
five Russian guys playing in the same unit
and of course, it's big pressure because it's Detroit Red Wings.
It's one of the best teams in the National Hockey League.
COMMENTATOR: It has its obvious upside,
the fact that these guys came from a similar system.
They read each other very well.
But there's also a lot of pressure when you put on five of them out there at once.
I don't think there's any question that the Red Wings
have enough talent to win the Stanley Cup.
That is not a problem.
The problem in the past has been: Do they have the right mix?
And it'll be the Red Wings' version of the Fab Five.
We were feeling each other.
We had a good chemistry right from the get go.
COMMENTATOR: Konstantinov again, winds up, gives it back to Kozlov.
Kozlov in deep for Fedorov.
Back to the line, out for Konstantinov drives a shot high and wide...
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
COMMENTATOR: And here is the advantage of Kozlov,
breaking in for a shot ...Score!
LARIONOV: We had great time on the ice.
It was kind of like express ourselves.
and I guess maybe change the mentality of the National Hockey League.
COMMENTATOR: Fedorov into the zone, dropped to Larionov...
Rebound, Larionov, score!
The Russian Five, when they ran, they each had the puck all night.
The Calgary Flames in their own building had only eight shots on goal.
This was a great story.
COMMENTATOR: Now the Russian Five man unit hustles onto the ice.
This'll be interesting. Look at this.
Don't blink or you might miss something.
DEVELLANO: We rolled over teams, outshot teams,
and rarely lost.
Here now, you got five Russian players.
And you wonder, "How did we ever do without them?"
COMMENTATOR: Fedorov, Larionov and Kozlov. Here's Larionov back to...
[CROWD CHEERING]
Sergei Fedorov, strong, great skater, dominant.
Let me show you how great these Metro 25 tires handle.
[SPEAKS RUSSIAN]
He's got the look, with the hair and physique, and stuff like that.
So, yeah, go get it.
DEVELLANO: Slava Kozlov, quick, cut to the net,
a goal-scoring touch. Competitive.
Most miserable motherfucking guy in hockey history.
"Morning, Koz, how are you?" "Fuck you, man."
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
DEVELLANO: Slava Fetisov, an old war horse.
DR. JOHN FINLEY: They used to call him "the papa bear."
He was the guy that everybody could go to.
Right in the middle of all the conversations, the dinners, the card games.
Usually, the better hand he had, the louder he was, so...
That's his tell.
Helicopter. Let's play, boys, Let's play.
DEVELLANO: Igor Larionov, the professor.
A mentor to the young Russians.
DRAPER: He could think the game two passes ahead.
And you know, that's something that makes a player elite.
LIDSTROM: Igor brought the chess game on the plane.
He's always thinking.
Nobody could beat him in chess.
Igor definitely added a different element to the team.
From beer to wine. From chicken wings to sushi.
DEVELLANO: Vladimir Konstantinov, tough as nails,
and some North American meanness to it.
Vladdy didn't crave the media attention.
He was happy to have his family.
And happy to have hockey.
In a nutshell, that's Vladdy.
LIDSTROM: Vladdy was a lot more outgoing than a lot of people know.
And obviously, you have a language barrier,
to a certain extent.
But he wanted to be able to joke around and laugh.
Here he is.
♪ I wish you a merry Christmas I wish you a merry Christmas
♪ A happy new year ♪
All these preconceptions we had about Russian players,
for the most part weren't right.
INTERVIEWER: Merry Christmas, happy new year.
Wait, wait, wait... Kozy.
Look this way. Vladdy, look at Vladdy.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
Oh, I need a shave, too. Come on.
Don't worry. [LAUGHTER]
INTERVIEWER: Okay, ready here?
[ALL SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
[ALL LAUGH] STRADER: There hadn't been a championship
in Detroit since 1955.
The question was, can they succeed?
Could they sustain it?
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
I think the interesting part was just how different
the style of play.
COMMENTATOR: Larionov, he's in he scores!
We grew up in North America as just always go ahead.
You gain zones, you gain the line, you get it in.
And if you can carry it, then great.
If not, you make sure you get in and go chase it.
Their philosophy is totally different. It's we've got the puck.
We worked hard to get it.
We're not just giving it to you.
STRADER : There is a game of constant puck motion,
using teammates, passing the puck back and forth and so on.
as opposed to the clutch and grab, and dump and chase style
of hockey in the NHL.
It was keep-away. I mean, literally, they would play keep-away.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
McCARTY: You like chasing the puck around
for 40 seconds and not even have the chance to touch it?
No.
COMMENTATOR: We're back live at the Forum in Montreal
for the last time these two Original Six teams
will play in this building.
The one that I really remember vividly is probably the game in Montreal.
It was magical.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Larionov cuts in, rebound, scores!
Igor Larionov!
A powerplay and the Red Wings...
