The best years of Igor Larionov’s playing career haven’t been in his 11 years in the National Hockey League.
That may surprise some who have marveled at the classy veteran’s stickhandling, passing and overall intelligent play, especially in the last two games of the Stanley Cup finals in which he scored three goals to lead Detroit to a 3-1 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes.
But the skill and elegance Larionov displays, even at 41, is nothing compared with when he was in his prime playing for the Soviet Union.
It was the rare occasion then that North Americans could see Larionov at his best, usually every four years in the Olympics. But it was with the Central Red Army team that won numerous world and Olympic championships that he was truly a star.
He centered the famed “KLM Line” with Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov that some argue is the best line ever.
“In Russia, he played on the most famous line in Russian hockey history,” Detroit’s Sergei Fedorov said. “He was one of the best five players in Russia.”
In those days, Larionov would score as many points in a season as he does now–only in half as many games. Over one eight-year span, Larionov averaged more than a point a game five times. He was named the Soviet player of the year in 1987-88 after scoring 57 points in 51 games.
Larionov was 29 when he made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks in the 1989-90 season. He was one of the pioneers who paved the way for the Fedorovs, Pavel Bures and Pavel Datsyuks to leave Russia to play in North America.
Larionov said he first dreamed of coming to North America in 1981. But the Soviet Union invasion bogged down in Afghanistan and the Cold War heated up.
“It wasn’t possible [to leave],” Larionov said. “I didn’t want to leave my family and my parents, and my teammates.”
Because he has been gone so long, few, if any, young Russian players saw him during his great years with the Red Army team.
“The last generation to see him play and practice and the opportunity to play with him was my generation, born in the 1960s and ’70s,” Fedorov said. “After we left Russia, we were the last ones to truly be influenced by him and I think that’s why Russian hockey is struggling now.”
Playing professional hockey in the Soviet Union was nothing like playing professional hockey in North America. It certainly beat being in the army, however, even though famed Soviet coach Victor Tikhonov ran his team like a tough drill sergeant.
“I played for eight years and it is like 11 months a year, can you believe that?” Larionov said. “Eleven months a year in training camp, playing together, eating together, and sharing joy and the sadness, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and for eight years, straight, and practice three times a day.”
Needless to say, there was no collective bargaining agreement between the players and Tikhonov.
Larionov said they had to beg Tikhonov for nights away from training camp to spend with their wives or girlfriends. When Tikhonov said no, they pleaded to his wife to get her to change his mind.
“Then [Tikhonov] would say, `Guys, promise you are going to win that game.’ Then you have to take responsibility and promise him,” Larionov said.
So the demanding coach sometimes would let his players have a night away from training camp with orders to be on the ice at 10 a.m. the next morning.
“If you stepped on a little sliver on the ice, the coach made notes that you have been drunk last night because you fell on the ice,” Larionov said. “That’s what we lived like, under the pressure all the time.”
