Larionov paved the way

Classy Russian excelled on both sides of the Iron Curtain

Sean Fitz-Gerald, Canwest News Service - - Vancouver Sun

His flashback whisked him away to another continent, in another decade, in what seemed like another lifetime. Larionov watched the scene unfold in vivid detail, but struggled to describe it without the emotion creeping into his voice.

"I was seven years old, by my apartment building in the small town of Voskresensk, my hometown," Larionov said, pausing. "I had my hockey bag and I was walking to practice. And now, 40 years later, I was travelling to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame."

His remarkable journey from that practice, in the heart of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, will be highlighted at a gala ceremony Monday night in Toronto. Larionov helped blaze a trail that altered the complexion of the National Hockey League in a generation, and he will be enshrined as a player who excelled on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Glenn Anderson, a member of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty, will also be inducted, along with former official Ray Scapinello and the late Ed Chynoweth, welcomed in as a builder for his decades of service to hockey in Canada.

"It makes me very emotional," Larionov said. "It's incredible. I'm proud, and I'm looking forward to that on Monday night."

The cerebral centre, nicknamed The Professor, played some of his best hockey before anyone in North America had ever heard his name. Larionov was a two-time Olympic champion with the Soviets, and he had been on one of the most feared lines the game has ever seen -- the KLM line, with wingers Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov.

It has been said that Larionov played the game the way he played chess. He was always thinking one, two or three moves ahead, and proceeded with the careful deliberation of an expert tactician.

ESPN.com quoted Wayne Gretzky as saying, "in the '80s, he was arguably the best centre in the world."

"Without a doubt one of the most dangerous players I've ever seen, mostly because of his vision and his passing and the way he controls the play," NHL veteran Jeremy Roenick has said. "He has eyes in the back of his eyes and on the top of his head. It's amazing how he's able to see the ice."

From an early age, Larionov also saw beyond Soviet propaganda. By the age of 12, he was tuning into Russian-language BBC broadcasts, and listening to The Voice of America on an old transistor radio in his family's one-bedroom apartment.

Even at the peak of his playing power in the U.S.S.R., he earned 300 rubles a month, the equivalent of about $100. A camera crew from ABC was stunned when, in the buildup to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, it discovered he had been forced to live with his wife and young daughter in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in Moscow.

"And at the end of your career, after 10 seasons, you don't have much money -- you have maybe $5,000 in savings," Larionov said. "And you have a life ahead of you."

He had made no secret of his ambition to play in the NHL. Larionov snuck out the back door of his hotel during one international tournament to hang out with Gretzky and some of his Team Canada teammates, and had once been banned from travel for a year by the KGB because he was viewed as a flight risk.

But he said defection was never an option because of his family. So Larionov waited for the door to open, in 1989, and signed a three-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks, an agreement in which he sent half of his $750,000 US salary back to his homeland.

Adjusting to life in North America was not easy. He was a voracious reader of newspapers, and worked hard to improve his English by watching television and going to the movies.

Larionov only expected to stay for three years -- the life of his first contract -- since he was already 29 years old when he arrived. But he played for 14 seasons, collecting 644 points in 921 regular-season games and winning three Stanley Cup titles with the Detroit Red Wings.

LARIONOV AS A CANUCK

Drafted: by Vancouver Canucks, 11th round choice, 214th overall, in 1985.

Regular season: Played 210 games as a Canuck from 1989 through the 1991-1992 season, scoring 51 goals and notching 143 points.

Playoffs: Played 19 games, scoring four goals and tallying 11 points.