1/4 финала конференций
♦ «Филадельфия» - «Тампа Бэй» 4-2
♦ «Питтсбург» - «Вашингтон» 4-2
♦ «НЙ Рэйнджерс» - «Монреаль» 4-2
♦ «Флорида» - «Бостон» 4-1
♦ «Детройт» - «Виннипег» 4-2
♦ «Колорадо» - «Ванкувер» 4-2
♦ «Чикаго» - «Калгари» 4-0
♦ «Торонто» - «Ст.Луис» 2-4
1/2 финала конференций
♦ «Филадельфия» - «Флорида» 2-4
♦ «Питтсбург» - «НЙ Рэйнджерс» 4-1
♦ «Детройт» - «Ст.Луис» 4-3
♦ «Колорадо» - «Чикаго» 4-2
Финал конференций
♦ «Питтсбург» - «Флорида» 3-4
♦ «Детройт» - «Колорадо» 2-4
Финал
♦ «Колорадо» - «Флорида» 4-0

ПЕРВАЯ СТРАНИЧКА КУБКА СТЭНЛИ 1996



RUSSIAN WINGS MAKING BLUES HOLLER `NYET!': [FIVE STAR LIFT Edition]
Wheatley, Tom.  St. Louis Post - Dispatch (pre-1997 Fulltext); St. Louis, Mo. [St. Louis, Mo]. 07 May 1996: 

Maybe Igor Larionov is not the "Gretzky of Russia." Maybe Wayne Gretzky is the "Larionov of Canada."

At any rate, the Blues-Detroit playoff series is not the expected showcase showdown between 35-year-old legendary centers from hockey's two superpowers.

Larionov and four Russian comrades are making the Blues look like the foils in a Marxist Brothers skit.

The fun started four games into the season, when Larionov arrived in trade from San Jose.

Coach Scotty Bowman assembled a five-man Russian unit, and Detroit was off to the record-setting races.

The spotlight seems to find Detroit's three younger Russians.

Sergei Fedorov, 26, and Slava Kozlov, 24, are gifted wingers. Defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov, 29, had a league-best plus-60 defensive rating.

But the linchpins are Larionov and defenseman Slava Fetisov, the dean at age 38.

North American fans caught only glimpses of these two paragons in their prime with the Russian national team. They won Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1988 and dazzled in the '87 Canada Cup.

The famed KLM line of Vladimir Krutov, Larionov and Sergei Makorov dominated international play from 1981-89.

At 5 feet 9 and 170 pounds, Larionov was a physical facsimile of Gretzky, listed optimistically at 6 feet, 180 pounds.

"He's a good passer, like Gretzky," said Blues winger Yuri Khmylev, a teammate of Larionov's on Russian World Championship and Canada Cup teams. "You think he's got eyes in the back."

Gretzky said last week, "We do play a little bit alike. We both hit the late guy coming across the blue line, whether it be a winger coming or the defenseman coming."

When asked for other similarities or differences, Gretzky smiled and said, "I don't speak Russian."

Larionov, the most westernized of the Soviet regime, has spoken English for years.

Fear of defection - and not the Party line of illness - kept Larionov home in 1986 when his Central Red Army team toured the National Hockey League.

Fetisov, wearing the K for Kapitan, made that trip and had an assist in a 4-2 victory over the Blues at The Arena.

Now 38, Fetisov has slowed since militaristic coach Viktor Tikhonov recruited him at age 16.

"Tikhonov idolized him," said Blues defenseman Igor Kravchuk, a Red Army teammate from 1987-92. "He was raised in the Red Army."

One American scribe who first saw the young Fetisov gushed, "He skated backward faster than everyone else skated forward."

In his hockey dotage, Fetisov is less spectacular but still a force at 6-1 and 220 pounds.

"He's a very good team guy," Khmylev said. "He's a great guy and a great player, too. He made good hits. He was never afraid."

Tikhonov, who doubled as Soviet national team coach, popularized the five-man unit. He grouped the KLM line with defensemen Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, who later had a samovar of coffee with the Blues.

Did the unit play tight defense?

"No," Khymlev said, laughing. "But they never had to. They always had the puck. They played like two-minute shifts, because nobody touched them.

"When they wanted to, they scored. The puck moves around, and you just sit on the bench and like, wow."

Kravchuk, a Red Army regular from 1987-92, said, "It was a pleasure to watch the game they play. They were eight years playing together, 1981 to 1989. It was like chess on the ice."

Despite comparisons to Gretzky, Larionov is not a clear-cut choice as Russia's greatest forward. There is no argument about Fetisov's rank among defensemen.

"When Fetisov was younger, he was scary," Khymlev said. "Like, oh my God, he'd grab the puck behind the net and go all the way to the other end with it and score."

And Kravchuk said, "In his best years, you couldn't ever beat him. He can shoot. He can skate. He can go one-on-one. He can get out of the co rner with the puck. He's so strong on his skates. His legs are huge, just all muscles. Unbelievable."

Fetisov showed even more strength in his growing opposition to Tikhonov, a living symbol of Soviet tyranny. Their father-son relationship curdled into a bitter feud.

It took courage for Fetisov and Larionov to oppose their coach and the system he represented.

Now affluent, they have not deserted their homeland. During the NHL lockout last season, Larionov set up a Good Will Tour of Russia by NHL pl ayers to benefit youth hockey there.

He and Fetisov helped persuade Russian premier Boris Yeltsin to dump Tikhonov as coach of the Russian entry in the upcoming World Cup of Hockey.

So if Gretzky and the Blues can't win the Stanley Cup, the vote here goes for the Red Wings and their two Red Army legends.

Not just for their hockey background. But for their backbone.

Illustration