HOH Non-NHL Europeans project - anybody interested?

[Sanf]

.. so, Sanf joskus pureskelee ihana Suomen lakritsia lukiessasi?

Nope, but I admit that I might have sometimes consumed bit of Salmiakki Koskenkorva when I write here.

 

[VMBM]

Don´t believe that I have ever read that book. Yeah the "small" errors in the books bother me too. It brings the feeling that you need to constantly double check all the facts from some other sources. And with my weaker english I have noticed that it´s almost impossible to translate the sometimes bit colorful text. And when I was reading the 50´s sources there were terms used that has disappeared from Finnish hockey vocabulary and I had hard time to understand what they mean.

I think I had read it once previously... or rather skimmed through it (in a library also then). Plus I had seen quotes from it in other books. But I was happily surprised about the scope of it when it comes to the player profiles - it has small features even on players like Jiri Kochta, Viktor Polupanov, Richard Farda etc.

I can live with little errors, if the 'big picture' appears to be in order, and so far so good. The writer gives a fairly negative view of e.g. Sven Tumba, but not in any controversial way.

Hockey terminology in English is certainly not one of my strong points. And like you said, it even can be hard to understand the original text in Finnish too. But it's better just to leave that kind of stuff out.

Other Finnish sports/hockey books that I have that will probably be useful in this project:

Huippu-urheilun maailma 2

- this has a nice section on hockey history. Although it has a few longer player profiles too, it's more about stories/anecdotes and quotes from the World Championships and the Olympics from the 1940s/1950s to 1970s. There are a few serious errors in this book; for example, the profile on Jiri Holecek seems really 'corrupted'; e.g. they claim he was diabetic which I have never seen mentioned anywhere else (and thus, very likely is not true). But generally, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Suuri jääkiekkoteos 1-4

- these books are a bit of a 'mishmash', but they do have some nice profiles, stories and game by game recaps of the international tournaments in the past (mostly 1980s WHCs) - also NHL history is nicely represented.
On the other hand, I have to say that the pedagogical stuff in them feels a bit silly to me - but hey, this was still Kekkoslovakia/Manulandia back in the 1970s/1980s . Also, generally it can be said that you get the feeling that Finnish writers were usually too pro-Soviet and anti-Canadian; then again, those books were mostly compiled at a time when USSR was at the height of their powers, and seemingly had the upper hand (1979-84).

The books by Kharlamov and Tikhonov also have some great stuff too. Damn, back then (1970s/1980s) they still translated those kind of books into Finnish... it's not happening nowadays.

 

[VMBM]

Pospisil, Suchy and Svedberg

More profiles from the book Talviurheilun sankarit (mainly by Voitto Raatikainen, hockey: Jyrki Laelma), this time 3 iconic defensemen from the 1960s/1970s, Frantisek Pospisil, Jan Suchy and Lennart Svedberg.

First, Frantisek Pospisil:

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) A new kind of world champion was Frantisik Pospisil then, the captain of the team for many years and its classiest workhorse.
'Pospec' was born on 2nd of April, 1944, and eventually he became the most feared defenceman on SONP Kladno - a thinking but a hard-hitting player. 'He is similar to his town,' said an observer from Prague... Kladno is an [steel] industrial town about 15 miles from Prague.
He made the national team first time in 1966 - Czechoslovakia faced East Germany in Ceske Budejovice. After that, any country could be the opponent: Pospisil was a player on the top unit.
He started to play hockey near Kladno - he took his first strides on the icy surface of Lake Unhost.
'Every boy likes some sport for sure, but if he has an idol or someone becomes one, it is easier to select your sport,' Pospisil once pondered. 'My idol was Rudolf Potsch. 'Ruda' was a tough player on Brno and the national team, but always cool and calm nevertheless.'
Pospisil became a similar <kind of player>:
'Hockey should be in some no-man's land between technical, beautiful game and toughness... There is no hockey without hitting and body contact,' Pospisil said in Prague. 'It is another thing to use the stick illegally.'
Pospisil has been considered CSSR's best hitter for years: 'I have hit a lot in my time. Now it is hard... Men have become much better: no one will voluntarily get hit by any kind of check anymore.'
After ten years on the national team, Pospisil even got himself into a scandal - at the Olympics in Innsbruck he failed a doping test. That amazed everyone: 'Any <other> of that bunch, but not Pospisil,' said even the opponents at that point!
Since this man had one deficiency for an idol - in his own opinion:
'If there is no game on Sunday, I like to take one beer after lunch.' After the World Championship in Vienna, this 6 ft, 200 lb defenceman had played in 259 international games. He had scored 25 times, but assisted three times more. One of the goals was the one with which Finland was beaten in Prague: Pospisil made it 4-3 in the 3rd period - the game ended 5-3, but the fifth goal was scored seven seconds before the end.

