Wayne Gretzky's Ghost (52 page)

There is a long string of stereotypes that the hockey world applies to Russian players. They are called “enigmatic”—sometimes referred to as “the Russian factor”—and often dismissed as greedy players interested only in themselves, not their teams.

While that may hold up in some instances, it does not in others. Washington's Ovechkin is not leading the individual goal-scoring race as he usually does, but he has led his Capitals into an ongoing battle for the very top of the NHL's Eastern Conference. The Washington captain is praised as much these days for his team leadership as for his wrist shot.

His example seems to be filtering down, as well. “It doesn't matter who scores the goals,” said Denis Golubev, who scored the key shootout winner against Sweden. “It's not about me—it's about the team.”

Golubev also, it might be pointed out, crossed himself just prior to taking that shot—something more in keeping with, say, Claude Provost jumping on the ice for the old Montreal Canadiens than with any heritage from the old Soviet Union. “God was with us,” added Russian captain Vladimir Taresenko.

Another intriguing change in the stereotype of the Russian game is that what was once considered the Achilles heel of Russian hockey—an inability to fight back late in a game if they are behind—has been put to rest in Buffalo. These Russian teenagers staged a stunning comeback Sunday against the Finns after being down 3–1 to win 4–3 in overtime, then tied the Swedes in the dying seconds of Sunday's semifinal game to force overtime and get to the shootout, which they won.

Wednesday's game will be played in an atmosphere rather reminiscent of the great Canada–Russia clashes of the past,
including the 1972 Summit Series and the 1987 Canada Cup. Buffalo may be in northwestern New York State, but it has blushed red throughout this long tournament as fanatical Canadian fans have driven from as far away as Alberta and Nova Scotia to attend and raise signs calling the HSBC Arena “Canada's house.”

So dominant has the Canadian presence in Buffalo been that before Monday's match against the Americans, the arena mascot, Sabretooth, tweeted that “Tonight will be strange. I will be hated by about 18,000 people in my own arena.”

No such message need be sent to either team scheduled for Wednesday's final, however. Canada knows from experience to beware the Russian bear. And Russia has to be wary of the power of the Canadian Maple Leaf.

Just as matters turned out, much to Canadians' surprise, in 1972. Just as it should, to no one's surprise, in 2011.

This column would prove surprisingly prescient in the final period of the final game of the 2011 world junior hockey championship
.

L
et us begin around midnight on Wednesday on the Peace Bridge leading from Buffalo, New York, to Fort Erie, Ontario. Dan Visentin, a high-school math teacher, is driving. His wife, Liz, also a teacher, is in the car, as are his parents, Italo and Rita Visentin.

Italo Visentin knows something about dreams. More than a half century ago, he and Rita came from Italy to nearby Niagara Falls with no idea what would happen to them in this strange new country where they didn't even speak the language. Yet it all
worked out wonderfully. He became a crane operator, their children excelled in school and life, retirement gave them time to spend with grandchildren. They had just witnessed one of them have a dream shattered.

Mark Visentin, who turned eighteen only last August, was in goal for Team Canada at the world junior championship when the unimaginable happened. Canada was ahead 3–0 going into the third period of the gold medal game and seemed on a cruise to avenge the championship lost to the Americans last year in Saskatoon. But then, in what felt like the snap of a finger, the Russians scored twice, then tied the game and stormed on to a stunning 5–3 victory.

Even without the radio on, everyone in the car knew what was being said: the greatest collapse ever … the team had choked … the goalie was the goat. They hoped that Mark, travelling behind in another car with his girlfriend, Harmony, didn't have his radio on. He didn't.

“How ya doin' tonight?” the border guard asked as Dan Visentin handed over the four passports.

“Depressed,” Visentin answered.

The guard, flicking through the passports, paused and looked up, surprised. “Oh, shit,” he said, “you're a Visentin.”

“I'm the father.”

The guard handed back the passports. “Don't worry,” he said. “You have a great kid there—you got to be proud of him.”

“We are.”

“He's going to be a great goalie one day.”

“We know.”

Mark Visentin made it through at another border booth and drove slowly to his parents' home in little Waterdown. No radio. Hardly any words. What was there to say? He had already said what he thought he had to say. He had sobbed on the ice and was still weeping in the dressing room when Hockey Canada's André Brin asked if anyone was ready to speak to the media.

“I'll come out,” he volunteered. Many goaltenders would have refused. Some members of the media reacted with surprise when the black curtain split open and out stepped the Canadian goaltender of record, eyes clear, head held high, and prepared to talk as long as there were questions. “I like to get stuff done and not leave it,” he said Friday in an interview.