The most important part of our game was like the players without the puck
because we have to be open. We have to go to open spaces.
And that's what our mentality was. You always got like two-three options
to make a play.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Score!
Patrick Roy was on his way to becoming
one of the greatest goaltenders of all time.
And the Russian Five played a big part in the Red Wings dominating Patrick
and facilitating one of the biggest trades in NHL history.
COMMENTATOR: Score!
Score!
Close enough for the... Score!
They have beat Patrick Roy.
COMMENTATOR 2: Everything's going perfect.
COMMENTATOR 3: Fedorov takes it away center ice.
Sends it across for Kozlov. Kozlov cutting in.
Drops it back to Larionov...
These guys were magical, what they did with the puck.
COMMENTATOR: ...sends it out to Fedorov, scores!
You can't help yourself. You kind of laughed a little bit
at what they were doing.
COMMENTATOR: Here comes a hook. Patrick Roy will go.
STRADER: Patrick Roy finally came off the ice
And basically told the general manager,
"I played my last game for Montreal."
It was unbelievable. And Montreal, they made a hurried-up trade
they probably would regret for the rest of the time.
DANIELS: Initially, the Russians were all communists.
They're the devil.
But Detroit's a very knowledgeable hockey town.
Once they understood
that we still have the puck after 45 seconds,
on the five on five.
That's kind of cool.
[CROWD CHEERING]
DEVELLANO: We had one of the best teams in the history of the National Hockey League.
COMMENTATOR: And what an exciting year they have provided
for hockey fans.
DEVELLANO: We had about 130-131 points.
62 wins.
It looked like we couldn't be beat.
REPORTER: Nearly 20,000 fans in Joe Louis Arena saluting their team.
Fox Sports proudly presents Western Conference Final.
First game, the Avalanche and the Red Wings.
Avalanche had a super team.
They were similar to us. They had Joe Sakic. They had Peter Forsberg.
The final piece of their puzzle.
They were able to get Patrick Roy, the goalie from Montreal.
STRADER: Here you had two powerhouse teams.
If we get by them, we're gonna win the cup.
If they get by us, they're gonna win the cup.
GAVE: You could tell it from the first game
that Colorado's gonna try and knock around the Russians
to see if they could get them to leave the series.
Because that's what a lot of people thought
the Russian players would do.
COMMENTATOR: ...opportunities and there's going to be a penalty, a cross-check...
COMMENTER 2: Claude Lemieux...
Any time somebody has a real talented group of players,
that's the first thing that's said.
You gotta be physical against them. No back down.
LARIONOV: When you go on the ice,
you can sense, everybody trying to get a piece of you.
Trying to hit you from behind, kind of welcome to NHL.
COMMENTATOR: Here's Kozlov circling behind the goal
pushed him along the boards by Adam Foote.
Adam Foote is down. And we've got a whistle...
Kozlov, understanding what was about to happen,
stepped out of the way up ahead and put Adam Foote into the glass.
COMMENTATOR: Well, there's a lot of blood on the ice in the corner.
STRADER: And that set the tone for the whole series.
COMMENTATOR: Oh, was just decked by Lemieux.
Claude Lemieux, as Claude Lemieux is prone to do,
just sucker punched the kid.
It was ugly. It was dirty.
But that's the way Colorado was playing it.
And it it set up a terrible thing that happened at Game 6.
LEWIS: Going into Game 6, everybody was bound and determined to win.
Both teams are so good, and there's so much on the line.
And to lose was not an option.
COMMENTATOR: Draper...
Oh, Draper was really hammered by Lemieux.
Draper's face hit the dasher.
And he's gone in front of the Detroit players' bench...
I wanted to backboard Kris Draper
because he had a four-inch dent in the side of his face.
And he just said, "Like hell you are."
And he got up and skated to the dressing room.
But that's what hockey players do.
To see a teammate and a friend like that
be that injured, it took the wind out of our sails.
STRADER: The Wings really didn't mount much of a fight after that hit.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Three to one, Colorado.
You win 62 games, set a league record that would never be broken,
and they're out in the conference finals.
Yeah, that'll ruin your spring and summer.
DRAPER: I took, obviously, a pretty nasty hit.
The guys didn't really know the extent of my injuries.
Everything was magnified
because of the fact that they're going on the Stanley Cup finals
and we're not.
I think, you know, it fired up a lot of guys.
He was obviously trained to keep them from behind
using some cheap shots in the league.
They should take some serious measurements against this guy
This player shouldn't be in the league.
OSGOOD: That hurt, losing that series, 'cause we felt like that was our time.
And then when it wasn't,
you start to get worried. "Wow, is it passing us by and..."
Steve Yzerman's been there since the dog days in Detroit
so the pressure's mounting on him.
You never know how much time you're gonna have.
Who let them down
was Hockey Night in Canada'sfabulous five.