Then Jan Suchy:

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) Jan Suchy did not escape injuries either, the 'wonder man', who was named the best defenceman of the tournament*. This Suchy indeed was an all-star, as long as he made Team Czechoslovakia; only the traffic accident that happened under the influence of alcohol years later [eventually] left him out perminently.
But before that he was something else as a defenceman; yet a defenceman Jan Suchy never really was: he was a forward whose other role was <to be> a goalie!
Because if there was a pile of players in front of the Czechoslovak goal, under everyone was always the skinny army lieutenant - the puck somewhere under him or hidden in <his> pads... There was never a puck being fired that he did not throw himself in front of; once in Tampere, he got hit in the throat by the puck, <and> he got up, finished the shift before agreeing to skate to the bench 'to die' - he could not breath <properly> due to a torn windpipe.
Jan Suchy played like a 'midfielder', and Anatoly Tarasov labeled him as one too; about four years later the Soviet team had a hard-shooting Suchy replica called Alexander Gusev as the fourth attacker.
The tougher the game, the harder Suchy worked, with his eyes glowing; 'It is fun, purely fun. I want to be on the ice as much as possible,' he laughed away at his near-50 minutes of ice-time in 1971. 'On my club team too I get ice-time almost as much as I want. It is not really different on the national team.'
'The shots that opponents take? I don't know,' he said, embarrassed. 'They come so fast that you don't have time to think - the main thing is that you don't hesitate.'
The Dukla Jihlava defenceman played in eight World Championships - the first time in Tampere <1965>; prior to that <tournament> he had played only five international games.

* 1968 Olympics/WHC

Then Lennart Svedberg, continuing straight from Suchy:

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) A similar kind of player was also Lennart Svedberg, Sweden's most promising defenceman of all-time, the predecessor of Börje Salming, <the one> whom erratic life-style lifted up and lowered, dropped and lifted up <again> until that day when a car-accident ended all at once.
"Lill-Strimma" was a hockey wunderkind, an artist, who was sometimes content with playing just for himself and for the audience without caring about the team at all. Svedberg, who was born on leap day in 1944, started in the <Swedish> league as a 16-year old and a year later was playing for Tre Kronor - successfully of course: in his first international game (in Stockholm against Czechoslovakia) he was naturally the player who weaved his way up the ice and scored the 3-3 equalizer for Sweden.
At that moment he was a forward sensation.
He was a sensation anyway: Svedberg never enjoyed playing on the same team for many seasons. During the first years he went from Wifstra/Östrand to Grums and from Grums to Brynäs - <but> because Brynäs was full of national team level forwards anyway, Thure Wickberg made Strimma a defenceman.
Nobody had to regret this move. Still, the joy did not last long - when he got what he wanted (the Swedish championship), Svedberg moved to Mora. And from Mora to Timrå.
Many eyes followed Svedberg on the ice: the Detroit Red Wings took him to their training camp. CSKA Moscow invited him to their summer camps.
The IIHF Directorate named him the best defenceman of the 1970 World Championships; Svedberg shrugged his shoulders, patted the smaller Suchy on the head and said out loud: 'Sorry Jan - those poor old men don't understand this game!'

 

[Theokritos]

Good to have more sources and get more info. Thanks and thumbs up!

