Red Army Page #6

Never.

Ever.

I said, "Mr. Minister,

"if you don't do what you promised to me,

you're not a Minister. You're not an officer.

"Release me from the army.

"Thank you very much."

I turn and go.

He was screaming, yelling.

"You ....sucker.

You try to play for our enemies?

"You know what I can do with you? I'll send

you to Siberia. You'll never get out."

But I never turned back.

I left.

You know what?

In ten days, they give me a passport.

And I was free of the Army.

The first multiple working entrance

visa to United States.

Wait a second. Go back.

I don't get why Yazov let you leave

if he was mad at you.

I'm not a historian.

My feeling was the country

tried to change

something because it's Perestroika time.

But he doesn't want changes.

Everybody was afraid.

It's understandable.

It's like in a dark room,

try to find a dark cat.

You know, it's not funny.

Okay.

You'll go play our nation's hockey.

Skillful and effective hockey.

You'll be great.

Coach's Corner with Don Cherry.

You look happy. What's the matter?

You know, I was gonna come on here

and be a good guy, you know, right?

The first show, don't talk about the Russians,

and you know, and all that stuff.

And be all, you know, I go,

"We'll let them come over here." No way!

I don't want them here!

The players don't want them here.

And you're gonna be sorry

they're over here.

Nobody like me in the United States.

Nobody knew what I went through.

They would think in clichs.

I'm a bad guy, a communist.

They talk about the Soviets

coming over and play here.

Would some of the players be

a little upset about that?

It would be a touchy situation,

you know,

because you don't like to see

players on your team lose jobs,

and if they come, there's gonna

be two less spots in the lineup.

A shot taken by Clark on Fetisov,

who's not retaliating.

Fetisov looks like,

"You can't be doing this."

Kind of disbelief when Clark

started swinging at him.

Let's take a look at it again.

When I walk in the wives' lounge,

it was like

I was staying in one corner,

and the rest were staying

in the other corner.

And was looking at me,

and talking in their own language.

I understand nothing

they're talking about.

Looking at me again.

Laughing and looking and talking.

And I think,

"What are they talking about?"

I have no idea.

The coach hate Russians.

See it when he look at you, he hate you.

How you gonna play for the guy

who hate you

because you're a Soviet?

Hockey over here

was a more brutal form of the game

with elbows...

Sticks high, and individualistic play.

There was no style.

They're so simple.

They're not creative.

It was the worst team in the league.

Somebody gets open

and they skate away from you.

And you end up on your ass.

They look at you like

you never played before.

Life challenged me all the time.

All of a sudden, he was drafted

by the New Jersey Devils.

...there, Kasatonov.

Kasatonov, he's a little overshadowed,

I think, by Fetisov.

He's a great hockey player.

Did you tell the coaches, like,

"Listen, I can't play with this guy.

"I mean, I just can't."

Nobody gave a sh*t

about our relationship.

They sign him. We have to play.

It wasn't friendship anymore.

It wasn't team spirit.

It was kind of competition.

It was tough, trust me.

Fetisov and Kasatonov,

best friends off the ice,

defensive partners on the ice.

I came to the United States

to play the hockey game.

Not to be involved in this bullshit.

Welcome to the big leagues, Vladimir.

Krutov hit hard! Down he goes.

The Soviets in the big league

have been having trouble.

They're too old or too slow.

They're too confused out there,

and they tend to get too fancy.

They tend to pass

when they should shoot,

and it gets the natives restless.

They're not here for the Bolshoi Ballet.

It's a completely new experience for me

to play on a losing team.

I ask the fans to be patient.

It didn't work out for me,

staying in the NHL.

But that's okay, I think.

All in all, my life worked out.

I think everything's okay.

When you come from a system

where everything is regimented

every day of your life,

and it was for these hockey players,

and then you're...

You go to a completely

different environment

where you're supposed

to be able to organize

and run your own life,

you become sort of lost.

I was 36.

And they trade me from

New Jersey to Detroit.

Do you miss Larionov, Krutov, Makarov?

Of course.

We spent so many years

playing and living together.

You miss the ones you're close to.

I think, "Oh my God.

I did something wrong.

"You've been successful.

You've always been on top.

"Now you're a loser?"

Do you feel that the game

is more fun here?

I get out of the dressing room

and see my wife by herself.

Crying.

I said, "Why are you crying?"

She said, "Oh, we got probably

our last chance."

I said, "No."

We've got two choices:

To pack the stuff, go back

or to fight through.

Soviet Army tanks in their hundreds

moved onto the streets of Moscow,

but the takeover has not gone

ahead without resistance.

...was something that

certainly wasn't anticipated

in this form, this quickly.

The extent of the changes

and the immediacy of them

certainly were not anticipated.

I hereby resign my post

as President of the USSR.

An end has been put to the

Cold War and the arms race,

and the mad militarization

of this country.

The threat of nuclear war is over.

I wish everyone all the best.

I knew how good they were.

I mean, I had watched them play.

Bobby, the Soviets,

they never stop skating.

There is constant motion.

Their style of hockey

bothered our goalies and our defensemen,

because, you know, you get in tune

to playing a certain way,

and then all of a sudden,

the opposition does something different.

The Canadians are getting caught up

in the Soviet vortex.

We initially had three

that came out about the same time,

Konstantinov, Fedorov and Kozlov.

We were able to make a trade

and get Igor Larionov.

And once we got the fourth member

of the Russians,

we said, "Let's go and get one more."

We needed a defenseman,

and we got Slava Fetisov.

He was about 37 or 38.

You could say we took a chance with him.

When they got together

and they designed

their own type of plays,

we were surprised ourselves.

And the Soviet symphony is tuning up.

They crisscrossed a lot.

And they made a lot of passes

in their own zone.

If they don't see

an opportunity to score,

they turn back with the puck

and develop another attack.

They played a totally different style.

Together again on the same team.

It was like a fish put back

in the water.

You never know what they'll do next.

You become younger right away,

and enjoy the game.

Around the arena, Russian often seems

like a second language.

A lot of people complain about it.

To me, see, I don't...

They're playing for us, and they're good.

No, sir! And he gets leveled by Fetisov.

I didn't really get to learn the system

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