By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 24, 2006
TURIN, Italy, Feb. 23 -- Pavel Bure didn't want hesitation. He didn't want hemming and hawing. He wanted only one thing for the Russian hockey team, something which would seem to come naturally at the Olympics but which, too often, the Russians couldn't muster. He wanted patriotism.
"I have my beliefs," Bure said Thursday, standing in the bowels of an ice rink wearing a pair of Russian red corduroy pants, as patriotic as they come. "And my belief is you should be proud to play for your country."
Only moments before, Alex Ovechkin stood in nearly the same spot. He was asked a slew of questions, questions about Friday's Olympic semifinal game against Finland, questions about his Russian hockey heroes, questions about his progress in these, his first Olympics, in which he has scored five goals in six games. And the answers almost all boiled down to the one thing Bure wants to hear.
"I just go to ice," Ovechkin said, "and play hard for my country."
They are two standard-bearers of Russian hockey, the "Russian Rocket" himself, retired after 12 NHL seasons, who was assigned the task of assembling a team and developing an attitude that would deliver gold to a nation that hasn't won it in hockey as, simply, "Russia"; and the 20-year-old son of a two-time gold medalist who embodies the qualities his boss set out to instill in the team. Together, along with the rest of the men who appear to have bought into the "play for your country" mantra Bure has preached, they have unified Russians behind this team, searching for its first gold since shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, when the Unified Team won the title in 1992 in Albertville, France.
"In Russia, everybody supports us," Ovechkin said. "Our friends call us and say, 'Come on, guys. We must win.' "
Ovechkin, the winger who has given the Washington Capitals new identity in his first NHL season, has been one of the most dynamic players on what is perhaps this tournament's most dynamic team. Just as with his success in the NHL, his Olympic reputation has come quickly. The other nine players who have scored four or more goals in the tournament have an average age of almost 31. Only one other, 35-year-old Yevgeniy Koreshkov of Kazakhstan, made his Olympic debut here.
Yet even at this age, Bure and others say they could foresee Ovechkin's success in this tournament because, as forward Doug Weight of the United States said, "He's a stud."
"He is young, but he's already a great player," Bure said. "I think he's going to have a huge future. The way he skates, the way he throws the hits. He has size. He has power. What I really like about him: It doesn't matter what the score is. He goes out there and plays hard every shift."
Yet in a tense quarterfinal matchup with Canada on Wednesday night, it very much mattered what the score was -- tied at 0 just 90 seconds into the third period -- when Ovechkin kept alive a chance on the Russian power play. Momentarily off-balance, he delivered the puck to teammate Viktor Kozlov. Ovechkin then composed himself, took the return pass, and buried a wrist shot that gave the Russians the lead.
"It was one of my important goals in my life and in my career," he said. "So probably tomorrow I try and score another goal."
Before this tournament, the Russians had a reputation for being more concerned with an individual spectacular play, such as that one, than with playing team hockey. It is that reputation that Bure tried to erase when he was named the general manager less than three months before the Olympics. Though the pool of top-level Russian talent isn't as deep as that in, say, Canada, Bure had unbendable rules for inclusion that included not hesitating when the call came extending an invitation. Bure had no previous management experience, not to mention a reputation for being rather aloof as a player. But he had cache with Russia's younger players -- which include Ovechkin, 19-year-old Evgeni Malkin and 22-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk -- and that counted for something.
"When I was young, when I played for kids, everybody was talking, 'Pavel Bure! Pavel Bure!' " Ovechkin said. "Right now, he is with my team. I'm very glad, because he's a great person, a great guy."
Still, even after the Russians overcame an opening loss to Slovakia to reel off five straight wins -- culminating in the 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Canada -- some players were wary of those old Russian habits, the tendency to shoot when a pass would be better, the propensity to take a chance for a steal when playing solid defense would suffice.
"We can't forget about the discipline," goaltender Evgeni Nabokov said after a 5-4 win over the United States. "We can't forget about the team work ethic. That's the only way we're going to win. If we're going to worry about how many goals one individual is going to score a game, we're not going to go far."
Now they have guaranteed themselves the right to play for a medal. Lose to the Finns, the only unbeaten team remaining in the tournament and they will play only for bronze against the loser of the other semifinal between Sweden and the Czech Republic. Beat the Finns and they will play for gold. They will be doing so, at least in part, not only because of Ovechkin's skill, but because of his attitude.
"Every time he practices or [plays] a game, he has a challenge," Russian defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said. "He wants to challenge the defenseman. He wants to challenge anybody. He wants to hit. He wants to get hit. He wants to beat players."
More than that, it appears that, just as with the Capitals, he wants to bring his teammates together. He has talked this week of how much fun he is having, how he and Malkin and Kovalchuk take ribbing from their elders but dish it right back. "He's a funny guy," Kasparaitis said.
Except, it seems, when he speaks of his mission here, the one he shares with Bure, the Russian star he is on the verge of replacing.
"I am Russian," Ovechkin said. "It's very important to play for your country. For me, money is not a big deal. . . . When you have $2 million, you want $5 million. When you have $5 million, you want $10 million."
Why reach for that when a gold medal, playing for your country, would mean even more?
Men's Hockey Today's Semifinals Czech Republic vs. Sweden (MSNBC, 7 a.m.- 1 p.m.) Finland vs. Russia (USA, 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.)
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