 

[VMBM]

Firsov, Mikhailov, Petrov, Kharlamov

Anatoli Firsov

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) one player of the future already skated on the Soviet team: Anatoly Firsov.
Firsov was a player who had all that is needed in hockey: he was one of the best shooters ever, he was a brilliant skater, a good passer and a good finisher - furthermore he could inspire his linemates, get the best out of them; even Alexander Maltsev's star [that rose quickly] faded the more time had passed since Firsov's retirement.
'Anatoli could play this game,' said Boris Mayorov, when he was already coaching in Finland. 'He could have been a brilliant defenceman too, but he was a forward - played in that position. First and foremost he was an inventor, an improviser!'
Firsov was often the so called point man at the blue line on power plays:
'That man is not trying to score goals; he is trying to kill Christer (Abrahamsson)', mumbled a shocked Swedish journalist, when Firsov took shots from the blue line in Geneva 1971!
Technically, Firsov was something else too: in Vienna 1967 he fooled two opposing Swedes (...), went around (...) Stolz and started to skate around the goal - but somehow he managed to score, with one hand, from the short side!
Firsov was a dark, smallish player who had strength - he could play at the top level even when hitting was allowed in all areas of the ice. And it is also revealing that when Tarasov and Chernyshev left their [coaching] posts and the new lead dropped Tarasov's and Chernyshev's 'repository', they needed a whole <forward> line to to replace Firsov!
Because Firsov was the man of whom Tarasov's black book coolly mentioned after the World Championship in Stockholm (1969), 'Never on the ice when the opponent scored a goal'!
And Anatoli, after all, played more than the others, timewise and all; even the way how the Soviets still <nowadays> get out of their own zone when pressured is a variation from Firsov.

Boris Mikhailov

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) In time the right winger Mikhailov became the national team captain and in Vienna 1977 the all-time leading scorer; on the ice, the overall significance of this player has always been great, but he has been a superior finisher too.
Boris Mikhailov is that persistent workhorse who has been the most important man of his line, when thinking about the 'continuing function' of the Soviet machine: he and no one else has collected the rebounds [off the goalie as well as the boards] - and passed them on immediately.
He is a goal-scorer too: always slyly on the run - if the puck has been returned to his teammates before that.
And when the crouching Mikhailov has broken away from the neutral zone [with the puck], it has resulted in a goal (only in Vienna he was mesmerized a few times by the new 'v-style'* of the goalies): 'If the goalie moves forward, I'll draw him further. If he doesn't move, I'll shoot from 20 feet,' Mikhailov said about his goals. (...)
Boris Mikhailov is not a big man, 5'10"** 165 pounds, but he has always been the more unrelenting fighter in front of the goal - he stops only when he sees a pass or a shot go past; then he is in a hurry to go after the rebound.
The crook-chinned and nosed (...) Mikhailov almost became a former player in 1972 - he twisted his foot badly in the first games at the Olympics. The knee has never been as good since, but, gritting his teeth, he was back on the ice already in Sapporo.
Head of family Mikhailov once noted that playing was strange:
'I think this is fun; the wife counts the bruises, the son is interested in what the papers say... I know that if the paper is missing the sports section, I've been criticized!'

* I guess this means (proto-)butterfly style!
** always looked more like 5'9" to me


Vladimir Petrov

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) Petrov came to CSKA from Krylya Sovetov. 'The smiling major' (it is the total opposite on the ice) is from Krasnogorsk and he started his career as a bandy player.
Petrov moving to CSKA caused some friction [back then]: 'CSKA is such a good team that they don't need to ruin the other teams' future top lines,' opinioned the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation.
Petrov is the 'gunner' of his line, 'Troika Petrova'. Still, he is at his best as a defensive player;* then, when the going gets really tough, Petrov is a bear-like third defenceman as well as a shooting forward.
A fairly big and a fairly small man (Petrov is 5'10",** but, since stocky, looks much bigger), his main weapon is his strength; he really manhandles <other players> and looks innocent right afterwards: 'No, not me, referee sir...'
Petrov's leap from a promising league player to one of the driving forces on the national team was quick: when Mikhailov and Petrov were still playing with Venyamin Aleksandrov, the 'old-timer' was carrying the line... when Valery Kharlamov was later added to the line, Petrov got excited about his 'own' line, took the responsibility and started to <really> play...
Still, he could act up too: 'World Championships? What are those?', he once said in the wrong place at the wrong time. 'I want to beat Canada, always and everywhere! Others we can handle...' That statement left him out in the Spring of 1976.

