When the International Ice Hockey Federation, summing up the results of the last century, chose the main characters, it was he, and not Gretzky, Sergei Makarov, Mario Lemieux or Igor Larionov won the most votes.
The great Gretzky himself said: «This guy, along with Denis Potvin, is the strongest defender I played against.»
Seven World Championship wins, two Olympic gold medals, two Stanley Cups as a player and one as a coach. Debut in his native CSKA at the age of 17, a farewell match for the same army team at 52. All this is Vyacheslav Fetisov, who turned 65 today.One can relate to his coaching and political career in different ways, but Fetisov as a player is a value that, perhaps, is not equal in our hockey in his role. Choosing the best among the attackers, one can argue who is cooler: Evgeni Malkin or Alexander Ovechkin, Sergey Makarov or Vladimir Krutov, Valery Kharlamov or Alexander Yakushev.
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And there is almost no one to oppose Fetisov both in terms of the quality of the game and the titles. Not because we didn't have other defenders. He just set such a bar that comparisons are almost impossible. In skating, in understanding the game, in the art of throwing and the signature first pass, which has been called the Fetisov pass since the early 80s. How many goals did CSKA and the USSR national team score after Fetisov, picking up the puck, made a quick and accurate pass under the red line.Fetisov also performed his direct duties — to destroy and not let him go to the gates — excellently. He became the best defender of the world championships for a record five times. 11 and 13 points scored by Vyacheslav at the Olympic tournaments in Sarajevo-1984 and Calgary-1988 remain unsurpassed. Fetisov, as the hero of Tom Hanks from «Forrest Gump», caught so many important events in the history of Russian sports that they would be enough for the life of two or three players, and for him this is only one stage — his playing career.
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Fetisov played with the legendary trio of Boris Mikhailov, was indispensable in the five of Igor Larionov, and even caught the debuts in the national team of Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny, who were destined for the status of new stars of the “red car”. He went through the humiliation of silver at the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980, and a year later he played at the Canada Cup in Montreal, where the USSR team smashed the hosts with a score of 8: 1. Fetisov was at the first world championship of the era of Viktor Tikhonov and won the last gold in the history of the USSR national team at the 1990 World Cup in Switzerland. For the sake of victory, Fetisov flew from the United States and played brilliantly, despite the conflict with the head coach.
Fetisov happened to be one of the first players to legally leave for the NHL. Years later, together with his partners in the Russian Five, he brought the Stanley Cup to Red Square. Only he ended up on that fateful evening in the same limousine with Vladimir Konstantinov, after which «Vladinator» became disabled.
A year later, Fetisov was rolling a wheelchair across the ice of the arena in Washington, in which a former teammate was sitting and celebrating the championship with teammates. On that June evening in 1998, Vyacheslav was 42 years old, but in Detroit he was still indispensable. An astonishing and respectable achievement.
Regret — not Fetisov, but we, ordinary fans — have, perhaps, only one thing. The best defender of the Soviet national team did not end up in the Novy Svet during the peak of his career, and this performance could have been chic. But Fetisov left for the United States only at the age of 32, after physical and moral exhaustion due to the struggle with the system and quarrels with Viktor Tikhonov. When Fetisov made his debut for the New Jersey Devils, he scored his first NHL point on his debut shift, and later led the team to a stable playoff participant. Only for a number of reasons, this was not the same Fetisov, whom we saw on European sites.
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«We got into the NHL a little late. It was very difficult for us to adapt to another world, to another hockey world. It took time. I think he would have achieved more in the NHL if he lived in another era».