You know, the one that we featured every time.
Sure. You know, the five Russians and everything?
You know why they don't play good in the playoffs?
I'm gonna tell you why. It's game. Bang.
Game. Bang. And they don't like to be it.
And they folded like a tent, and it's too bad
when something like that happens with Stevie Yzer...
And I said it before.
Too many Russians. It was the same thing as I said last year
against New Jersey.
Russians were at fault again.
[LAUGHS]
RICK ROGOW: When the lost to Colorado,
I remember the Russian Five coming in to the restaurant.
And the conversation was all Russian that night.
It was led by the professor.
And I had Papa Bear.
They got so close.
And they really felt that they all betrayed themselves.
The whole unit as a Russian Five
were here to do one thing.
And it didn't work that way.
People often said with Russians, that the Stanley Cup really
wasn't in their focus.
The dream of winning a Stanley Cup is the biggest thing in hockey.
And probably more so in Detroit.
McCARTY: Colorado went on to win the Stanley Cup final.
Usually, you try to have one of those, well...
"Well, it's okay 'cause the champions beat us so, maybe we're sec..."
No. It was like, "Fuck them.
"That's ours. We got work to do."
You know, I really thought we would get it done quicker.
And you know, when it doesn't happen,
you're a little disappointed
that you haven't been able to kind of get it all together.
It seems that you're measured when you win a championship.
GAVE: The way Scotty deployed the Russian Five was beautiful.
But, the more they played together, the easier they became to defend.
LEWIS: And Scotty put the five together, and you knew what you were gonna get.
And if you didn't like that or didn't wanna do that,
he would break them up.
OSGOOD: When he split them up,
it opened up all of our eyes to a different way of playing.
If we do have the puck, you're always on attack.
So you don't have to defend.
I think it became contagious as the year went on.
One of the things I noticed when I came from Hartford
to Detroit that year was
just how good the practices were.
We just started to realize that if you scrimmaged against these guys,
it was very, very frustrating.
And it was no fun. But that made us better as group,
realizing what we had to do.
LARIONOV: When you train everyday against the best,
like Brendan Shanahan and Stevie Y., Chris Draper, you're getting better.
OSGOOD: Igor told everybody that you're better than what you think you are.
It evolved our game.
You see that and you see their effort
just uh, it rubs off on you.
There was a culture shift going on.
DRAPER: Sometimes, it was two hours before our playing in a game.
You got the Russian Five, and they're kind of kicking the soccer ball around
and the next things you know,
you know, we've probably had three-quarters of our team before games,
you know, warming up playing soccer,
and truly having fun with it.
YZERMAN: It's a special group of guys putting all egos aside
and really enjoying the whole process.
And now we were becoming a really tremendous team.
McCARTY: That year, we geared it down a little bit.
We didn't have the best record.
We saved guys.
The regular season wasn't the finish line.
DANIELS: This was a team built for blue-collared town like Detroit.
They were gonna do whatever they needed to do to get this thing done.
YZERMAN: If we wanted to beat Colorado, we had to take our game to the next level.
[CROWD CHEERS]
McCARTY: 1997, Vladimir Konstantinov
became scud missile.
Just relentless.
'Cause he'd just keep coming and he didn't care who you were.
Wayne Gretzky who?
That'd be Vladdy's answer.
GRETZKY: I hated him. [LAUGHS] Oh, it's a compliment.
Whenever I say I hate a guy,
that means I wanted him on my team.
I'm not sure who came up with "The Vladinator",
but obviously, when you think of the Terminator and what he did,
and you think about Vladdy, you realized how he played.
Hasta la vista, baby.
I think the fans in Detroit love a player that won't back down.
I would think the fans identified with that rugged warrior mentality
that we all wish we had on an everyday basis.
DANIELS: Everybody at their core in Detroit
sort of feels like that's who they are.
When you see the intensity of professional sports,
you can see how hard it is to get to the top.
And blue-collar people understand that.
The mid-west understands that.
[CROWD CHEERING]
LARIONOV: We gotta face again, Colorado Avalanche.
Seemed like they were playing the best hockey against us.
We lost them three times, I believe, in a course of the year.
DEVELLANO: Claude Lemieux, he hated him.
And for what he did to Draper,
we were mad at the League.
They only suspended him for two games.
Pierre Lacroix didn't like me.
I didn't like Pierre Lacroix.
So there was hatred there.
COMMENTATOR: The Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings,
set to face off, here on...
BRENDAN SHANAHAN: It was a bit of an elephant in the room
that nothing had been done yet.
about Lemieux and the incident with Draper the year before.
McCARTY: Something was gonna get done.
Nothing was said.
But everybody knew. Everybody knew in the world.
COMMENTATOR: Here is Larionov.
Avalanche holding the Red Wings in their own zone.
Larionov with Forsberg away from the play.