* interesting - but it just empasizes that Petrov indeed was defensively responsible
** there is just no way that Mikhailov and Petrov were the same height! -->https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/6a/60/c96a6029952ea794f129190412efc8af.jpg
I think Petrov was either 5'11" and a bit, or 6'0"


Valeri Kharlamov

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
The third link on the superstar line is Valery Kharlamov, the under 5'7"* player from Moscow, who as a junior player was coldly sent from Moscow teams to the countryside for being 'too small'. But in addition to his small size, Kharlamov has always had guts (younger, he was a real rowdy - older, <he has been> so famous that it has triggered fights).
In the beginning, Kharlamov was 'too small': CSKA sent him to Cherbakul, behind the Urals, to the local Zvezda team. The transfer was a humiliation and a depreciation for the young man: 'Then I thought that Moscow is my home city. The only way to get back was to be a better player,' Kharlamov has reminisced. 'And the only way to become a better player was to practise...'
So the gates were opened again for this man born on 14th of January, 1948, whose importance is highlighted by the fact that both the NHL and the WHA, who craved victory, hurt him before the deciding games: Bobby Clarke broke Kharlamov's ankle, Rick Ley smacked him around.
Due to his skating ability and stickhandling, Kharlamov has been hockey's greatest improviser. The most difficult moment of his career happened in the Summer of 1976 - Kharlamov had a car accident in which he lost his newly-wed bride and was badly injured himself. Still, forcefully he made his way to the national team <again>, even though the Autumn was ruined [playing-wise].

* wrong again, mr. Laelma I think he was 5'8" (as you normally see him listed), not really much shorter than Mikhailov

 

[Cruor]

Not sure where to add this, perhaps it will fit better into one of your ATD profiles but I stumbled upon a good read in a book called "Sveriges hockey historia" published in 1999 by a society of hockey journalists. It contains several bios and profiles, one about Ulf Sterner.

Here's a short excerpt from Ulf Jansson, the Swedish scout for the Rangers who accompanied Sterner on his tryouts:

In the autumn of 1963 I was invited to the clubs training camp in Winnipeg and arrived there together with Ulf Sterner, the Swedish player I thought had the best chance of succeeding in the professional circuit. Unfortunately he wasn't well prepared since he had been injured half the summer, he went in 4-5 kgs overweight which made it hard on him. The camp had two sessions per day totalling five hours on ice. 50 invited players fought for 20 spots on the roster. In addition to that he was the lone European with no friends.

--

Ulf had issues with his skating, but from a purely technical standpoint his stickhandling was superior to the pro's. No one could get the puck away from him when playing against two goals [tvåmålsspel], and when they tried to tackle him he easily slid away.

The article goes on in some length after that and details his career and tryouts, and injuries. The Canadians viewed him as "too European" in that he passed the puck too much and shot too little. According to Jansson, the Rangers GM Emile Francis later admitted to him that they rushed Sterner and should have let him play longer in St. Paul. Every article in the book is written by a different writer which also includes their All-star Team Sweden selection, if anyone is interested in that I can add that.

 

[Canadiens1958]

1963 Winnipeg

^^^Would be worthwhile to research the 1963 September Winnipeg papers for comments about Sterner.

 

[Cruor]

^^^Would be worthwhile to research the 1963 September Winnipeg papers for comments about Sterner.

There's a bunch of paraphrased newspaper quotes in the book, one calls Sterner "This is why he is the best player in Europe" for example. But I guess this is more trivia stuff than anything else. He seemed to have been hugely popular in St. Paul, with the Scandinavian angle and all.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

i imagine there will be a preliminary discussion thread for substantive information once the rules are decided.

