Former minister show

Vyacheslav Fetisov played in an official KHL match

The main event of the week was the show that took place at the CSKA - SKA match. The former Minister of Sports, and now a member of the Federation Council, 51-year-old Vyacheslav Fetisov, was declared for the army club, where he is generally the president, and spent more than eight minutes on the ice. After this, Fetisov announced that he would no longer appear on the site.

The story of Fetisov’s appearance in CSKA’s roster is quite strange. One day, the team's head coach Sergei Nemchinov admitted that his club had problems with defensive players, and, apparently, they would have to let Vyacheslav Fetisov onto the court. At first everyone took it as a joke, but it turned out that the matter was more serious. They say that it was Fetisov, and not Nemchinov, who initiated his appearance on the ice. Either he wanted to prove something to someone, or he simply decided to draw attention to his club, but the situation turned out to be unique. Moreover, the team has no problems with defensive players. Even on the worst days, Nemchinov had six defensive players in his team, and that’s enough. Another question is that these may not be great hockey players, but they are clearly head and shoulders stronger than a 51-year-old man who, of course, played sports for himself, but was by no means a regime.

The hockey world was immediately divided into two parts. Some said that Fetisov’s action was excellent, and that the titled veteran himself was a great fellow. Specialists such as Sergei Gimaev and Boris Mayorov emphasized this in post-match comments. The team players were also completely delighted, but they would hardly have shown disrespect for their leader. The club also rejoiced. For the first time, the team’s match was sold out, CSKA attracted the attention of the entire country, and speculators appeared on Leningradsky Prospekt.

There were others who believed that Fetisov’s act would bring more harm. Still, the chairman of the KHL board of directors should not turn the league into a circus. You can't play hockey at that age, and it puts everyone in an awkward position. What, for example, should the referees who worked at the match have done? Stop the game upon any contact with a veteran? But then what kind of hockey is this? By the way, Alexey Yashin still dropped Vyacheslav Alexandrovich, after which he did not appear on the ice.

Fetisov announced that he will no longer play in the KHL. Thus, this move by the official was more advertising than sporting. By the way, he couldn’t help his team in any way. The capital club lost to St. Petersburg SKA - 2:3, and Fetisov’s utility indicator was “minus 1”. However, it must be admitted that the KHL has not received such attention since its founding. Not only federal channels, but also television broadcasters from all over the world talked about the army team’s match. At least from those countries where hockey is held in high esteem.

This week, two teams announced that they want to participate in the next hockey championship. These are the Tyumen “Gazovik” and the Belarusian “Gomel”. The latter have, of course, much greater chances. In Belarus they have long wanted to have two teams in the strongest league, but there was only enough money for one. But the Tyumen residents have problems with the arena, while it does not comply with the regulations. Let us remind you that the Swedish AIK and the Lithuanian “Vetra” will most likely play in the next season. The team from Vilnius is going to hold a friendly match in the near future - a presentation at which the plans and objectives of the club will be announced. For now, however, it is not even clear who will be the head coach. It was said that the team seemed to be headed by Sergei Gomolyako, but the specialist himself claims that there was no substantive conversation.

Yesterday the last matches took place before the break for the Moscow stage of the Eurotour. A tragic incident occurred in Chelyabinsk. Ak Bars forward Alexei Badyukov did not very well get under the throw of Traktor defender Oleg Piganovich, and the puck hit him in the back of the head. The hockey player managed to leave the ice only on a stretcher, but his life is not in danger.

From sporting events, we note that two very talented juniors opened their scoring in the league. First, Dynamo player Alexander Avtsin, who in America is considered a player equal in talent to Evgeni Malkin, distinguished himself. And in Novokuznetsk Zakhar Arzamastsev scored a goal. The North Americans invited this hockey player to the junior leagues this summer, but the leaders of Metallurg persuaded him not to rush and noted that in Russia he would gain more solid experience.

Now the championship is stopped for almost ten days. By the way, there has already been one change in the team. Instead of defender Oleg Tverdovsky, his Salavat Yulaev teammate Maxim Kondratyev will play in Moscow. It’s interesting that Oleg is having health problems for the second time in a row. In Finland, he fell ill with swine flu and was isolated from the team, and now he was injured in training.

Oleg EREMIN