Never in my life I had any fights.
Forsberg with an extra hit to the head.
And Igor objects.
LARIONOV: Certain time when you gotta stand up for yourself and...
You know, do something.
COMMENTATOR: And it's an offence...
And now Darren McCarty
gets in, chucks in at Claude Lemieux.
Look who came all the way out to try to help.
SHANAHAN: I don't think Igor started the fight with Forsberg.
Because Lemieux was on the ice.
It happened organically.
I'll even tell you the difference between sucker punch and a cold-cock.
Sucker punch is from behind when he's not looking.
Cold-cock's when you're looking right in the eyes and hit him as hard as you can.
COMMENTATOR: Oh, my goodness!
He told me later that's the hardest he's ever been hit.
He said he knew internally he was out.
I just was trying to take his head off with my fist.
I wanted to seriously invoke pain in him.
COMMENTATOR: You never know when to expect it,
Darren McCarty said before.
SHANAHAN: A second later, I saw Patrick Roy,
the hash marks, in full stride.
It's an unbelievable scene.
And what happened next with all this jumping into the air.
it was like The Matrix.
COMMENTATOR: And look at who stepped in on Patrick Roy.
The whole game was a war. Like war all night.
Vernon and Roy!
FEDOROV: Well, it was personal after that.
And now we have that family approach.
Families fighting against each other.
COMMENTATOR: 301 days since they hit on Kris Draper,
and in the best time,
to seek, if you will, revenge,
is maybe when your opponent least expects it.
McCARTY: I remember going into the penalty box,
and Igor's in there, and I go,
"Way to go, little buddy. Way to start that stuff."
Clean-up time, as you can see by the Red Wings bench.
SHANAHAN: Five-to-three for Colorado,
maybe 10 or 12 minutes left in the game.
None of this matters
unless we win.
COMMENTATOR: Now back, Fedorov...
And the Red Wings at 4...[BUZZER SOUNDS]
Our score is 5-4.
FEDOROV: Wow.
COMMENTATOR: Looking to the side of Roy, he scores!
It's in. It went off the skate of Patrick Roy.
and the game is tied.
YZERMAN: We scored two goals to tie it up.
And we went into overtime.
And now the Red Wings with their fresher legs.
And it is shown, Larionov... Look at that play.
He scores!
The Red Wings win!
The Red Wings have defeated Colorado.
And the Wings with 6-5.
What a piece of artistic work by number 8, Igor Larionov.
Head up, makes the pass, and she's over.
It's Hollywood. That whole game was Hollywood.
COMMENTATOR: It was a night that certainly belonged to the entire Red Wings team.
We just knew that we did something special that night for us.
LARIONOV: We're doing well and before the playoffs,
we decided to have a nice meal together.
So, we got the music going. We got the Russian food.
We got the vodka.
LIDSTROM: It usually happens, there's a lot of toasts
when you go to big Russian dinners.
There's a lot of vodkas involved.
LARIONOV: We have some toasts, obviously, you know, in Russia.
So, every time, you can't really just have a quiet dinner.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You mean toasting every single, like, half hour.
'Cause it's a tradition for those guys.
Yeah, that was good.
[CHEERING]
It's an advantage.
I mean, I grew up with Italians.
So, I know that Italian dinner table 'and stuff like that.
It's just a big celebration.
YZERMAN: It was unique 'cause we hadn't really done that.
One, never been to really a traditional Russian-style restaurant before.
We're always going to a steakhouse.
This was an opportunity to do something different.
McCARTY: Just to get a taste of their world,
I tried borscht. Loved borscht.
I didn't realize it was beets. I love beets.
They sort of let us in.
The game was forgotten. The practices were forgotten.
And we're just in that moment, having a blast together, becoming closer.
McCARTY: Everybody was one the same page.
There wasn't no nationalities, no countries, no colors,
no anything, except bunch of hockey players
trying to win a big silver trophy.
OSGOOD: I think going into that playoff year,
we felt like it was our time.
That was our year to win.
[CROWD CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: Larionov... Score!
[CROWD CHEERING] A power play goal!
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Back passed to Konstantinov, Kozlov again, he shoots.
Score! Score!
The Red Wings have won it.
SHANAHAN: Everything was leading up to Colorado.
We lost Game 1.
They were calling us losers.
They were saying we were jokers.
They were Stanley Cup champs, and they were right.
But that game in March gave us such a psychological edge.
And we won the next three games.
[CROWD CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: Sergei Fedorov has had lots tonight.
He has been Detroit's best player.
MAN: Yeah!
Yeah!
Final score, 4-2 Detroit.
OSGOOD: We weren't afraid of anything.
We felt great about ourselves.
You gotta have a great team to win the Stanley Cup,
if you have to have some great players
take over critical moments of games with pure talent.
[BUZZER SOUNDS]
COMMENTATOR: Another win for Detroit.
