Every Russian who has ever shopped at Harrods and given his details to the London department store recently received an email informing him that, although the doors were not closed to him, he could not buy more than 350 euros worth under the sanctions imposed by the British Government after the invasion of Ukraine. Which he gives for one of the typical boxes of cookies, and little else. For a Rolex, don't even think about it.
The Russians are not the most popular citizens of the world right now (neither before, but now even less so). And apart from having their yachts confiscated and their accounts frozen, they cannot participate, for example, in the recently started Wimbledon tennis tournament. Daniil Medvedev has been banned because British Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not want to risk him winning and waving his country's flag in an explosion of Slavic nationalism.
But one thing is Harrods and Wimbledon and quite another the NHL, where the Russians are not only welcome but they are put on the red catwalk and bowed to them. In the best professional ice hockey league in the world, 57 of Putin's compatriots play, ten of whom are goalkeepers. Álex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Artemi Panarin of the Rangers, Nikita Kucherov of Tampa and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been some of the big stars of the recently concluded championship.
But where the Russians really dominate is in goal, having taken over from the Quebecois (Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur won seven Stanley Cups), the Swedes and the Finns. The two who are considered above the rest are the Siberian Andrei Vasilevski, who has led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the last three tournament finals, and the Rangers' Igor Shesterkin from Moscow, who makes Madison Square Garden vibrate.
Why are Russian goalkeepers the best? What gives them those feline reflexes, that movement, that prodigious balance, that sense of anticipation and play, that ability to pass the puck with their stick and create an attacking play from behind? Why does it look like there's a magnet inside the glove? The most common explanation is that as children they receive a very free training that prioritizes spontaneity over technique, accompanied by dance and ballet classes to stimulate agility and strength in the legs and ankles. The paradox, however, is that some of those who succeed on teams in the United States and Canada are discards from the Russian Kontinental Hockey League, the second-strongest in the world after the NHL.
The pioneer of Russian goalkeeping in North America was Sergei Melnikov, who joined the Nordiques in 1989 when Quebec City had a professional team. Later they seduced others like Anton Khudobin, Alexánder Georgiev or Semyon Varlamov. And now it's time for Iván Fedotov (Philadelphia Flyers), Piotr Kochetkov of the Carolina Hurricanes, Sergei Bobrovski (Florida Panthers), Semyon Varlamov and Iliá Sorokin of the Islanders, Álex Georgiev of the Rangers, and of course Vasilevski and Shesterkin, candidates to the Vezina trophy that is awarded to the best of the campaign. Of the ten Russian goalkeepers in the NHL, eight play in the East, and they will be joined by Yaroslav Askarov, a prodigy who has been signed by Nashville.
American hockey does not consider that the Russians represent their country, and that they are responsible for the invasion of Ukraine even if they do not criticize it. If Harrods had branches in New York, Los Angeles, Montreal or Toronto, they could spend as much as they wanted...
