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...explain. I root for Americans in the sports where we’re underdogs. Some would argue that in men’s hockey, the Russians, Czechs and Canadians were all much bigger favorites than the Americans. These people, however, would be mistaken. The U.S. sported a team of NHL All-Stars. They may not have had the top few players in the world on the squad, but it was no surprise when America ended up in the finals...
...struggle with both the past and the present problems of Russian hockey. He must negotiate with the same hockey authorities who tried to derail him--and who still hate him for opening the floodgates out of Russia to the riches of the NHL for many players after him. Those players are now millionaire hockey stars, and although they owe their careers to Fetisov's bravery, he has nothing with which to recruit them for the Russian Olympic team but the dry spigot of Russian patriotism...
Four years ago, when NHL players entered the Olympics for the first time, many Russian players refused to play for the motherland. This year Florida Panthers player Pavel Bure, with the support of other Russian NHL players, lobbied for Fetisov to coach in a closed meeting with Putin. Soon after, Russian hockey execs buckled. So there's nothing they would like to see more than Fetisov coming home without a medal. "I don't want to get into details, but everything I try to do, they try to sabotage," he says. "I was fighting for freedom and democracy...
Fetisov didn't get help from all the players who brought about his appointment either. Three major NHL stars--the Maple Leafs' Alexander Mogilny, the Stars' Sergei Zubov and the Sabres' Alexei Zhitnik--are refuseniks. "Russia doesn't mean anything for them anymore," Fetisov says in disgust. "What about families who live there? What about friends they have over there? What about coaches who worked with them since they were...
Like Crothers—who toiled patiently as the backup to Oliver Jonas ’01last year—Kelleher also played second-fiddle in 2000. Scott Clemmensen, now in the NHL, was B.C.’s main man last year...