CHERRY: I'll tell you boy, this is going to be a dandy, as I've always said...
Detroit has looked absolutely dynamite.
They've got to come out get that first goal.
Colorado has looked absolutely awful.
It's gonna be a dynamite game, I'll tell you.
LARIONOV: We came to Detroit for six, we knew...
We gotta finish them off here.
COMMENTATOR: We are under way. Colorado wins it, there's a game 7.
Detroit wins it, they're going for Stanley Cup finals against the Flyers.
OSGOOD: Whether you were Viacheslav Fetisov, a hall-of-famer,
Yzerman, Fedorov, everybody was the same.
And that's what it takes to win is when everybody's playing the same direction.
YZERMAN: We were one.
Without any one of them we wouldn't have been able to win.
COMMENTATOR: ...to get it. He took a hit from Fedorov.
[WHISTLE BLOWS] We played five and a half minutes and Sergei Fedorov
is down behind the Avalanche net
after that collision with Aaron Miller.
At the end of the first period, Sergei had left the bench.
It almost just starts to trickle down, like the telephone game.
Guy are whispering.
Sergei's got his equipment off.
Game 6 at home. We don't wanna go to Colorado for Game 7.
Sergei had injured ribs.
DR. FINLEY: He said he couldn't breathe.
I said, "He's gonna need a rib block."
STRADER: With everything that Sergei Fedorov had accomplished in his career,
there was still some doubt about whether he would play
through, you know, real pain.
SHANAHAN: Vladdy gets up,
[FOOTSTEPS]
Vladdy marches right through the center of the room past all of us,
and he marched into the training room,
[DOOR SLAMS]
And we hear in a high-pitched Russian scream,
someone yelling at Sergei.
And then Vladdy came walking right back with that stoic face again
and went and sat down.
Vladdy told him it's the last, like, 10 days of hockey.
And he have a summer ahead of you to get healed.
DR. FINLEY: We strapped him up, and protected him,
and he was able to get back on the ice.
FEDOROV: At some point, you have to put your mark in the history of the game.
COMMENTATOR: Swinging it off, Fedorov scores!
[CROWD CHEERS] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
LARIONOV: We were so close, and the team needed you
You scored the winning goal. That says a lot about Sergei.
FEDOROV: What doesn't kill us make us stronger.
COMMENTATOR: The Wings and the Flyers in a Stanley Cup showdown.
STRADER: A huge part of the psyche of Detroit is the sports teams.
Maybe because a lot of what Detroit has gone through as a city,
they appreciate a good team that's willing to battle to get to whatever
level it is that allows them to be a champion.
OSGOOD: As you can see the fans and the excitement,
you can see the pain sometimes,
You can sense it.
LARIONOV: We're talking about Detroit.
I'd say resilience of the city
relates to the Russian Five.
It's our time to give them what they've been waiting for for a long time.
[HORN TOOTS]
REPORTER: These two cowboys from Detroit drove this Zamboni
out of Joe Louis Arena
and arrived just before the game tonight
here at the CoreStates Center.
When you haven't won a Stanley Cup for 42 years,
I don't care how much talent you may or may not have on your roster,
you're an underdog.
COMMENTATOR: Jackson 5. Russian 5. Out in 5.
[PEOPLE CLAPPING]
JOEY KOCUR: We were not favorite.
Everybody had us losing in five or six games.
It was the Legion of Doom and the Philadelphia Flyers'
time to win the Stanley Cup.
DEVELLANO: Now we've gotta make it happen.
Because we just disappointed, you know, too often.
COMMENTATOR: The Legion of Doom line is on for the start
of the Stanley Cup final series.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
I went into that building and they dictated how the games were gonna be played.
[CROWD CHEERS]
We were quicker,
meaner, and hit harder.
COMMENTATOR: Detroit...
Shanahan is coming up there, winding up, score!
[CROWD CHEERS]
Only the second shot on goal for Detroit.
They get an early lead.
YZERMAN: Now we really had some excitement building
because they were going back to Joe Louis Arena
with a 2-nothing lead in the series.
COMMENTATOR: We are ready for Game no. 3.
Let's see if they can tie it.
Pass it out to Yzerman, score!
[CROWD CHEERS] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
Yzerman ties it just like that.
And again, score! [BUZZER SOUNDS]
And the crowd take the energy from the position team,
and you can feel the fans give you so much...
COMMENTATOR: Shanahan, and Kozlov...
In front, Fedorov scores!
[CROWD CHEERS] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Coming now... Oh, Konstantinov!
Biggest hit in the series, right there.
COMMENTATOR 2: There's nothing wrong with the hit.
SHANAHAN: Vladdy, he threw a lot of hard hits,
but the most memorable for me,
it had thrown off the Philadelphia Flyers so much,
it led to a goal later on that shift.
