Russia, on ice

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Sat, March 26, 2005

Russia, on ice
DAVE BIDINI FINDS PLENTY OF FIRST-RATE HOCKEY BEING PLAYED
By JIM SLOTEK, TORONTO SUN

THE MORE he travels the world seeking the true spirit of hockey, the more Dave Bidini feels that the souls of true Canadian hockey lovers are malnourished. Case in point: Right now, the best hockey in the world is being played in Russia -- with NHL players, no less -- and all we hear about is the void left by the lockout.

"We're terrible in this country in terms of the media, and I mostly blame CBC and Hockey Night In Canada, telling the same three stories over and over again," says the rocker-turned-hockey-ambassador, whose The Hockey Nomad Goes To Russia airs Monday on CBC's The Passionate Eye.

His documentary -- a trek from Moscow's Luzhniki arena to Siberia -- closes with a much anticipated game between Omsk (featuring Jaromir Jagr) and Kazan, an oil-rich franchise whose lineup includes Sergei Federov, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Nikolai Khabibulin and Martin Havlat.

"You've got 12 of the best players in the world playing, in these beautiful rinks, freewheeling, firewagon hockey. It was so entertaining and so thrilling. And people say, 'Oh, you must feel so terrible that there's an NHL lockout.' If anything, the lockout should be opening this f---ing incredible world up to us as Canadians and hockey fans.

"If hockey is our game, and we are the most hockey-obsessed nation on earth, then our national broadcaster should be doing more than sending a hockey goof like me to Russia."

Well, they don't call it The Passionate Eye for nothing.

- www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Entertainment/2005/03/26/972770-sun.html

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Mar. 26, 2005. 10:00 AM

Bladed messenger
A far-flung trek to experience hockey in the vast reaches and snowy wasteland Some Russian teams are rich in locked-out NHL talent, by Dave Bidini

Between August and December of 2004, Dave Bidini travelled with a film crew 4,000 kilometres, West to East, across Russia looking for the story of hockey. The results of his trip are The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia, airing Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC, and the following piece, which relates some of the highlights.

ALEXANDER YAKUSHEV

The first player I met in Moscow was the Big Yak. He and Espo were 1972's galacticos, answering each other goal for goal and tying for the tournament's goal-scoring lead. The Yak had been recognized for his contribution to Russian hockey in the form of an annual midget tournament — Tretiak, Maltsev and Ragulin each had tourneys, too — which took place at a suburban rink in Moscow. After the opening game, we were brought to the rink manager's chambers, where a long table heavy with plates of red caviar, sausages, weird cheese and a mountain of pickled herring filled the room. The Yak toasted us, then it was our turn. Mike Downie, our film's director, talked about how we'd been to Mongolia the previous year and how Russian ex-patriots were responsible for the genesis of the local hockey scene. Upon hearing this, the Big Yak feigned outrage, tipped back on his heels and shouted before draining his cup: "You had to go to Mongolia before you came here?"

ALEXANDER OVECHKIN

We met A.O. at the Moscow Dynamo encampment common to Russian teams with a soldieresque dormitory, cafeteria and old, grey practice rink with moss growing up the walls. When we first spotted A.O., he was running laps around the building with his teammates in the rain. Maxim Afinogenov and Pavel Datsyuk ran too, doing in the damp Russian cold what they would have done in high-tech workout facilities in Buffalo and Detroit. We interviewed A.O. behind a blue and white — Dynamo colours — wall display decorated with photos of old Russian teams in toques and long socks playing outside in the dead of February. When I asked A.O. if he'd spoken to Washington's coach about where he might fit into their lineup should the NHL resume play (the Capitals drafted him first overall in '04), he shook his head, then asked us: "Hey, who coaches Washington, anyway?"

- tinyurl.com/6oezp

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Shinny summit
Musician Dave Bidini journeys to Moscow to learn more about the great Canadian game

By DAVID SHOALTS

Saturday, March 26, 2005 Page 6

Dave Bidini, a musician by trade and hockey chronicler by obsession, is the latest media type to explore his fascination with the stars of the old Soviet Union hockey regime.

Actually, Bidini's fascination extends beyond the stars of the team that shocked Canadian hockey fans in 1972 by proving themselves the equal of the best the National Hockey League had to offer. The Hockey Nomad Goes To Russia, airing on the CBC's Passionate Eye, is Bidini's ambitious journey across Russia, which examines the hockey stars of the country's past and how the game has evolved in the new Russia.

- tinyurl.com/5dp2a

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Hockey Nomad's journey to Russia chases memories and finds modern life

Jim Morris
Canadian Press

Friday, March 25, 2005

(CP) - A journey to meet some icons of the past brought filmmaker Dave Bidini face to face with the reality of the present in his latest documentary, The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia.

Bidini, a member of the award-winning Canadian pop group Rheostatics and a hockey globetrotter, travelled to Russia in search of the aging heroes of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. While he realized his dream of playing a game with the '72 stars, he also tasted life in Russia, a country still struggling to understand the future while dealing with its past.

Bidini spent about eight weeks in Russia, travelling over 4,000 kilometres from Moscow's Luzniki Arena to Siberia. The Hockey Nomad Goes to Russia will be shown on CBC's The Passionate Eye, Monday at 9 p.m. and repeated Wednesday at 10 p.m. on CBC Newsworld.

- tinyurl.com/44qun