Back in the USSR: A hockey ticket stub spawns memories of yesteryear
Do you know which player the Buffalo Sabres selected one pick after the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Greg Andrusak in the fifth round (88th overall) of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft?
That would be one Alexander Mogilny. Andrusak played in a total of 26 games while Mogilny nearly reached 1000 (990).
One year later, Pittsburgh selected defenseman John Brill in the third round (58th overall). Brill never played a game in the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings took Sergei Fedorov 74th in that draft.
The Pens then selected Todd Nelson (79th) and Tom Nevers (100th) before Vancouver selected Pavel Bure with its sixth-round choice at 113th overall.
It’s easy to forget about the past when a Russian is likely to win the Hart Trophy after running away with the Hart. Evgeni Malkin understands the importance and significance of playing for his country in the IIHF World Championships, as does all-world Pavel Datsyuk.
But little over 20 years ago few Russians suited up in the NHL.
This ticket stub reminded me of what the hockey world was like little over 20 years ago.
The Penguins played the Soviet Red Army at the Civic Arena on Jan. 4, 1989. The Soviets featured a second line forward unit that included Mogilny, Fedorov and Bure before they were Mogilny, Fedorov and Bure.
The Pens featured Mario Lemieux and guys like John Cullen, Dan Quinn and Bob Errey.
Here’s a link to the
highlights of the 4-2 Pittsburgh win. Unfortunately, the Russian goals are not a part of the package.
Looking at the Moscow Red Army’s games against the NHL, the Pens were one of only two NHL teams to beat Moscow’s squad in their seven-game North American schedule.
Things have come a long way in 20 years.
The Pens resisted putting Russians on their roster as much as any team.
Seven former Soviet players were taken in the first 17 picks of the 1992 NHL draft, but the Penguins passed.
Maybe it was because of GM Craig Patrick’s Olympic history, who knows. Mario Lemieux never seemed to promote acquiring Russians. He certainly never clicked on the ice with the first Russian star that played in Pittsburgh, Sergei Zubov.
Of course, that might’ve been because there was only one puck on the ice and both players seemed to want it most of the time.
Starting with Jaromir Jagr in 1990, Pittsburgh took Europeans in the first round of four of the next five drafts. After Jagr, the Pens selected Markus Naslund (Sweden), Martin Straka (Czech), Stefan Bergkvist (Sweden) and Chris Wells (WHL Seattle).
It wasn’t until 1995 that Pittsburgh took a potential impact Russian, Alexei Morozov, with the 24th overall pick. In fact, four of that team’s nine picks were Russian.
In the second half of the 1990s, the Penguins became a team largely consisting of European players. Six of the team’s top seven scorers in
1998-99 were European.
For as much I have been critical of Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber for his somewhat callous comment toward the Penguins
here, he is a fine hockey writer. The bulk of the aforementioned article presents plenty of good points past the Pittsburgh snide comment.
Farber’s article from February of 2000 discusses how difficult Russian players had it when they came to the NHL following the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.
Boris Good Enough? is an article worth the time of every hockey fan.
For those who have wondered why Russians see Detroit as kind of the Holy Grail of the NHL, this excerpt from Mr. Farber’s article might help to explain why.
However, even as Detroit stomped to an NHL-record 62 wins in 1995-96, whispers persisted that the Wings relied too heavily on Russians. The endorsement of the Russians by the Lombardi-Auerbach-McGraw of his business, coach Scotty Bowman, who had pushed for the trades that brought Fetisov and Larionov to Detroit and then played them as a unit with Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov, was ignored. Bowman howled throughout the season that officiating was tilted against his Russian Five—NHL referees stoutly denied it—but Neil Smith insists Bowman was not indulging in his typical gamesmanship.
"There is no doubt in my mind Russians were discriminated against by refs at the time," Smith says. "I really believe a guy whose name ended in ov had to absorb a lot more slashes to get a penalty called than a guy named Smith."
When I sat at the Pens-Soviet Red Army game in early 1989 I’d heard of the young Russian stars but never could’ve imagined the impact they would have on the game. Sitting near the overhang at one of the ice in E Level gave me an excellent perspective of the way the Soviets saw the game, their passing, their positioning, their speed.
It’s a good thing that hockey players make-or-break it based on talent as much as where they’re from.
The Penguins sponsored a
Russian Penguins squad for several seasons.
The addition of Russians helped Pittsburgh to its third Stanley Cup championship. Conn Smythe winner Malkin and Sergei Gonchar played key roles in 2008-09. As a Penguins fan, who could ask for more?
Treasure life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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