HockeyPostcard from Russia: Great people, crazy country

Beginning of Story Content

Took three books with me on the flight over to Moscow. One was Faceoff at the Summit, Ken Dryden's diary from the 1972 Canada-Russia series. The second was King of Russia, Dave King's account of coaching Metallurg Magnitogorsk for one season.

Third was Behind the Red Line. In 1990, Tod Hartje, a Winnipeg Jets draftee, made a groundbreaking trip to play in the Soviet Union. One of his teammates in Kiev was Dmitri Khristich (who would later be immortalized in Los Angeles for being caught flossing his teeth while Rick Tocchet gave a fiery locker-room speech).

The last line in Hartje's book is a Khristich quote. Talking about Russia, he says, "Great people, crazy country."

What a bang-on description.

During our one night in St. Petersburg, we were en route to interview Sergei Brylin at his home. Suffice it to say Russian drivers are slightly aggressive, and, fighting through some nightmarish traffic, our driver hit a pothole. Next thing we knew, one tire was flat and another was totally ripped off the axel. We weren't going anywhere.

While trying to figure out how on earth we were going to accomplish anything, Alyonka Larionov ran into the restaurant next to our car. Moments later, we were offered a room to set up our camera. Brylin then made the hour-long drive to our spot for the interview. Both the player and the restaurant went far, far beyond the call of duty. The people, particularly those who work in some kind of service industry (flight attendants, train conductors, waiters, etc.), are unbelievably friendly and helpful. It proves me to be an ignoramus, but I didn't expect that. It is what I will remember most.

Aside from a two-hour tour of the Kremlin, I didn't get enough taste of the history. Someday, I'll go back and see what I missed.

The Good

Obviously, the people. The staff at a busy Moscow cafe didn't complain when we hoarded six tables for three hours to do interviews with Nikita Filatov and Slava Fetisov (the latter was fashionably late).

This is going to sound strange, but I liked dealing with the culture shock. It gave me a slight idea of the adjustment Europeans go through in coming here. We could all use that kind of knowledge.

The quality of hockey is much better than I had been led to believe. I'm not a fan of the international ice surface, but if you removed the team jerseys in the one playoff game I saw in person, you'd have thought you were watching two NHL teams (I watched a couple other games on TV, and both were very good). There is more clutching and grabbing, fewer dump-ins, and thousands of drop-passes in the neutral zone that would get you choked by an NHL coach. But there was plenty of hitting and some very aggressive play. It's also a real skater's league.

I loved - absolutely loved - that the KHL adopted sudden-death overtime in the post-season. No shootouts when it matters. Nothing like watching a triple-OT game in late March to get me ready for the NHL playoffs.

Most North Americans who played and coached there really enjoyed the experience. Barry Smith would like to brief the NHL GMs about the KHL and why there needs to be a deal with the Russian league. His is a good perspective.

The Bad

While the money is very good (more about that later), the KHL will never be taken 100 per cent seriously until there are fewer contract disputes. A few players politely declined to talk to us because they were fighting over money owed to them. Speaking out, they felt, would cost them any chance of settlement.

One player who did agree to talk is John Grahame, still fighting for almost $3 million. You will hear his story on Saturday night. People in the KHL will argue that, so far, Russian courts have ruled against him. However, North Americans who've been there believe Grahame - even the ones who liked being there. That perception will hurt growth.

The Crazy

Almost caused an international incident when I referred to Russia as "The Wild West" to Fetisov. He took exception to that phrase, which almost every person I spoke to used to describe the country. As usual, some of the best stuff I heard was off-camera. Everyone who goes there has a "That's Russia" moment.

For example: it's not unusual to be pulled over for speeding and asked to pay a "fine" of several hundred rubles on the spot. ($1 Canadian equals approximately 30 rubles.) If you don't have it on you, you'll be followed to a bank machine. We laughed at this, but some things aren't so funny.

After watching last week's piece, someone said to me, "You don't realize how much courage it took for Sergei Zubov to stick his neck out like that." One person called after I'd left Russia and asked me not to use something he'd said. He was worried about the consequences. It was a very uncomfortable conversation.

30 thoughts

1. People in the Devils organization weren't surprised to hear of Brylin's willingness to come to us. One said Brylin still sends a gift every Christmas even though he's been gone two years.

2. Every time sometimes tells me, "Man, traffic is terrible in (insert city here)," it's always an exaggeration. People always make it sound worse than it actually is. So I didn't listen when warned about Moscow. But it was brutal. If I had to drive there, I'd be homicidal. Apparently, it gets worse every day when Prime Minister Putin needs to get somewhere. I didn't witness this phenomenon firsthand, but busy streets are completely shut down if he's on the move.

3. A couple of players told me they'd rather be in the NHL, but if it's for the minimum ($500,000), it's not worth it. Here's why: You lose 18 per cent ($90,000) for escrow. Then you have to pay taxes. By that time, you've lost almost $300,000 of your gross. In the KHL, no escrow. Russian tax rate is 13 per cent. Now, if you're a North American, you still have to make up the difference, which depends on what state or province you live in. But, when you consider that many of these players are making two or three times more in base salary, the choice is pretty easy.

4. Then, there's the bonuses. Guys in St. Petersburg made $1,000 for every point the team recorded during the season. Final total: $122,000. It's like that all over the league.

5. Two guys who used to play in Russia said it got even better when the envelopes/bags of money come out. One said after three wins in a row, everyone on the team was given a $10,000 cash bonus. Another said a teammate having a great year was given $75,000 in a bag. Players swear, though, there are no more bags/envelopes of cash being handed out.

6. One warning: Make sure the KHL owners/GMs know what kind of player you are. For example, if they expect you to score 30 and you're not really a sniper, you're going to have problems.