A nice goal.
Shanahan tipping up the net.
Now he centers it. Score!
[CROWD CHEERS] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
YZERMAN: After Game 3, you couldn't help but think about the fact
that there was a chance for this long Stanley Cup drought to end.
And it was gonna end at the Joe Louis Arena.
Man, the game's gonna be exciting. I can't wait till the game starts.
We're definitely gonna win. I think it's gonna be a sweep.
American, Canadian, Swedish, Russian, they're all Red Wings!
[CROWD CHEERS]
REPORTER: This is the city of Detroit.
The fans here have their brooms out.
And their homemade Stanley Cups on hand.
Because inside this building tonight,
they may have an opportunity that hasn't been here for 42 years.
The chance to see the Stanley Cup.
[CROWD CHEERS]
FEDOROV: I can only imagine Steve felt every year like...
mountain of Everest of pressure.
YZERMAN: People are chanting and they've already got their home-made Stanley Cups,
and I was like, "Probably, we should win this game tonight.
"It's gonna be disappointing if we don't."
COMMENTATOR: Yes, here we go, Game 4!
Around the net...
Flyers are skating a lot better tonight.
And it's causing a few problems here for Detroit.
DANIELS: We'd been disappointed so many times.
We spend all year and when it doesn't happen,
you just don't wanna get your heart broken again.
But the deeper they went, the more you got pulled in.
Until then, they were right up next to the Stanley Cup
and you're just going,
"Go ahead, break my heart again. I'm in."
COMMENTATOR: It's kept in by Maltby, to the line... Shot scored!
[CROWD CHEERING] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
Lindstrom. One-nothing.
Detroit, the...
It's like a huge relief to get that goal.
[CROWD CHEERING]
COMMENTATOR: Coming in there... Scores!
[CROWD CHEERS] [BUZZER SOUNDS]
Beautiful goal!
Two-nothing.
Detroit.
I'd beat one guy one-on-one in my whole career, I tell everybody, "It's all timing.
"Just gonna have to do it at the right moment."
I remember the play vividly.
Going, "Oh, my God, I got him beat."
And I look, like "Don't miss the net."
Explain to me Darren McCarty's goal.
And I'll explain to you some of the impact that the Russian Five had.
COMMENTATOR: We begin the third period.
The crowd sensing that this is the time.
We shall see.
DANIELS: Please win it here.
I'm here. I brought my son.
Asking a lot, but still.
[INDISTINCT COMMENTARY]
Shot, Vernon came back and covered it up.
He was close. If they get a goal here,
then all of a sudden, we got a finish.
I feel a tap on my shoulder with, like, two minutes to go,
And it's Atanas Ilitch. He goes, "Come on."
And I grab Ben. Game isn't even over yet.
COMMENTATOR: It looks like...
Philadelphia.
DANIELS: He walks me down through a hallway, under the stands,
now we're in the locker room.
And there's 30 seconds left in the game.
Long shot for the line. They score!
Philadelphia Flyers get a goal.
Eric Lindros got the rebound.
STRADER: It's two-nothing. It seems like it's gonna end that way.
But then the Flyers score. And you look at the clock and you go,
"There's enough time for this."
COMMENTATOR: Detroit, 2. Philadelphia, 1.
This is kind of way we always seem to do things. We can't do it easy.
Please win it here. Here, now, tonight.
Please, I'm begging you.
But looking around the building it's like,
"There's no way we're gonna screw this up."
[CROWD CHEERS]
It was so loud, it was silent.
We finally won our cup 15 years after I had arrived.
And I'd promised Marian Ilitch we'd win it in eight years, so...
It was good that I able to hang around to see it done.
[LAUGHS]
INTERVIEWER: Jimmy D, congratulations. What do you think?
Well, we finally did it this year.
And I'm just thrilled.
Some people think that the Russians and the Europeans
don't care about the Stanley Cup.
Your actions obviously show that is not true, right?
This is not true.
[BOTH LAUGH]
ANNOUNCER: Congratulations to Mike and Marian Ilitch.
It's my pleasure to present the Stanley Cup to Steve Yzerman.
YZERMAN: I wasn't sure if this was ever gonna happen.
This is what we dreamt about our whole life.
COMMENTATOR: There's the skate they've been waiting for.
The captain, Steve Yzerman.
Remember, it was Steve's 14th year? So, he'd been through a lot.
Organization had been through a lot.
COMMENTATOR: Steve will pass the cup to his teammates.
Where the Stanley Cup goes next
tells you a lot about the team.
He turned, and he passes to Slava Fetisov.
COMMENTATOR: How appropriate, a roaring Joe Louis
for two members of the former Soviet Red Army team...
LARIONOV: It was like really special to us,
and a very, very good by Stevie, so they are doing this to two old Russians.
FETISOV: Winning the cup at 39. It's almost end of the career.