 

[Pominville Knows]

How many swedes do we got working on this project?

 

[Theokritos]

How many swedes do we got working on this project?

So far it looks like we got 5-6 who are interested.

 

[Sanf]

There's a bunch of paraphrased newspaper quotes in the book, one calls Sterner "This is why he is the best player in Europe" for example. But I guess this is more trivia stuff than anything else. He seemed to have been hugely popular in St. Paul, with the Scandinavian angle and all.

Views of NA newspapers about players performances in there are important, but they weren´t always that well in map about what was happening in European (or international) hockey.

I remember once reading an article about three Mikitas countrymens attending Chicagos training camp. One of them was Goalie. He was credited being instrumental when Czechoslovakia beat Russia in WHC´s. Few years earlier the same goalie (while in Bruins camp) in other newspaper was called the best goalie in 1968 Olympics. Players actually were three Yugoslavians Miroslav Gojanovic (Croatia) Anton Gale and Rudi Hiti (Slovenia). There are lot of other mixups and oddities there too.

 

[VMBM]

Nedomansky, the Holiks, Novy

Some other great Czechoslovak forwards.

Vaclav Nedomansky

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) At the same time Czechoslovakia had big hopes for their tall young kid: Vaclav Nedomansky was one of the favourites in Tampere <1965>. The player nicknamed 'Girls' Nedo' was in his third season on the national team - his goal to break through to shoot his famous slapper... it was a spectacular shot, but not always a direct hit:
'Big Nedo is a fairly easy player <to stop>,' claimed Leif Holmqvist once. 'He comes in from the left and shoots approximately from the center of the offensive zone. It's always the same angle!'
Nedomansky was born on third of March, 1944, in a small town called Hodonin. From there he came as a hockey rookie to Bratislava in 1962, and in one season, he matured to <make> the national team. As a 20-year old, he was one of the best in the World Championships, but then something happened... <his> development did not continue. On the other hand, the performances of this big man were also more carefully followed than the others' - even a small failure was a big minus.
And when there were sufficiently minuses, Nedomansky was just a 'forever promising player'.
'Nedo is a center,' the Czechs were still saying: 'He is a superior player in the league' (when Nedomansky was out for some reason or another, Bratislava always got stuck at the bottom)... But on the national team he has always tried to take the same crucial role as on the club team - it has been too big a burden. On the other hand, he has had a lot of injuries that have not been and are not talked about.
In time Nedomansky grew: the -- coaches (Starsi and Gut) moved him to the wing, away from the center position that the kid appreciated,* and so it was a new start.
A marriage changed things too - Nedomansky became more relaxed. And after 1971, Nedomansky scored against the 'lesser' opponents like before, but he started to score against the Soviets too!
In Helsinki <1974> Nedo played his last World Championship tournament as a 30-year old - in that age a player has usually been allowed to leave to either to play or to coach, but not Nedomansky; in the middle of his semester, he then did surprisingly move from Switzerland to Canada, to the WHA (Toronto Toros).

* hmm, I still think he often played at center at the World Championships


Jaroslav and Jiri Holik (getting quite a Boris Mikhailov vibe from Jaroslav Holik!)

