Posted on 02/22/2021 10:59:52 AM PST by ConservativeStatement
New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin is taking a leave of absence from the team in wake of a politically motivated article from Russia, in which his former Vityaz head coach alleges that the ex-forward of the Moscow Region club beat an 18-year-old girl in Riga, Latvia in 2011, The Post’s Larry Brooks reported Monday morning.
Andrei Nazarov, who is currently the head coach of the KHL’s Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk, has repeatedly criticized Panarin for the forward’s outspoken beliefs regarding Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s regime. Nazarov is a known Putin supporter.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yeah, he was 19 and she was 18 at the time.
And he didn’t get poisoned with polonium.
Russia Russia Russia
You're obviously not much of a historian if you can't remember the Detroit Red Wings "Russian Five" who literally turned the Red Wings from a cellar dweller to a Stanley Cup contender and ultimately winner in the 1990's.........
As a side note, the way the Red Wings were able to obtain them was worthy of a James Bond novel.
Out of that Russian Five, Fetisov, Larionov, and Fedorov were inducted into the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame.....
And Vladimir "The Gladiator" Konstantinov will forever live in the hearts of all Red Wing fans.........
Panarin is killing it for the Rangers. Maybe DeBlasio reached out to Putin.
My Rangers Facebook group is going to be lit up tonight.
Look up a documentary called Red Penguins. Russian hockey coaches think they rule the world!
Ovechkin would be the obvious exception. He may still pass Gretzky’s 894 goals.
“As a side note,the way the Red Wingswere able to obtain the was worthy of a James Bond novel”
Except for Alexander Mogilny ;-)
So, you believe Putin’s propaganda? Because that’s what this is.
I’ve never seen the movie but I will take a look.
Being a Penguins fan I know some of the history. Getting center Evgeni Malkin to America after Pittsburgh drafted him is a story of intrigue in itself.
And I have a Red Penguins practice jersey signed with some of the team members. Not sure who. I got it from the friend of a friend of a friend.
Nazarov was a first-round pick of the SJ Sharks. Highly skilled and 6' 6". Never lived up to expectations, but was also quite goonish. Not surprising he's be a Putin supporter.
He got into a huge fight with LA's even bigger uber-goon Matt Johnson, who literally rearranged Big Naz's face. That started a brawl with multiple ejections. I sat behind the Kings' penalty box at that game, when each team's box was filled with five players.
It does not paint a nice picture about Viktor Tikhonov. It is interesting learning how different Russia was (and still is) from the rest of the world.
He never played for the Red Wings........
My point was he preceded those guys coming over, and there was mucho drama happening during the process of trying to get him to Buffalo, he was the first to ‘defect’, and the Rooshkies were none to happy.
“ My Rangers Facebook group...”
SMH....
Why don’t you just write a $100 check to the DNC?
L
1. There's no such thing as the "NHL Hockey Hall of Fame." It's the Hockey Hall of Fame (in Toronto), and some of the players who have been inducted never played in the NHL.
2. Of the Russian players you mention, only Fedorov was inducted based on his NHL career. Fetisov and Larionov were long past their primes by the time they got to Detroit, and were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame based on their previous careers in the Soviet Union for the Central Red Army and the Soviet National Team, and as pioneers in the migration of Russian players to the NHL.
3. Both Fetisov and Larionov ended up in Detroit after they each played several fairly ordinary seasons elsewhere -- Fetisov in New Jersey, and Larionov in Vancouver and San Jose.
4. I remember Fetisov well in New Jersey when he played for my beloved Devils. He was ordinary at best, after showing some flashes of brilliance in his rookie year. I remember a game against Philly when he had a goal and five assists in a 6-2 win. I think that may still be a New Jersey record for points in a game. His on-ice intelligence and breakout passes out of the defensive zone were Hall-of-Fame superb, though I honestly think it took him a long time to get acclimated to the narrower NHL ice surface. He would occasionally make a boneheaded pass up the middle of the ice that works in international hockey but not in the NHL. The team was a perpetual underachiever for most of his time there (not his fault). He was traded to Detroit in the middle of the team's 1995 Stanley Cup run and played (ironically) on the losing team in the finals that year. One of his unfortunate legacies with the Devils was his misplay in the defensive zone that led to the infamous "Matteau! Matteau!" goal in double overtime of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals against the Rangers -- still the greatest NHL game I've ever seen, even though my team lost!
5. I sometimes wonder if Fedorov was injured in those 1995 Finals. Getting swept by a New Jersey team that finished in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff bracket must have hurt. Some of those players -- Fedorov and Paul Coffey in particular -- looked very soft to me in that series and seemed to wish they weren't there.
6. Were any of those Russian Red Wings irreplaceable? Would the Red Wings have won all those Stanley Cups with other players on the roster instead of those guys? Maybe Fedorov was a star among them, but that was it. Those Red Wings were a very deep team. Konstantinov obviously wasn't irreplaceable after his unfortunate situation in 1997; the team won several more Stanley Cups without him.
P.S. — I actually met Slava Fetisov years ago. He is one cold, stone-faced guy. LOL.
Barry Trotz was the best thing that ever happened to Ovechkin. He molded him into a much better two-way player and helped him add an element of tenacity to his game that he had lacked for years. A lot of talented players have been like that over the years; they score 2-3 goals in a 6-0 win but seem to disappear for long stretches in those 2-1 playoff game losses.
I don't see him getting anywhere close to Gretzky's career goal total. He's lost too much time to disruptions in NHL seasons over the years, and the game has changed so much that 50-goal seasons are as rare as 70-goal seasons once were.
“Why don’t you just write a $100 check to the DNC?”
It’s the only thing I follow and most of the people are form my hometown.
I seem to remember he almost retired a few years into his career because of some kind of anxiety disorder that included a fear of flying.
“It’s the only thing I follow and most of the people are form my hometown.”
Okay then. Make it $20.
L
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.