TURIN -- The manager of Russia's Olympic men's hockey team looks as though he could still play in the National Hockey League. But Pavel Bure says he doesn't miss the game, doesn't regret that a bum knee kept him from playing a few more years, doesn't lie awake at night dwelling on a part of his life he says is in the past.
"It was great," Bure said yesterday as he watched his team practise. "But I have a whole new life in front of me now. A whole new challenge." That would be making the Russian team the feared Big Red Machine it once was.
After opening the Olympic tournament with a surprising 5-3 loss to the Slovaks, Russia bounced back on Thursday with a 5-0 blowout of the Swedes. As fast and skilled as the Russians looked, the Swedes appeared slow and inept. It wasn't a fair fight. Russia and Canada now seem to be co-favourites for gold.
What has many people talking here is the depth of amazing young talent the Russians have assembled. Consider the list: Ilya Kovalchuk, 22, Alexander Ovechkin, 20, Evgeni Malkin, 19, Pavel Datsyuk, 27, and Maxim Afinogenov, 26.
This group could form the nucleus of a powerful Russian national team for years to come. Even though they have yet to form a line here, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and Malkin could become to Russian hockey in the next 10 years what Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov were to the former Soviet Union hockey program in the 1980s, and Valery Kharlamov, Vladimir Petrov and Boris Mikhailov were a decade earlier.
After winning gold in eight of 10 Olympics between 1956 and 1992, the Soviet program began crumbling along with the Berlin Wall. After the Soviet Union's breakup in the 1990s, Russian hockey was hit by defections to the NHL.
High-profile players such as Alexander Mogilny, who fled to the Buffalo Sabres, spoke out against the tyranny of the Russian Hockey Federation, which tried to prevent players from leaving, and then after they did, tried to extract exorbitant sums of money from the NHL teams for which the players were leaving.
Once the Russian players got a taste of the good life, it was hard for many of them to go back to the glum and repressive atmosphere in Russia.
"The players going over to North America were making so much money that they got comfortable over there," said Darius Kasparaitis, the Russian defenceman playing in his fourth Olympics. "Playing for their home country no longer was important to them. It was a hassle they didn't need. But now Moscow has a lot more to offer. Russian hockey has a lot more to offer, too."
At the time Mogilny and others were leading the exodus, the country's top league began to deteriorate. The pay was lousy. The playing conditions terrible.
That, too, has changed.
Now the Russian Super League is believed to be the second-best-paying league in the world next to the NHL. Teams have kept players who otherwise could be playing in the NHL. Others playing in the NHL have started to return to finish their careers in Russia. This has restored a measure of pride and respect to the game in Russia, something that young superstars such as Ovechkin and Kovalchuk strongly sensed growing up.
That's why Bure didn't need to beg them to play in the Olympics.
That's not to say, however, that all is well.
For some of the Russian players here, such as Montreal Canadiens forward Alexei Kovalev, the choice of Bure as manager was not a popular one. While he was celebrated as a player in his homeland, Bure is seen by many as a puppet of Alexander Steblin, president of the Russian Hockey Federation and one of the most controversial figures in the country.
No one is quite sure how Steblin has kept his job the 10-plus years he has ruled the federation and overseen the national program. While many have tried to get him fired, he's been bulletproof, at least until recently.
A bizarre incident at the European Champions Cup in St. Petersburg finally cost him his job as the head of the Russian hockey league, although he still reigns supreme at the federation.
Steblin is alleged to have got so drunk in St. Petersburg he was unable to participate in the medal ceremony after the gold-medal game. Far worse, however, was an alleged punch-up he had with a prominent Russian hockey journalist and a hockey promoter. Steblin is the only one said to have thrown a punch. He is also alleged to have had loud and angry words with Rene Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, and to have tossed a plate of orange slices at a tournament sponsor.
The incident received extensive coverage in the European press.
It was former NHL great Viacheslav Fetisov, now Minister of Sport in Russia, who led the calls for Steblin's resignation as head of the Russian hockey league.
Bure is taking his job as manager seriously and rejects any suggestion he is Steblin's lackey or that his appointment was a publicity stunt. Bure indicated shortly after his appointment last fall that he wouldn't beg any players to play for Team Russia in Turin. Years of doing that are over, he said.
"We have a whole new generation of players who are proud to play for Russia," he said. "That is the way it should be. I think this is an exciting time in Russian hockey because of the talent level of the players coming up. It could be a good thing for Russian hockey for a long time to come."
While it is still early in this Olympic tournament, a Russia-Canada clash could be on the horizon.
The Big Red Machine appears to be revving up again.
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