It probably was a gift from above.
The happiest day in my life. I've been playing hockey for 30 years,
this is a great trophy and I'm so happy for everybody.
And for this town of Detroit.
[TRIUMPHENT MUSIC PLAYING]
Pandemonium here in the locker room, as you can see.
Thank you!
[ALL SHOUTING]
Jeff Daniels is with us. What's this? What are you doing here?
What am I doing here? [LAUGHS]
I'm like the token actor.
[BOTH LAUGH] Actor, right?
Yeah, big actor. Yeah.
Big, big famous actor.
Yeah, he's driving a little motorcycle, right?Yeah.
I'm very happy for my teammates.
They helped me win Stanley Cup and...
Now I feel very good.
I want to say thank you to you, partner,
for your great play, for being a big part of it. Congratulations.
Thanks. And have a great summer.
Okay? Bye, partner. Okay. Thanks.
[CROWD CHEERING]
Russian Five changed the Detroit Red Wings,
changed the NHL, changed the international hockey.
And we had a chance to see firsthand what great people they were.
FEDOROV: I'd like to thank Ms. Ilitch, man Ilitch.
to get me, and help me to get here to play
in best hockey league I ever played in my life.
[CROWD CHEERS] Thank you, guys.
Thank you. I just wanna say thanks for everybody.
Especially you guys, because you wait this cup so long,
and you deserve it.
This goes cup for you guys, thank you.
[CROWD CHEERS]
I'll be back.
DEVELLANO: We know about how good they were.
We know that they were the last missing piece for us to win.
But for me, I think, "Holy cow! I grew up with all this propaganda,
"The Russians are the enemy."
And here, we bring the enemy over
they become our friends.
And they make it all good for Detroit.
Few days later, the phone rings,
and it'sThe Detroit News. [VOICE BREAKS]
REPORTER 1: Breaking news tonight, two of our hockey town heroes
are in the hospital and they're in pretty serious condition.
REPORTER 2: A limousine carrying Konstantinov,
his teammate Slava Fetisov, and team masseur, Sergei Mnatsakanov,
veered off the road and crashed into a tree
in suburban Detroit.
FEMALE REPORTER: How badly did the people appear to be injured?
Not moving around too much.
A tragic ending to a great week.
It was gonna be the last day we were gonna be together as a team
and we just decided to have a golf outing at The Orchards
so most of the guys, they know where it was.
and so we just decided to take all limos.
MALE REPORTER: Their limo driver fell asleep, left the roadway,
and ended the celebration.
FETISOV: I remember it was acceleration of the speed.
And then it was the big hit.
And I look... Vladdy was lying next to me and...
there was blood all over the car.
FEDOROV: I'm not crazy about this subject at all.
I'm not crazy about this question about the limo accident.
MAN: Nice shaker...
MAN 2: Nice.
Oh, so sweet.
FETISOV: This was last day before everybody was going.
And we went to the golf charity game.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
We're not golfers, you know, and...
We were thinking not to go.
But this is the last day we can be together
as a team, then everybody was going home.
KONSTANTINOV: Hey, move your car, guys.
[COUGHING] What?
Move your car.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
We have the right-of-way.
LIDSTROM: We know we're gonna have a few beers on the golf course.
So we all decided to get out a bunch of limos.
So no one's gonna have a few beers and drive after the gold game.
Whoa! [LAUGHS]
I pulled into the club just as a limousine was pulling out.
And then the limousine stopped and the window rolled down.
And I said, "Where you guys going?"
You know, like the night's just starting.
And they said, "Too much partying all week."
"Too tired." Not very many words.
And they drove off.
REPORTER: Slava Fetisov is in fair condition with a chest injury,
and a bruised lung.
Sergei Mnatsakanov has a significant head injury. He's in surgery at this hour.
He's the team masseur.
Vladimir Konstantinov in intensive care.
Life-threatening injuries.
Will continue to watch the situation there at the hospital.
Vladdy had torsion at his brain stem
which is the worst closed head injury you can have.
I was told that night
that there was less than a 10 percent chance of survival.
YZERMAN: The early prognosis on Slava Fetisov was pretty good.
Well, I'm happy to be going home.
Vladimir and Sergei still need your thoughts and prayers.
REPORTER: Is Mr. Konstantinov on a ventilator?
I mean, we're hearing rumors about...
Please, just quelch the rumors if you can.
Let's have some facts to quelch the rumors at least.
[MURMURING]
MAN: Is Vladimir Konstantinov on a ventilator?
Yes, Mr. Konstantinov is on a ventilator at this time.
In a matter of couple of hours,
like, the greatest moments of all of our careers were completely changed
and became very, very irrelevant.
Our entire organization, I think that the entire city feels the same
that we're devastated by
the accident that occurred last night.
Obviously, we have great concern for our teammates and our trainer.