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) The most colorful man of the trio* was Jaroslav Holik, its centerman, who throughout Europe was known by his nickname 'Bloody'.
Bloody Holik and 'Ordinary' Holik were brothers: Jaroslav was born on third of August, 1942, Jiri on ninth of July, 1944.
'We are different,' said Jiri. 'Jaroslav takes after father, I take after mother!'
Different they were: Jiri was a workhorse, a tireless skater, a drudge, who kept his man <in check> when needed - all that without penalties.
Jaroslav did not skate much: he parked himself somewhere (usually in front of the opponent's goal), looked where the puck was and started a battle! And an efficient one at that: where Bloody Jaroslav was fighting, there the opponent's defencemen and goalie were falling over... as well as Holik himself! <His> own defencemen could, undisturbed, shoot the puck in the top of a half-empty net. And if they were not able to do it , then <they> just <passed> the puck towards the traffic - from underneath the pile <of players> Holik put it in: in 58 world championship games, Jaroslav Holik scored 22 goals - and not even half <of them> by shooting; he was the man from whose stick the puck changed direction; the man who would even push the puck in with his head; the man who, floundering on the ice, kicked the puck in without anyone knowing where it went in! Or the man who from underneath a pile gave an assist to the free man (34 times).
'Jiri is a cultural person, he's into music and things like that,' he once said.
'We have a different mentality,' Jiri added. 'Jaroslav is a fighter, a truth-teller, without compromise - we have the same goals, different deeds...'
Different they were: Jiri became the all-time player on the national team,** Jaroslav was occasionally even banned - <After> Stockholm 1969 all the hotheads of the USSR matchups were temporarily left off of the national team. Jaroslav Holik was one, Jozef Golonka would have been the other; both had tampered with the coat of arms of Czechoslovakia on their chest with bandaid.
The Holiks started to play hockey in the town Havlickuv Brod on the border of Bohemia and Moravia. From there it was (...) a short jump to Jihlava to <become> a hockey soldier (both studied in the 'Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences' alongside [military] service).
'Fair play? It's an ok system,' Jaroslav said. 'But hockey is a tough game and it should be played tough!'
'I've been hooked a lot on the ice, but I have never tried to pay back,' said [about the same thing] Jiri, who has always looked bigger and stockier on the ice than his older brother. In reality Jaroslav was bigger (over 5'11", 183 lb, Jiri under 5'10", 172 lb). The difference was simply about illusion: if the 'Bloody' used his stick and fist, then both were used on him too - he was usually squatting on the ice. Grimacing from anger or pain...
Nevertheless as a man who once said that he does not know anything better than 'a quiet evening at home' or 'a peaceful -- place to fish'!

* Holik-Holik-Klapac
** i.e. games played (319)


Milan Novy

Originally Posted by Jyrki Laelma
(...) The center on CSSR's top line, Milan Novy, SONP Kladno player and a member of the same club already from the age of 6.
Milan Novy started hockey as a 12-year old (1963) and developed to a real effective player by the mid-1970s - in the first 78 games he had scored 53 goals...
Novy is some kind of a magician on the ice - this fairly tall man the opponent's defencemen do not see much on the ice; suddenly he disappears from [the eyes of] everybody and, like the end of a lashing whip, suddenly appears in front of the goal.
'A more poisonous man I have never seen,' gushed the then-coach of Team USA Bob Johnson at Innsbruck <1976>. 'That skinny number 6 is a nasty man - if I say that he is a rattlesnake [ready-to-strike] without a rattle, that is exactly the right image, even though not such nice analogy, I guess'!
Milan Novy was born on 23rd of September, 1951. He is over 5'10" tall and weighs 174 pounds. He has lots of skills too: Novy was the player who shocked the whole Canada in the Autumn of 1976 by scoring 1-0 (it was the final score too) in the Round Robin game of the Canada Cup.
But the Soviets knew about this Milan too - when Czechoslovakia won the Izvestia Cup in (1974-)1975, Novy was the maestro who led his team in the 9-1* blowout over the 'reds' in Prague!
That was a good warning - in the World Championships, Vladimir Petrov did not move from Novy's side anywhere.

* 9-3, actually --> http://www.chidlovski.net/1954/54_game_info.asp?gm_id=gm431

 

[tarheelhockey]

Stumbled across this excellent article from January 1990. It's basically a snapshot of the way Soviets were adjusting to the NHL at the time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...hl-feet/cda5a1b7-4f6c-4aba-b25a-2d92c68211e5/

Coach Terry Crisp has been upset with Makarov's defensive play and Makarov is unhappy with his ice time, so pure numbers do not tell the whole story. As for compatriot Sergei Priakin, who has one goal in six games, it is apparent he is in Calgary solely as a companion for Makarov.

The same situation existed for defenseman Sergei Starikov in New Jersey, but he no longer is a nonplaying adjunct to longtime Soviet captain Viacheslav Fetisov. Instead, Starikov is playing with the AHL Utica Devils, where his new partner is Alexei Kasatonov, the fifth member of the Green Unit.