7. There are 19 North Americans who play in the KHL's Western Conference, and 11 in the East. Generally, they prefer the West. There is more modern medical care, more English and less travel. Some of the Eastern trips make the worst NHL flight look like a puddle-jumper.

8. One thing they really don't like: Team doctors love needles and IVs. No one is sure what's actually in them, and some will not allow their insertion under any circumstances.

9. Strangest hockey phenomenon I saw: teams practice after they get eliminated from the playoffs, because players are paid through April. This does not go over well. I was standing by the bench as practice ended. Two English-speaking players walked off. One said, "How many days of this are left?" The other said, "43." You know it's bad when they're counting. You'll hear Alexander Medvedev's response on Saturday.

10. Medvedev says this may get changed next year, and he'll listen to Bob Goodenow's opinion. A lot of players who came over a few years ago had very negative things to say. Medvedev hired Goodenow to fix that. Among his changes: Direct deposit for payments, charter flights and arena improvements.

11. Very sadly, the ugliest building in Moscow is the Canadian Embassy.

12. Never, ever, ever try to out-drink a Russian, especially when vodka is involved.

13. The Belarussian president, Alexander Lukashenko, is a huge hockey fan. (Dynamo Minsk is a government-funded team.) Every year, he hosts a tournament and pays big money for stars to attend (this time it was Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.) One Canadian player said that, before a game, him coach said, "Whatever you do, don't check him. Let him shoot it or pass it before you even go near him."

14. Asked Alexander Radulov for his best Patrick Roy story. He laughed and came up with this one: "One year there, we set a Remparts record for most wins in a row. The first game we lost, he made us sit in the dressing room until the fans left the building. Then, he skated us for 40 minutes! We'd lost like one game in 14 or 15!" Radulov loved Roy as a coach, though. The two still keep in touch.

15. Radulov said he called David Poile last summer and told him he wanted to return, but Salavat Ufa said he had to honour the final two years of his contract. That is his plan, he says. I asked how hard he was pressured into staying, but he said it wasn't too bad. There have been rumours otherwise.

16. I think Nikita Filatov will be back in Columbus. He wants to prove himself against the best.

17. Had an interesting conversation with Viktor Kozlov about Bruce Boudreau. Kozlov said Boudreau is a genius at attacking and defending the neutral zone.

18. Kozlov was one of two people who called me "a spy." He was kidding. The other person, a Russian sportswriter, wasn't. I don't think.

19. I met a junior teammate of Alexander Ovechkin's. He said those who knew him then can't believe how much of a hitter he's become. "He never used to touch anyone," the guy said, laughing.

20. Most frightened look: Our cameraman turned ghost-white when I asked if we could shoot a standup in front of the KGB building. He refused.

21. After landing in Moscow, we went immediately to Spartak's home rink for their game last Monday. I put my head down to check something in the media room, looked up and found myself staring at Viktor Tikhonov. He still looks the exact same as he did while prowling the Russian bench in the 1970s and 80s. He doesn't speak English and, unfortunately, by the time I grabbed a translator, Tikhonov was walking away with another local legend, Vyacheslav Starshinov. Would have loved to chat with him briefly.

22. I know there are homers in North America. But reporters outside our continent dive headfirst into fandom and don't even care. I'll never forget the Athens Olympics, as I was preparing to cover a men's basketball game between the U.S. and Spain. The Spanish TV broadcasters draped a flag over their table. Could you imagine the reaction if that happened here? When Spartak scored to make it 1-0, the scene in the media section was hysterical. Men were hugging each other; I think I was the only person who didn't give someone a high five.

23. When I asked Slava Fetisov off camera about Russia's Olympic loss to Canada, he laughed and said it reminded him of the Soviets' 8-1 win in the 1981 Canada Cup. Ouch.

24. I reminded Fetisov that, at his Hall of Fame induction, he joked that the winning goal in the 1987 Canada Cup (scored by Mario Lemieux) was offside. After our interview was over, he got up and said, "I wasn't joking. It was offside." Then he smiled and left.

25. Pre-game warm-ups begin without pucks. It was about five minutes before I saw either team touch one. I was only able to go to one game (and two practices), but was told this is pretty standard. Very different from North America.

26. Other warmup oddity: After their initial few minutes of skating and stretching, the Spartak players stood at their own blueline facing the opponents' end for about 30 seconds. I was wondering if they were going to charge at Lokomotiv Punch McLean-style. Then, the player closest to the right boards took two strides towards centre before turning and starting a breakaway drill with the goalie. Everyone followed. Moments later, Lokomotiv did the exact same thing. Never seen that before.

27. Alexei Yashin would consider returning to the NHL, as long as it's in the New York area (he is still with Carol Alt). But the only offers he received were at a minimum salary. Let's just say he wasn't that interested.

28. If you didn't see it happen, you wouldn't have believed it: Russian national team coach Slava Bykov said no to an interview request when we saw him in Ufa (his day job is coaching Salavat). However, upon hearing where we are staying, he provides a cell phone number and demands we contact him to change the hotel. We politely declined.

29. Several of the Russian KHL players ripped Moscow, saying the people aren't real hockey fans. There are six teams in the area: Spartak, Dynamo, CSKA/Red Army, HC MVD, Atlant and Vityaz. It reminded me of how some Canadians talk about Toronto.

30. Kozlov was one of those, saying he liked Ufa because it felt like playing in Winnipeg or Edmonton, a smaller city that really cares. I mentioned that to Oleg Tverdovsky and he said, "This is better than Edmonton." He backtracked when I followed up, claiming, "It's not as cold here."

Bonus 31. The assignment lasted less than five days, but it was an incredible experience. I'll never forget it. Spassiba.

End of Story Content

Back to accessibility links