Wed, Sep 9, 2015
"Slava" Fetisov (played by Eugene Pronine) is a Russian professional ice hockey defenseman. He played for HC CSKA Moscow for 13 seasons before joining the National Hockey League (NHL), where he played with the New Jersey Devils and won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings. Fetisov was instrumental in breaking the barrier that had previously prohibited Soviet players from leaving the Soviet Union to join the NHL. His actions not only resulted in a number of top Soviet players joining the NHL, but encouraged many of the best players from all over Europe to go to America. Following a private party on June 13, 1997, Fetisov, along with teammate Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov, hired a limousine to drive them home after celebrating the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup triumph. The driver, Richard Gnida, whose license was suspended at the time for drunk driving, lost control of the limousine and hit a tree on the median of Woodward Avenue, in Birmingham, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit. Konstantinov spent several weeks in a coma before finally pulling through. Slava's wife (Lubava Greshnova) and daughter Nasya (played by American actress Masha Malinina) being home when received horrible news...