These players were beloved.
And maybe nobody was more beloved than Vladimir Konstantinov.
And he was lying unconscious in a coma.
REPORTER: Since the accident, family members and teammates
have been at his side doing what they can
to help him recover.
FEDOROV: I remember all those days in the hospital.
We don't know we're gonna win or lose.
I came in almost every day. I tried to help,
because the doctor said they wanna give some hope
like, there's people around, so they can hear you.
A lot of times we would play, you know, We Are The Champions
'cause that was... Vladdy really liked that song after we won.
He'd sing it in broken English and make us all laugh.
REPORTER: Fans have maintained an around-the-clock vigil near the crash site.
Sergei Fedorov stopped by here last night about 2:40 in the morning.
He appreciated us being out here and...
It was a real good feeling.
DANIELS: There was such a love for that team.
For the Russian Five.
For Konstantinov.
That it was as if a member of your own family had been
severely injured.
And you can't believe it. You just...
[SIGHS] You just can't believe it.
OSGOOD: Throughout the course of the summer there was an obvious cloud
over the Stanley Cup and the celebrations.
And even a sense of guilt in wanting to celebrate.
KOCUR: I remember going to training camp that fall, and it felt like...
A hangover.
McCARTY: [CHUCKLES] I think we might have skated for an hour a day.
Eh... just bitter.
FETISOV: One thing to happy for yourself, you still can walk at least.
Same moment, realize it's gonna be...
Not the same now on.
Kind of feel like I could play for both of us.
Maybe another year.
That's kind of mission I was put in my mind.
LARIONOV: You doing your thing like you got your life.
And then your couple of team members are fighting for their lives.
It's not easy.
ANNOUNCER: Two important members of our team
cannot be with us tonight.
But here on behalf of their husbands
are Irina Konstantinov and Ilina Mnatsakanov.
to show that Vladimir and Sergei remain
in our thoughts and prayers each day.
DEVELLANO: Vladdy got out of the coma
and we knew he wasn't gonna play again.
To have your life stripped away like that was an awful thing.
IRINA KONSTANTINOV: I'd like to thank the community of Detroit
for great support and love.
It's a family decision we've made
that we'd like to transfer Vladimir at this point
to a different rehabilitation center
which is not within the Michigan.
And we do believe that the better weather condition
will help to stimulate his recovery.
LIDSTROM: Every day you're at the rink, you get reminded of what happened
'cause Vladdy's locker's right next to mine.
And the guy that should've been with you, you know, can't be with you.
I think the only release the players had was when they stepped on the ice.
That was their away time from looking at Vladdy's empty locker.
COMMENTATOR: Larionov looks to Murphy
Now to Lindstrom. Will he shoot? No, Lapointe.
Lindstrom, now shoots. Goal!
There was like an anger about us. Anger mixed with determination.
COMMENTATOR: Front of the net, Fetisov, back to Lapointe,
Moving in, centers, score! Kozlov.
Wow!
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
McCARTY: Getting it done for your brother.
We don't really need to say anything.
We had that... intuition with each other.
OSGOOD: We went though the '98 season,
and eventually we got to the Stanley Cup.
STRADER: The Red Wings marched through the first three games of the series.
You just felt that they were gonna roll over this Washington team.
COMMENTATOR: For the Detroit Red Wings,
the opportunity to take the Stanley Cup home again.
Is tonight the night?
BOWMAN: You don't know the future.
What happens with these type of things, you never know.
And I just said, "We worked all year for this moment.
"Make sure you seize it."
YZERMAN: When we got to Game 4, there was probably
10,000, maybe more Red Wing jerseys in the building.
And at one point, there was a whole section of people stood up and cheered.
And we were watching that and it was Vladdy up there.
[CROWD CHEERING]
Seeing the other team's players give him a standing ovation too,
clapping their sticks,
to show their respect they have for Vladdy.
Kind of took everything beyond the game of hockey.
LARIONOV: Back to back, I say it's not easy.
Everybody knew how hard for him,
how easy for us.
So that's why people kind of give their extra effort or him.
It's our chance. We have to win that game no matter what.
We just keep coming at it.
Keep scoring. Keep assisting each other.
Shift in, shift out.
Because we knew Vladdy was in the stands.
[CROWD CHEERING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[CROWD CHEERING]
McCARTY: It's way beyond hockey.
It's the life in-between.
And that's the whole point of all of it.
I gotta tell you, I cried.
I cried.
FETISOV: This is the moment when you're not gonna be shy of your tears.
And that this is the moment of...
This is kind of man tears, you know.
You cannot be ashamed of this.
McCARTY: As I sit here today in my life,
you know, I couldn't imagine any one of the Russian Five
not being in it.
'cause they're all such an integral part.
[CROWD CHEERING]
YoubetCash.vip Agen Judi Online Aman & Terpercaya