Can Russia Rebound in Olympic Hockey?

Originally published in Rinkside in 2006

By Lucas Aykroyd

For most of the 20th century, North Americans and Europeans feared Russia, and that applied on two levels. The most serious confrontation, of course, was the 45-year-long Cold War, which pitted the democratic nations of the West versus the Soviet Union’s Communist bloc and thankfully never escalated into a nuclear showdown.

In sports, both sides sought to increase their international prestige by triumphing at the Olympic Games. With intimidating ease, the Soviets won every Olympic hockey tournament in which they took part, except for 1960 and 1980, when the USA miraculously prevailed. Small wonder the Soviet national team was nicknamed “The Big Red Machine.”

But in the dying days of the Cold War, Russian hockey players were finally permitted to emigrate to North America and test their skills in the NHL, and the climate began to change. Sergei Priakhin, a veteran forward from the Soviet Wings, broke new ground when he suited up for the Calgary Flames in 1988-89 without having to defect.

Though Priakhin’s impact was marginal, other former Soviet stars performed better in the League. Names like Igor Larionov, Slava Fetisov, Alexei Kovalev, and Valeri Kamensky became as well-known as those of their North American-born NHL counterparts. NHL fans certainly couldn’t hate these guys or stereotype them as “Communist robots” anymore when they were scoring big goals and winning Stanley Cups.

The flip side for Russia, however, has been a drastically reduced level of success in international hockey since the Soviet Union ended in 1991. The Russians haven’t won an IIHF World Championship since 1993, and even more disturbingly, they haven’t topped the Olympic podium since 1992.

“We lost lots of good players after 1992,” said former star defenseman Viktor Kuzkin, a three-time Olympic champion (1964, 1968, 1972) with the Soviets. “Almost all of the best players went to the West. A whole generation was gone. There was no one left to be learned from. That’s why it’s so hard now.”

So what are the odds that this vast country of 140 million will see its national team return to the swift-skating, tic-tac-toe passing ways of yore and claim the gold medal at the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy?

The honest answer is, “You never know.” The Russian Olympic team should have enough talent to beat any other team in the tournament. But will it develop the cohesion on and off the ice that’s so vital when playing eight games in 12 days?

In goal, the Russians can ice an NHL troika of Nikolai Khabibulin, Evgeni Nabokov, and Ilya Bryzgalov. On paper, that looks pretty good. Khabibulin led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup. Nabokov, the winner of the 2001 Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, has played more than 50 games in each of his last four NHL seasons with the San Jose Sharks, and helped the team reach the 2004 Western Conference Finals. Bryzgalov, although serving as J-S Giguere’s backup with Anaheim, claimed the number one job with Russia in the 2004 World Cup, posting a 2.34 GAA in three starts.

But it’s not all rosy. Khabibulin has struggled to regain his Cup-winning form after signing a four-year, $27-million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. Some have questioned his intensity, but others believe the acrobatic Sverdlovsk-born veteran’s confidence will ultimately carry him through. Khabibulin has had issues with the Russian Hockey Federation before, including an episode where he served as the backup for the 1992 Olympic champion CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) team but saw his gold medal taken by coach Viktor Tikhonov instead. That injustice was only rectified in a private ceremony at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. Hopefully such memories will not interference with his ability to perform for Russia in 2006.

Nabokov, meanwhile, has not enjoyed a vintage campaign with San Jose so far. Sidelined for three weeks with a shoulder injury in the fall, the 30-year-old had to watch as rookie netminder Nolan Schaefer made a bid to take over the starting job, with regular backup Vesa Toskala struggling. And when Nabokov got back into the lineup, he had some tough outings, such as when he let in two harmless-looking shots in a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames on November 23. The former Calder Trophy winner has also struggled with groin problems.

Nonetheless, expect the Kazakhstan-born star to be looking for redemption on the international stage in February, especially since he missed the 2004 World Cup due to knee surgery. Remarkably, he’s never suited up for Russia before. That’s because he was previously ruled ineligible by the International Ice Hockey Federation due to having represented Kazakhstan in the 1994 C Pool World Championship. The IIHF changed its rules recently, and Nabokov’s application to play for Russia was successful.

In terms of fulfilling or exceeding expectations, Brygalov has probably been the most successful of these three goaltenders in 2005-06. The 25-year-old graduate of Lada Togliatti has established himself at the NHL level after being drafted 44th overall by Anaheim in 2000 and paying his dues with four workhorse AHL campaigns.