He put no blame on the defence that, at times, let him down, no blame on the forwards who had their own breakdowns. He took full responsibility. “I'm not the guy who blames his team,” he said. “You really wish you could have provided a couple of saves when they were needed.”

He had felt the tide turning, as coach Dave Cameron later put it. He watched the “spark” go into the Russians and knew that it had gone out of his own team. “We pushed the panic button a bit,” he said. “We tried to get back, but …”

He knew he could talk forever and the score would never change. “No one to blame but me,” he said. “I try to make myself accountable for what happens.”

It is, in fact, the accountability and responsibility of that crucial position in hockey that first appealed to him. The first time he tried playing goal he “fell in love with it. The goaltender can be a game-changer,” he said, “and that is a great feeling. But if you're going to do that, you have to accept the ups and downs.”

Growing up, his great hero was Curtis Joseph, then the goaltender for the nearby Toronto Maple Leafs. He and his friends would play on the backyard rink and he would imagine he was “CuJo” kicking out the pucks—at least when Sheeba, the family's golden retriever puppy, wasn't running off with them.

At sixteen, he made the leap to Major Junior, drafted by the Niagara IceDogs, a team that plays out of St. Catharines, Ontario. At seventeen, six weeks short of his eighteenth birthday, and much to his own surprise, he became a first-round draft pick (chosen twenty-seventh overall) of the Phoenix Coyotes.

He hopes to have a professional career, but he is also an excellent student and calls his decision to take courses at Brock University his “backup plan.” He was one of nine goaltenders invited to the summer junior camp, one of four at the December camp. His roommate was Olivier Roy, who got an early-morning call that he'd made it, convincing Visentin he had not.

“Who's your partner going to be?” the disappointed youngster asked.

“You!”

It seemed that partnership would be in the backup role, with the year-older Roy pegged to get the most work, but after Canada lost 6–5 in a shootout to Sweden, the switch was made to Mark Visentin, and Cameron stuck with him right to the final, going with an eighteen-year-old in a tournament meant for nineteen-year-olds.

The young goaltender prepared as usual—have a meal of chicken parmesan, listen to some music (everything from rap to country), get to the rink, work on his sticks—but no one, not the coaches, not the country, was prepared for that third period.

It has been described as the greatest collapse ever in Canada's time in international hockey, but there are comparables. Alan Eagleson says what happened in Buffalo reminded him of Game 5 in the 1972 Summit Series. Team Canada was up 4–1 into the third period in Moscow, only to have the Soviets score two very quick goals on Tony Esposito and then two more before the period was out to win 5–4. Tony Esposito, it might be worth pointing out, went on to a Hall of Fame career.

“People lose perspective,” said Dan Visentin. “Mark will be fine. He's got his whole future in front of him.”

Mark Visentin had that future to consider that night as he drove home to Canada. “It was weird,” he said. “There was just so much to take in.” He was grateful for Ben Vanderklok, a coach with the IceDogs, for working so hard on his personal mental toughness.

“It was a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “But I think I'm a
better person for it.” He knew now he could handle the worst imaginable adversity. He knew he was strong enough to leave it behind him.

No one was up when he came through the front door, but then came the sound of an old dog's nails moving along the floor. Sheeba, the old puppy still going at fourteen, came hurrying toward him, wiggling and tail wagging.

“She was just happy to see me,” he said.

Mark Visentin inspired an entire hockey nation when he spoke so openly about his own feelings in the days immediately following that astonishing loss to Russia. He returned to form quickly on return to the Niagara IceDogs and led them into the 2011 Ontario Hockey League playoffs by posting a stunning .977 save percentage and allowing a mere three goals as his team swept the Brampton Battalion in the opening round. He was indeed “a better person” and, still, a first-rate goaltender. At season's end, he was named the Ontario Hockey League's Goaltender of the Year
.

The author is forever indebted to those many editors and sports editors who either assigned me these stories, agreed with me that these were stories or, in a few instances, forced me to do stories they thought needed doing and I could not see why until I was well into it: Peter C. Newman, Don Obe, Mel Morris, John Aitken, John Gault, Hal Quinn, Walter Stewart, Lou Clancy, Keith Spicer, Nelson Skuce, Scott Honeyman, Jim Travers, Lynn McAuley, Graham Parley, Tom Casey, Ken Whyte, Jim Bray, Ed Greenspon, Steve McAllister, David Walmsley, John Stackhouse, Tom Maloney.

Thanks, as well, to
Maclean's, The Canadian, Today, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, National Post
and
The Globe and Mail
for a lifetime of opportunity.

A huge note of appreciation to Natasha Haines and Bruce Westwood of Westwood Creative Artists for their continued support. And gratitude, as well, to Craig Pyette of Random House Canada, who pushed and prodded and polished and knows enough about hockey to write his own book.