Greatest Line Ever?
About 20 years ago, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Mogilny and Pavel Bure were teenagers on a line together on the Soviet Union’s World Junior team. First Pavel’s knee gave out and then the salary cap forced Almo to end his career unceremoniously in the minors. Last month, Sergei Fedorov announced he was returning to Russia to finish his career in the KHL.
And so what was arguably the most talented line to ever play the game is no more, at least in North America. All great hockey careers eventually come to an end, but it strikes me that the league, the hockey media and the fans could wave goodbye to these three guys with so little fanfare or celebration of their careers. It says something about us that more ink has been spilled over a Sidney Crosby birthday in Nova Scotia than on tributes to three of the greatest NHL stars of the past two decades.
I’m all for applauding Jeremy Roenick and remembering the years of entertainment he delivered to the league and the fans. I just wish we could do the same for the great Russian players who leave the stage too, instead of letting them slip quietly away.
I’m really surprised guys like Jagr and Fedorov didn’t get much of a send off when they went overseas… I guess there really must be something to fans and/or media having less of a connection to the European stars?
It is pretty ridiculous, but I honestly think with Jagr in particular it just seemed like it couldn’t possibly be the end of his career. Retiring to go to Europe and quitting for good is a little different.
Ed Belfour just became a goaltending consultant… he went to Sweden for a year after finishing his final NHL season in South Florida. He was one of the best of his generation, too, and he was a small town Manitoba kid, but he didn’t get any fanfare, either. You need that retirement ceremony to get it.
But Markus Naslund didn’t get much, either. There definitely is a bias against Europeans for these kind of things.
Great point, Tom. I like to think that had Fedorov stayed in the Detroit, he couldn’t have slipped away quietly. An announced retirement or departure would have elicited a huge outpouring of support for Feds. I think if he had come back here for one last spin, all might have been forgiven. It’s unfortunate that perhaps part of Fedorov’s motivation to go to the KHL is his financial loss (trusted the wrong Ponzi scheme, I guess).
Detroit was home for Fedorov, and the prodigal son could have come home. There are many fans here who certainly felt that connection, but he lost his way.
There definitely is a bias against Europeans for these kind of things.
Maybe. I’d bet if Mats Sundin announced he was done, Toronto would have a pretty big deal for him. I’d suspect Selanne in Anaheim and Lidstrom in Detroit will get a lot of attention when they go.
As for the Russian guys, who knows? I don’t doubt that there’s still a core of Cherry-esque troglodytes that look at Russians in particular as soulless mercenaries. Regardless, no one should forget that those guys weren’t just great players, but young men who took real risks in moving to North America.
Amen, Tom. It’s an absolute tragedy and a disservice to the game. These were three of the greatest players to ever play the sport.
Except that none of those 3 guys actually “retired” Mogilny unceremoniously played out his career in the minors, Fedorov went to the KHL, and Bure had an injury situation and a “will he be alright to play won’t he” thing going for a few years. Neither of those three guys went immediately from “great player on a team in the league” to “oops he’s retiring” They had (or in Fedorov’s case still have) an intermediary phase where they weren’t really NHL regulars but they weren’t officially retired either, either because of injuries or playing in the minors or whatever. When they did finally officially retire, they had more or less been gone from the league already so it was harder to give them a big send off. Most people’s reaction was, “well yeah, he’s been out of the league for a few years already anyway what’s the big deal” If these guys had just officially retired when still playing for an NHL team, and not gone to the KHL or battled injuries first or whatever, the fanfare would have been much bigger.
I don’t know if you blame the fans or the media. I certainly had my moment of sadness to see them all pass and would have liked to have seen retirement press, but I can’t organize them. I’m looking forward anyway. The new best line ever is about to be formed in the ’10 Olympics with Malkin, Ovechkin, and Kovalchuk.
The new best line ever is about to be formed in the ‘10 Olympics with Malkin, Ovechkin, and Kovalchuk.
It always makes sense to have two players who play, and have always only played, the same exact position on the same line.
I saw the Bure-Mogilny-Fedorov line (Anchorage in early 1987). Mogilny was the big name but Bure, with his lime green skate laces, was the star of the tournament (seems like Mogilny may have gotten injured). Whenever they were on the ice it was as if they were on a power play. Of course the game I saw was against Germany, actually West Germany as there were two Germanys in those days. Without a doubt this was the best non-NHL line I’ve ever seen. One must ask how good they would have been in 1995 or so (was Bure still healthy then?).
Today a line of Malkin, Ovechkin & Kovalchuk seems pretty intimidating,…can’t wait.
The fanfare seems to be much less when a player leaves the NHL to play elsewhere than to retire from the NHL. Perhaps there is some defection vs loyalty issues at play.
I saw the Bure-Mogilny-Fedorov line (Anchorage in early 1987). Mogilny was the big name but Bure, with his lime green skate laces, was the star of the tournament (seems like Mogilny may have gotten injured).
The first time i saw them… I can’t remember the WJC year but it was the tourney Lindros was supposed to dominate. After the tourney, my friends and I decided that Bure was the guy who dazzled us. When the Canucks drafted him, I smiled for a week.
Bure lost a couple of years to injury as a Canuck, but he was healthy when he left. His last year in Vancouver was one of his best. It was the second knee injury – in Florida – that ruined him as a player.
Today a line of Malkin, Ovechkin & Kovalchuk seems pretty intimidating,…can’t wait.
I don’t think this line will measure up to Fedorov, Bure, Mogilny. It was a great mix. Bure was the breakaway player, Mogilny was the power forward, and Fedorov was the dominating defensive player as well as being terrific offensively. The line had it all. Larionov, Makharov and Krutov were awfully damned good, too, and for much the same reason.
I don’t see the same fit in today’s trio. I don’t think I would play Kovalchuk and Ovechkin together because they do similar things. Malkin is awesome offensively, but I don’t consider him the equal of either Feds or Iggy without the puck. I think today’s line has just as much skill, but the players don’t complement each other so well.
The fanfare seems to be much less when a player leaves the NHL to play elsewhere than to retire from the NHL. Perhaps there is some defection vs loyalty issues at play.
Well, we’d better get used to it. I think a lot of the European stars will squeeze out an extra year or two or three in Europe. As their NHL career winds down they are worth more over there, too.