“When I play more games, I learn something from every game,” Bryzgalov told the Los Angeles Times. “Every game is different, there’s different players. You learn [about] players and their different gifts, their styles. I think in the future, it’ll help me when I play.” He’s unlikely to be the Olympic starter if either Khabibulin or Nabokov is available, but his solid play might secure him the number two spot.

On defense, the Russians could potentially field some of the game’s most dangerous offensive blueliners. Sergei Gonchar entered this season as the NHL’s highest-scoring defenseman over the last five years, although he got off to a bit of a slow start with Pittsburgh. Sergei Zubov is a perennial threat, but the Dallas Stars veteran declined invitations to play for Russia at the last two Olympics. Andrei Markov, Vladimir Malakhov, and Oleg Tverdovsky are all capable of lighting it up, but have struggled with consistency.

North Americans used to question whether Russian D-men were physical enough, but today, robust types like Danny Markov, Darius Kasparaitis, and Vitali Vishnevski provide all the muscle that’s needed in international hockey. The Russians can also call on youth if desired, with the likes of Fedor Tyutin and Anton Volchenkov.

Forward is probably Russia’s strongest position. When the Motherland’s men up front are going full tilt, they are among the hardest in the world to stop. At center alone, the Russians can choose from snipers like Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Zhamnov, and Pavel Datsyuk. Taking advantage of the NHL’s obstruction crackdown, Alexei Yashin has experienced a renaissance with the New York Islanders this season. And Evgeni Malkin could turn Turin into his coming-out party. Chosen second overall by Pittsburgh in the 2004 NHL Draft, Malkin is considered the best player in the world currently outside the NHL with Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The smooth-skating pivot has been compared to Mario Lemieux and Vincent Lecavalier.

Malkin could contend for the Calder Trophy in 2006-07, but right now, Russia’s hopes for Rookie of the Year honors lie with the explosive Alexander Ovechkin, who’s already emerged as one of the NHL’s best wingers. Stars like Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Samsonov, and Alexander Frolov will also give nightmares to opposing Olympic goalies as they swoop in from the left and right sides.

The challenge is for Russian GM Pavel Bure to assemble the right mix. The appointment of the “Russian Rocket” was announced by Russian Hockey Federation president Alexander Steblin at a news conference in Moscow on November 1, as Bure simultaneously declared himself retired. Just 34, Bure was one of the NHL’s most exciting goal-scorers, and finished his career with 437 tallies in 702 games. But Alexei Kasatonov, a star blueliner with the 1980’s Soviets and Russia’s GM at the 1998 Olympics, believes Bure will have his work cut out for him in this off-ice role.

“I served as GM three or four years after my career finished,” said Kasatonov after playing in the 2005 Legends Classic Tour in Vancouver. “It looks like Pavel’s barely finished his career before starting this job. It’s much different. He’ll be working with players who are the same age as him and who are leaders on the team. It won’t be easy for him. But Bure wants to help the Russian team. I think he made the decision after he looked at every angle. Still, I think his appointment came a little bit late. Look at Canada. Wayne Gretzky set up a summer orientation camp and got in touch with many Canadian players, and he’s involved with the NHL as a coach. He’s got good contacts and lots of information. So it’s a different challenge for Pavel. For instance, the coach has already been picked. There aren’t so many things Pavel can change.”

Still, Vladimir Krikunov’s return as the national team coach could prove to be key for Russia. The veteran bench boss led Dynamo Moscow to the Russian Superleague championship in 2004-05. Better still, he’s no stranger to success in international hockey. He coached an underdog Belarussian team to a stunning 4-3 upset of Sweden at the 2002 Olympics, enabling the former Soviet republic to claim fourth place. A few months later, Krikunov was on the Russian coaching staff at the IIHF World Championship in Gothenburg, where Russia won the silver medal. He also guided Russia to bronze at the 2005 Worlds in Austria.

If Krikunov needs to inspire his troops, he can always invoke the memory of Russia’s glorious hockey past. The nation won its first Olympic gold medal in 1956, led by captain Vsevolod Bobrov, but really came into its own in the 1960’s. The 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck saw Russia post a 54-10 goal differential en route to victory. Defenseman Eduard Ivanov dazzled with six goals in eight games and was honored by his teammates as the best USSR player. The innovative, dictatorial Anatoli Tarasov was the coach, and he fully justified his reputation as the father of Russian hockey, with his collective style prevailing. Communism might have failed from an economic standpoint, but the Russian approach toward passing the puck continuously did pay dividends.

