Woke up thinking about the throw-away line from one of the sports commentators in Heated Rivalry that no team has won back-to-back cups since Chicago in the late 90s. It's stuck in my craw, because I lived in Detroit in the late 90s, and anyone who lived in Detroit in the late 90s knows the miracle of the Russian Five, and now I have to grapple with the (apparent??) fact that Ilya Rozanov grew up in a world without them.
Maybe there's some alternate universe version, maybe they're saying Chicago IS that, but I am distressed nonetheless!! Heated Rivalry starts in 2008, which means Ilya and Shane would have both grown up watching the glorious return of Detroit hockey - and the return of the cup after a 40 year drought. We get Rose talking about Detroit as a major force, at least.
But the story of the Russian Five in particular is one that I feel like would resonate with Ilya's story: the five defected from Russia in a post-Soviet cultural environment at great risk to themselves to play for Detroit. To be recruited, messages had to be smuggled to them in secret. Doctors and Russian government officials had to be bribed to give them medical discharge from military obligations.
They were stolen out from under the iron curtain to play for Detroit. Like Ilya, their betrayal bore the very real threat of I can never go home. And then they won the fucking cup. Two of them. In a row. They changed the way hockey was played, forever.
They paved the way for the NHL to actively recruit Russian players in a more holistic and intentional way. They weren't the first five Russians in the league, by any means, but they changed the perception and acceptance of Russian players drastically. Ilya's status as a round-one draft pick would have been influenced by all of this. His opinion of his place as a Russian citizen, his secret desire to leave, his relationship with his family, could all have been framed within the Russian Five's legacy.
Anyway. I get that there are immense complications with involving real world stuff in the Sexy Gay Hockey Show, but I'm annoyed that they explicitly negated the existence by switching those wins to Chicago, and removed the direct connection of Ilya from being grounded in the admiration or envy of his predecessors.
