Whenever I saw the Soviets play Canada, Makarov and Krutov were better than any Canadian forwards other than Gretzky & Mario.
Mats Sundin might be the best player in international hockey from the past 25 years, and he didn’t have the benefit of retaining his linemates from domestic games to international games. Performance in best-on-best hockey (particularly when it’s makeshift teams against a regular unit) might not be our best indicator.
I know you can’t ever wholly separate the great performance of an individual and the great performance of a team, but if we can just look at the level that CSKA Moscow was during Makarov’s 9 scoring titles in 10 years:
CSKA Moscow Lead in GF/GA
1980: 71/9 (44 games); 39-3-2
1981: 59/21 (49 games); 40-3-6
1982: 12/44 (47 games); 40-4-3
1983: 21/20 (44 games); 40-3-1
1984: 72/29 (44 games); 43-1-0
1985: 32/1 (40 games); 31-3-6
1986: 46/35 (40 games); 32-3-5
1987: 49/27 (40 games); 36-2-2
1988: 56/11 (44 games); 32-5-7
1989: 54/-6 (44 games); 30-8-6
In 1983 when Makarov missed 14 games, they could have been
at worst 10-3-1 and still obviously the best team without their best player. They were so far above everyone else as a whole that I don’t know we can draw an accurate reading of how that would translate if other Russian players were in the same position for a decade.
1993-2003 Fedorov and Bure or 2008-2018 Ovechkin and Malkin in an all-Russian league on a dynasty that scores >1 goal-per-game more than everyone else would likely get the same rub as Makarov and Fetisov.
I don’t think anyone here is going to fault Makarov for not competing for the Art Ross given the circumstances, but if a player is going to be treated as the #3 behind Gretzky and Lemieux, maybe 43 points behind Mark Messier is too big of a gap for 9 scoring titles to retain full credibility (the previous year, Makarov held a 54-41 point gap over #2). And that’s with Makarov going from the best team in the Soviet Union to the defending Stanley Cup Champions. And maybe Sergei Fedorov matching Makarov in points but in fewer games in Fedorov’s debut season (on a team that finished 24 points back of Calgary in the standings) is something of a red flag too.
And then for Makarov and Fetisov to land back-to-back? It’s tough to buy. And it makes me wonder just how much differently Brett Hull and Chris Chelios would be viewed if politics dictated that they had to dominate an American-only league for a decade and occasionally impress internationally. Would we feel the compulsion to have Americans in the top-40?