“The Soviet passing style reflected the way the country lived together,” explained Igor Kuperman, who served as Russia’s assistant GM at the 2002 Olympics. “Back then, there would be no individualists. Everything had to be done together, whether it was collective farms or hockey.”

In the 1968 Games in Grenoble, the Soviets were dominant again, but nearly lost the gold medal to Czechoslovakia. “That year, it all came down to a game between the Czechoslovakians and the Swedes,” recalled Kuzkin. “They played to a tie, and we played against Canada in the finals and won.” Topping the scoring parade was the great Anatoli Firsov, who notched 12 goals and four assists in seven games.

Of course, at this time, the Soviets had never faced North American NHL talent. How different might the results have been if NHLers had been allowed to play in the Olympics back then? “I think the Soviet national team of the 1960’s would have fared well against NHL professionals,” said John Sanful, author of Russian Revolution: Exodus to the NHL. “A team of NHLers would likely have underestimated the Soviets at first, but then would have realized the talent the Red Machine possessed. It would have been a closely contested affair.”

That’s essentially how things unfolded in the famous 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, where Paul Henderson scored a last-minute goal in Game Eight to give Canada the final victory. But in Olympic play in the 1960’s, the Soviets would have enjoyed some additional advantages: European ice, IIHF officiating, and generally superior skating ability and conditioning. Also, prior to 1968 in international hockey, only defending players were allowed to bodycheck in the defensive zone, which would undoubtedly have come as a surprise to such physical Canadian superstars as Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull.

In the Olympics of 1972 (Sapporo) and 1976 (Innsbruck), the Soviets maintained their aura of invincibility with two more golds. This was the era when the great Red Army line of Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov, and Valeri Kharlamov held sway, but gifted puckhandlers like Spartak’s Alexander Yakushev and Dynamo’s Alexander Maltsev made equally important contributions. Meanwhile, Vladislav Tretiak established himself as arguably international hockey’s greatest goalie.

Canada withdrew from international competition from 1970 to 1976 due to a dispute over amateur eligibility rules with the IIHF. That made the Czechoslovakians the USSR’s leading rival at the time. Yakushev fondly recalls scoring in a crucial 1976 Olympic match against Czechoslovakia: “It was the hardest game I ever played. We were losing 2-0 at one point, and later 3-2. Sometimes we were facing 5-on-3 shorthanded situations. But we went on to win the Olympic gold. I think this was the best game I ever played.”

Losing to the United States in the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid was a bitter pill for the Soviets to swallow. They had brought arguably their best team ever to that tournament, combining veteran stars of the 1970’s with the emerging talents of the 1980’s. But coach Viktor Tikhonov made some tactical blunders, such as pulling Tretiak after the netminder surrendered a weak goal late in the first period. American coach Herb Brooks kept his team of college youngsters fired up, and the result was one of the biggest upsets in sporting history as the USA went on to beat Finland and win the tournament.

But the Russians would rally in 1984 and 1988. They were led by the famous “Green Unit” of forwards Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, Sergei Makarov and defensemen Alexei Kasatonov and Slava Fetisov. They played air-tight defense in Sarajevo, allowing just six goals and winning every game as they captured gold. In 1988, Calgary was the venue, and the Russians were overjoyed to top the Olympic podium in the original homeland of hockey. Suffering just one loss to Finland in ten games, the USSR was paced by Krutov, Larionov, and Fetisov, who finished 1-2-3 in tournament scoring.

It was a less star-studded but still capable roster that Tikhonov coached to gold in 1992 under the CIS banner. But second-tier talent like Andrei Khomutov, Slava Bykov, and Yuri Khmylev did the job, as the team nipped Canada 3-1 in the gold medal game.

Even though the Russians haven’t triumphed at the Olympics since then, there is a silver lining. Since full NHL participation at the Games began in 1998, Russia is the only country to have captured a medal at each tournament (silver in ’98, bronze in ’02). In Nagano, the Russians were foiled by the brilliance of Dominik Hasek, who posted a 1-0 shutout in the gold medal game. In Salt Lake City, they might well have beaten the Americans if they had not played so poorly in the first two periods of their semi-final matchup, ultimately falling 3-2.

If the 2006 Olympic team plays a full 60 minutes in each of its elimination round games in Turin, Russia may truly be feared again on the international hockey stage.