Translated material
475
Fedorov, now playing for the Washington Capitals, set his record on Sunday night. He scored two goals in an away match against Dallas, thus, at almost 39 years old, ahead of Tikhonov’s CSKA teammate Alexander Mogilny in the number of goals scored in the NHL. Now Fedorov has all the main Russian records of the strongest hockey league in the world: most goals (475), most assists (678) and, accordingly, most points scored (1153). In addition, it was Fedorov who played the most matches in the NHL among Russians - more than 1220. The coming year will mark exactly 20 years since the CSKA Fedorov-Mogilny pair actually fled overseas from the national team to begin a stellar career in the NHL .
Fedorov himself commented on his goal record in the most dignified manner. He said that this was never his goal in itself. And he paid tribute to Mogilny: “I would rather talk about Alexander Mogilny than about this record. His career was hampered by injury, otherwise he would definitely have scored much more. Sasha always had a great throw and just wonderful hands.”
Paradoxically, Russian fans only truly appreciated the hockey player Fedorov now, this year. 20 years ago he was a capable boy with good physical characteristics, just starting his career in the national team and decided to make the forced march to the NHL. Then, from overseas, of course, news came about Sergei’s reliability as a player, about his excellent abilities as a defensive forward (he even managed to play as a defender), about his ability to benefit any club - and a strong one (three Stanley Cups as part of the star “Detroit” were won by him rightfully), and weak (Columbus, for which he played before the unexpected exchange to Washington last season, initially did not lay claim to anything). But it always seemed that Fedorov was far from our most stellar forward in the NHL. At first, Mogilny seemed to be the main star, then the era of the “Russian rocket” of Pavel Bure began. “Professor” Igor Larionov played in the league for a long time and fruitfully. If only Sergei Makarov had gotten there earlier, and not closer to the end of his career, he would have had every opportunity to score much more goals. Now, in his “old hockey years,” Fedorov seems to be eclipsed by Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk, and Semin, who is catching up with them. But the record holder is still Fedorov.
Why this happened became clear at the last World Hockey Championship. The coaching staff of the Russian national team, seemingly relying on young people, decided to invite veteran Fedorov to the team after a 17-year (!) break from playing for the main team of the country. And all the talk about his isolation and difficult character faded into the background. Not only was Fedorov fundamentally not inferior to his much younger partners in speed, he also became the ideological leader of the team. He smiled on the ice, he was one of the best at the decisive moments of key meetings. Moreover, he is not the captain of the team and does not at all show by his behavior that he is the most experienced player in this team.
Actually, Fedorov was taken to Washington as a “guy” for two talented Russians - perhaps the most gifted player in modern hockey, Alexander Ovechkin and the rapidly progressing Alexander Semin. But there is no academicism or hockey “old age-wisdom” in the way Fedorov looks on the ice. He is quite a lively and young player in terms of enthusiasm, movement, and speed of game thinking. There are natural geniuses, and there are geniuses of self-realization. Fedorov undoubtedly belongs to the second category. Not everyone can be a Pele or a Gretzky, but it turns out that even less talented players have a chance to become truly outstanding masters if they transform high professionalism into long-term playing reliability.
Sergei Fedorov was almost never called great. For some, in order to be considered great, it is enough to play a few outstanding matches or a couple of amazing seasons. Others require a long, persistent, piecemeal career. This figure - 475 goals in the NHL, a record among Russian scorers - de facto transferred Fedorov into the category of great hockey players. In our world, where justice, to put it mildly, is not obvious, this looks like a triumph of justice.