A safety nyet

Sporting News, The, Dec 30, 1996 by Scott MacGregor, Larry Wigge

Once the greatest goaltender in the world, Vladislav Tretiak now satisfies himself with helping make Chicago's goalies the best in the game

It's the kind of irony Ronald Reagan would appreciate: the best goalie in Russian hockey history, a former lieutenant colonel in the Soviet army, getting goose bumps when he hears the United States' national anthem.

"I like Russian anthem, but American anthem is precious to me," says Russian-born Vladislav Tretiak, who now serves as a goaltending consultant to the Chicago Blackhawks and sees a rendition of the national anthem that is more than just a silent tradition--raucous fans howling from first note to last "The people are so excited. It's unbelievable."

Perhaps that new red. white and blue patriotism is fitting for this once-feared cold warrior, a veteran of 15 Soviet world-championship and four Olympic teams. In many ways, Tretiak is a perfect metaphor for post-Communist Russia: proud of his past but happy to be free.

As a part-time coach with the Blackhawks since 1990, Tretiak finds himself where everyone outside the Eastern Bloc believed he should have been during his playing days: the NHL In 1983, he was drafted by the Canadiens. but the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation wouldn't allow him to leave.

"If North America is best hockey league, that's where I want to be," he says.

Tretiak, 44, still lives in Moscow but travels to Chicago five times a year--during training camp, the playoffs and three homestands during the regular season. During his most recent visit in November he talked about his continuing love for hockey and how this job helps him live out the dream of playing in the NHL that never materialized.

"Every time I come to Chicago, I get very excited," he says. "I like the city, the stadium and the fans."

His work with the Hawks has paid off for goalie Ed Belfour, who first met the former Russian star when Tretiak worked with the Canadian Olympic team in 1988.

"We're just like brothers," Belfour says. "We hang out together all the time, eat dinner, go to movies. He's a great friend and a great leader."

"Whatever he says, you believe because you know he's credible," Hawks backup goalie Jeff Hackett says. "He's instilled a lot of confidence in me. I feel like I'm a better goalie just by working with him."

Vladislav Tretiak got interested in hockey through his mother, who played a combination of field and ice hockey as a young girl. When he was 11, he enrolled at the Red Army hockey school in Moscow and became a goaltender because the only equipment the coach had left was the goalie's gear.

By 17, Tretiak was the top goalie on the Red Army team. They played only two games a week, so to get extra experience he played in any game he could find, including junior and old-timers leagues.

"I like to do my job best whatever I do," he says. Tretiak hasn't missed a practice in his 33 years as a player and coach.

With the Red Army team, Tretiak began to develop a reputation feared around the world. In 1972, he helped the Soviets win an Olympic gold medal (at the time, it should be printed out, he made a $300 bonus to go with his $250-a-year government salary). His best memory of that year, however, was playing a team of Canadian NHL stars in an eight-game series, four in Canada and four in the Soviet Union. It was the first time fans outside the Eastern Bloc has seen him and the first time he had seen the stars of the NHL "Next year is the 25th anniversary," he says. "In Canada, they're making a silver coin."

Playing hockey in the Soviet Union was like living in a fish-bowl surrounded by a firing squad. The pressure to win from the government was so great, Tretiak says. that members of the national team sometimes played nervously and tentatively. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev often sat on the team's bench during games.

"In Russia there were three important things: ballet, cosmonauts and hockey," Tretiak says. "The government liked hockey the best. They pushed too hard."

That pressure imploded in the 1980 Olympics, now famous for the United States' "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviets in the semifinals. Three days before the Lake Placid Games began, the Soviets whipped the Americans, 10-3, in a warmup at New York's Madison Square Garden. From Tretiak's view, the Soviet team got cocky and thought playing the U.S. in the Olympics would be an easy victory.

Instead, the Americans came out firing and tied the score at 2 in the first period. The Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov, thought Tretiak was too nervous and pulled him in favor of Vladimir Myshkin, who gave up two more goals as the Americans shocked the Soviets and the world, 4-3. Tretiak himself was shocked at being taken out, a move he says he still doesn't understand. It stung so much he thought about giving up hockey.

"I didn't want to go home," he says. "I was very, very angry."

After retreating to the Russian woods to fish and think, Tretiak decided to keep playing, and after winning the Canada Cup in 1981 he knew his competitive fire had returned. He won back the gold medal in 1984 and retired that year with three Olympic and 10 world championship golds and 13 titles