Montreal Canadiens fans are eager for Ivan Demidov to come over and join their favorite team, but the prized prospect still has a year left on his contract with SKA St. Petersburg. Fear not though, until his contract expires, the Montreal media will cover anything Demidov related, if he sneezes, you’ll know it. Yes, I am exaggerating, but only just.
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The Canadiens faithful are known as a special breed across the league, a fandom who eats, sleeps and breathes hockey. When they fall in love with a player, they fall hard. Over the years they’ve had quite a few love affairs with Russian players and here are a few of the most intense ones.
The General
For 16 seasons and 990 games Andrei Markov stood tall on the Montreal Canadiens’ blueline. Like fine wine, he improved from the moment he put on the jersey at 22 ’till he was 30, scoring 64 points in his last full season before the injury ninja came knocking and claimed his anterior cruciate ligament.
Markov had fought plenty of other battles in his life and even though he had to go under the knife to fix the knee twice in two years, he was always going to be back on the ice. When he did come back, his skating wasn’t quite as smooth as it was before the injuries, but what he had lost in mobility he made up for in hockey smarts.
Related: Canadiens: Who’s Been Through Dach’s Injury?
When I was a kid, I had a book titled A Lesson in Tenacity: Louis Pasteur. Years later, they published another one on the same topic. It featured Maurice “Rocket” Richard but they could do a third edition and have Markov as the star. Coming back from ACL reconstruction surgery is not easy, doing it twice and still being dominant? That’s quite a feat.
Quebecers do love their strong, silent types and that’s exactly what Markov was. The silent leader who never complained and never blinked was born to be a Montreal Canadiens.
While he wasn’t all that vocal about it when he was still active, Markov loved them back. So much so that he even applied to get his Canadian citizenship and got it. As he confirmed to TVA Sports earlier this week in an interview about Demidov, he loves the city and the fact fans still stop him in the street for autographs and pictures.
In his 990 games with the Sainte-Flanelle, the Russian blueliner put up 572 points and was as liable up front as he was in the back end. A true complete player and one the Canadiens have been missing dearly for years. The fact he wasn’t allowed to reach his 1000th game in the NHL with the one and only team he’s ever played with remains an upsetting thought for many Habs fans.
The Artist
While Alexei Kovalev could be frustrating to watch at times, the four seasons and change he spent in Montreal allowed the Canadiens faithful to admire his skills and offensive talent.
Related: Canadiens: Alex Kovalev the Golden Russian and the 1992 Olympics
He had his best season in town in 2007-2008. The right winger notched 84 points in 82 games while scoring 35 goals. It was the best offensive season a player had in Montreal since the 1995-1996 campaign when Pierre Turgeon and Vincent Damphousse both scored 38 goals and the former finished the season with 96 points while the latter had 94.
With his 84 points, Kovalev finished 11th in scoring league wide, making him the first Canadiens to crack the top 15 since Bobby Smith did it in 1987-1988, 20 long years before.
In that same year, he was part of the wildest comeback in Canadiens’ history when the team stormed back from a five goal deficit to beat his former team the New York Rangers 6-5 in the shootout. The winger scored the Habs’ fourth and fifth goals on the night, setting the table for captain Saku Koivu’s game-winning goal in the shootout.
The following season, his points total dropped to 65 and he had an uninspired year which prompted GM Bob Gainey to suggest he take a break from the team. In July he walked away in free agency, signing a two-year deal with the Ottawa Senators. A decision he would come to regret as he told Brenda Branswell of the Gazette in a 2013 interview:
“At this point, you can say I made a bad decision going to Ottawa instead of staying in Montreal (after the 2008-09 season),” he said. “Maybe I would still be playing here.”
Love at First Sight
Sometimes it doesn’t take a long time to fall in love and that was certainly the case when Alexander Radulov landed in Montreal on a one-year deal. The KHL star had spent two seasons in Nashville—the team that selected him 15th overall at the 2004 draft after he scored 152 in 62 games with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL under Patrick Roy’s tutelage—but it didn’t work out. He even came back in 2011-2012 for a short stint that quickly went south.
Still, it didn’t stop Marc Bergevin from inking the Russian forward to what turned out to be a very low-risk, high reward $5.75 M one-year deal. The gamble paid off as Radulov developed instant chemistry with Max Pacioretty and scored 54 points in 76 games. The fans wanted more “Radulove.”
© Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Unfortunately for the Habs faithful though, his contract ran out the same year Markov’s did and Bergevin wasn’t in a very conciliant mood that Summer. The GM even spoke to journalists, telling them he had money to sign one of Markov or Radulov and the first one to sign would get it. That’s how the GM lost at Russian roulette, Markov went home to the KHL while Radulov signed a five-year deal with the Dallas Stars with an annual average value of $6.25 M.
The GM would later tell the press he had made the exact same offer to the winger, to which Radulov replied the offer came after he had signed with the Stars. We’ll never know who was giving the most accurate account of the events back then, but no one can forget Bergevin’s words: “If you want loyalty, get a dog.”
In the end, Radulov had two 72 points season in Dallas before he started declining and in the fifth year of his deal, he could only muster 22 points in 71 games in Texas. He has spent the last two seasons in the the KHL with Kazan Ak-Bars putting up 97 points in 120 games, which goes to show the best Russian circuit isn’t exactly quite as competitive as the NHL.
There could have been more players on this list. The likes of Alexei Emelin “The Russian Wrecking-Ball” or Alex Galchenyuk immediately come to mind, but by the time they left town, the relationship with the fans had soured. As for Alexander Romanov, his role in obtaining Kirby Dach is what most fans remembers from his stay in Montreal, but personally, I loved his enthusiasm and dedication to the team.
Right now Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton and legions of Canadiens fans are hoping Demidov’s association with the Canadiens goes as well as the three players we talked about above. If Montreal’s rebuild is to keep heading the right way, it just has to.
Related
Canadiens: The Line of Communication Is Open with SKA St. Petersburg
Canadiens: More About Demidov
Canadiens: Ivan Demidov clears medicals with SKA St Petersburg
Canadiens: Ivan Demidov Back in Action
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