One can only wonder what will happen when Kasatonov is promoted, because he and Fetisov are not friendly. When Fetisov and Larionov led a revolt against Soviet Coach Viktor Tikhonov last year, Kasatonov was the principal Tikhonov supporter and Fetisov has not forgiven him.

The other Soviet veterans, right wing Helmut Balderis of Minnesota and goalie Sergei Mylnikov of Quebec, have made no impact whatever. Balderis has three goals in 16 games and Mylnikov, who reported overweight, is 0-3-2 with a 4.48 goals-against average.

The 10th Soviet is right wing Alexander Mogilny of Buffalo. Mogilny, 20, defected in August and has been brought along slowly by the Sabres. Still, he has earned the nickname of "Magic" with his clever passes, has contributed nine goals and would appear to have a bright future in the NHL.

Of the veterans, Larionov seems to have fit in best, for a variety of reasons. He speaks English, he always has enjoyed North American culture and he is a center.

"Larionov is having an easier time because a center's responsibility is similar to what is expected of centers in European or Soviet hockey," Quinn said. "A winger's job is quite a bit different -- in method of attack and defensive zone coverage.

"Krutov also is struggling because his personality is different and his language ability is different. Vladimir is more of an introverted type of guy."

Larionov has 11 goals, tops among the Soviet contingent. Krutov, who has only six, faced a whole new set of circumstances after his first month, because he flew back to the Soviet Union and returned with his wife and two sons.

"We certainly wanted his family here and having them with him helped Vladimir personally," Quinn said. "But it created a whole new set of circumstances he didn't have without his family. The whole family has no use of English and that has made things difficult."

Even Larionov, for all his adaptability, has not found the NHL an easy nut to crack.

In an interview with Pravda, Larionov said: "Almost three-fourths of {our games} have ended up with a one-goal difference. It's a constant, uncompromising struggle. Quite often {in the Soviet league} you could easily predict in advance that the game would be easy. There's no such thing in the NHL."

A principal complaint is that Makarov stays out too long on his shifts, reducing the ice time for Joe Mullen, a 51-goal scorer who has only 13 this season. Also, Makarov rarely enters his own zone, which was fine in the Soviet Union but creates problems in the NHL.

Makarov and Crisp recently sat down for an extended discussion, complete with interpreter, and Crisp reported: "I guess he had a lot of things on his chest that he hadn't said to coaches for a lot of years. He said something like 'Nyet ice time, coach.' I heard the word Tikhonov once. I don't know if he was saying I'm another Tikhonov or what.

"He said, 'I have to be Sergei Makarov.' I said, 'We want you to be Sergei Makarov.' But he's got to give a little. It's got to be a two-way street."

Fetisov found himself in the middle of a major squabble after he was benched by Jim Schoenfeld for the Devils' game in Calgary Nov. 4. Schoenfeld shortly thereafter was fired by General Manager Lou Lamoriello, who has virtually staked his job on the Soviets' contributing to a major push by the Devils.

As the key figure in the Soviets' domination of world championship play in the '80s, Fetisov was expected to become a dominant player in the NHL, something that obviously has not happened. He takes too many chances in his own end and he has been hampered by an aggravated injury to his left knee, wearing a brace that limits his mobility.

"Sometimes he goes to make a move and it just locks on him," said John Cunniff, the man who replaced Schoenfeld. "But his age is the biggest adjustment. This is a tough game to play when you're over 30. You have to be quite a player to do it."

Fetisov said: "I don't think I've really played my game yet. I was just starting to build myself up when I hurt my knee {Nov. 22}."

On the subject of Kasatonov, Fetisov was asked whether he would like to see his old teammate join the Devils.

"No, I would not be happy," Fetisov replied. "He sold out. We five were close. Four stayed together. He went alone."

 

[Sanf]

There is one similar. It´s mostly about Krutov. I took it from old google group discussion (rec.sport.hockey). It´s from Swedish newspaper. One guy has translated it from Swedish to English. It is bit so and so because the original post does not mention the exact original source. Original google group post mentions posters real name so I don´t want to post it to here (and I guess it is against rules to link other "forum" discussions). So if this violates some rules mods can delete it.

