Fetisov, with Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin. AP Photo.

Slava Fetisov, 20 November 2000, in the Toronto Star, discussing the Russian Hockey Federation and the prospect of coaching the Russian Olympic hockey team: “I think every time they hear my name, they get scared that I’m going to come back there and take over hockey.”

Here’s what followed:

09/02/2001
Expresses his displeasure with the Federation and his desire to coach the team.

21/08/2001
Appointed head coach of the Russian Olympic hockey team with help from Vladimir Putin.

06/03/2002
Demands an overhaul of the Russian player development system.

29/04/2002
Fetisov named chairman of the State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports.

27/07/2002
Creates a public organization to tackle the development of sports infrastructure.

08/08/2003
Suggests Russian ownership of an NHL franchise.

07/02/2008
On the soon-to-be-formed KHL: “We’ll definitely be a serious contender to the NHL.”

02/03/2008
“We must protect our clubs from the NHL…We will be No. 1 regardless. We have everything for this: talented people, government support, money, desire and great traditions.”

From Assistant Coach of the New Jersey Devils to Putin’s right-hand man responsible for the country’s sports infrastructure (which would include Sochi 2014) and the government’s point man for Russian hockey… I would say that the RHF’s fears were well founded.

Apparently he also has an asteroid named after him.

…is good news.

No updates recently, as I’ve been tremendously busy recently, which means that life is progressing nicely. It’s perhaps needless to say, but hockey has a near monopoly on my minutes these days.

Having accepted the fact that my knees won’t magically get better by not playing (the choice is thus: play, and experience pain, OR not play, and experience pain anyway), I’ve got two weekly playing sessions – shinny on Mondays; full-gear on Fridays. I can’t really express how nice it is to be skating regularly again.

Apart from that, and equally if not more importantly, I’m working with the University of Ottawa team this year. Formally I hold the position of Community Development; informally I’m breaking down video for the team (focusing mainly on the penalty kill) and doing some advance scouting. You can also find me occasionally repairing equipment and manning the DVD-recording station at home games.

Finally, things are starting to ramp up for the World Junior Championship, to be held here in Ottawa over the Christmas break. The Volunteer Orientation session was held this past Saturday. I’ll be working Team Services (equipment repairs, etc.).

I need to be reminded on occasion that I’m also supposed to be writing a thesis.

Visualization of the articles (Canadian Newspapers) database that forms part of my thesis research (via Wordle). The larger words are those that appear most frequently in the article titles.

When I first started telling people about my degree (M.A. in Human Kinetics) I would undoubtedly be faced with questions of what I would eventually do with it. To keep things simple I told the questioners that I’d be one of those people the press would go to for comment when they were exploring a certain phenomenon in sports (hockey violence, etc.).

To a certain extent I was kidding around – giving quotes isn’t exactly what I want to be doing the rest of my life – but it turns out I was at least half-right. Both my thesis advisor (Jean Harvey) and another one of my committee members (Marc Lavoie) are quoted in today’s National Post (an article on the lack of actual French-Canadians on the Canadiens).

Photo Illustration © National Post. Great visual, but the “H” doesn’t stand for “Habitants” as alluded to in the article’s title.

Presented 26 Jan 2008 at Queen’s University.

“This project hopes to explore the decrease in the number of Russian hockey players drafted into and playing in the NHL over the last 7 years (2000-2007) within a greater discussion of player migration. In 2000, Russians accounted for 15% of players drafted; by 2007 this had dwindled to only 3%, with a decrease seen in nearly each year of the selected timeframe…”

(* Sociology of Sport)