September 15. 1990

"During the 1980's, he was ranked as the best ice hockey forward in the world. When he finally got the chance to earn some money on his extreme knowledge, he could nothing. Vladimir Krutov has got something to prove to the north american spectators when NHL starts at 4th of october.

30 year old Krutov made his debut i the Sowiet national team during the, for the russians, misfortunate Olympic games tournament in Lake Placid 1980 - a final loss to USA.

Ten years later he was back in North America, but now to stay. Vladimir Krutov became professional in NHL last autumn, just as the line mates in the famous "KLM" forward-line Krutov/Larionov/ Makarov. Krutov and Igor Larionov were bought by Vancouver Canucks, Sergej Makarov by Calgary Flames.

After a long and faithful service in the army team CSKA Moscow and in the USSR national team, they got (in a true glasnost spirit) the chance to earn more than order and honours on their great hockey knowledge. But the expecting success did not occur. Makarov was approved, Larionov wasn't good and Krutov was yet worse...

The notorious bottom team Vancouver Canucks did'nt improve at all with the two famous russians in the team. As usual, the team did not stand a chance in the struggle for a play off ticket. The russian players had to take a lot of critics and sneers, but nobody got such bad critics as Krutov did, even from his own team mates.

- Larionov is a decent guy, but the other one (Krutov) is... different, Said the Vancouver veteran Garth Butcher, who thought Krutov was untrained, fat and uninterested (an opinion he shared with many anynomous team mates).

Krutov himself neither could - language difficulties - nor would explain to his critics why it went wrong. He thought they ought to understand. On the other hand Krutov did speak out about his adjustment problems in interviewes with sowiet news agencys:

- When it comes to hockey, I understand most of it, but in the social life together with the guys of the team, the communication is not functioning properly at all.

- I don't understand the way hockey is played here. Not even the old players understand the constant rearrangements in the team. Sometimes I and Larionov play together, sometimes we play in different lineups. Sometimes I get to play the whole game, and sometimes I have to sit on the bench for 15 minutes or more. And you never get an explanation.

- One day I just couldn't keep quiet anymore and cried out: Why did you bring me here for? To play, or what? Explain what it's all about!

Krutov tells that he didn't get any wiser by the explanations of the team management, but he got to play more. One big part of the explanation of the problems Krutov has suffered from on the ice is to find in society out of the hockey arena. The adjustment from a chequered out life in Moscow into a considerably more free one in Vancouver has not been easy.

- When I lived alone in Vancouver, it was somehow easier. I just trained and played. There were no problems, but at the same time I really longed for my wife and kids.

- Then they arrived in Canada and new problems aroused. My wife Nina was out of the Sowiet Union for the very first time, and not just anywhere but on the other side of the planet! Neither she nor I knew the language. Just to do such a simple thing as shopping, with shelves sagging of merchandise, was a big undertaking. When we had away games I was worried sick about the family and called them at least three times a day. It helped both Nina and me.

- And friends? Back in Moscow I could call just anyone, but in Vancouver we were alone. Our children experienced the same thing.

But life in the West got easier and more pleasant as the hockey season got on.

- We successively became more acclimatized. We maybe didn't get so many new friends, but good neighbors were there when we needed a helping hand. We actually felt sad leaving Vancouver when the season was over.

Now Krutov didn't leave Vancouver for good this spring. He is already back preparing himself for a new season - which he looks forward to.

- It's magnificent that you can go straight home after each training or game. No gatherings or training camps. Noone to check you, everybody just trust you. I think the Sowiet hockey has to introduce a similar system.

But Krutov thinks the NHL has also a great deal to learn from Sowiet hockey:

- We russians like to pass the puck between each other. We always work for our team mates, like beautiful combinations, always find something new in the speed of the game and use the head as much as possible in our offensive play. I NHL I could make a superb pass that probably would have resulted in a score, but nobody was prepared. They just don't expect creative passes."