Ovechkin shows miracles of will, Larionov gives the style, Letang plays after a blow. Best Motivational Stories of the Year

Miroshnichenko beat cancer

On March 3, news broke that 18-year-old Avangard System striker Ivan Miroshnichenko was undergoing treatment in Germany – he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a type of cancer.

“At first I was itchy, coughing, sweating. How would I know what the reason is? Well, I cough – I drink syrup. He began to be very tired, choked with games. We are in hockey twice a season are examined. I took tests and they said to me: some kind of bad blood, “said Miroshnichenko in an interview with . – Well, that’s everything, they started driving me to the doctors, checking everywhere. I went to a clinic in Germany. They did a biopsy and cut out a lymph node. And they diagnosed it as Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

What was my reaction? I decided that I had to pull myself together and be positive. I read on the Internet that athletes have already overcome this disease. So there was no reason to give up. And I recovered relatively quickly, from February to May, when I was living in Germany. Then he returned to Russia, did nothing for a month. Then he slowly started going to the gym to get in shape.

I went through four cycles of chemotherapy. The second was the most painful for me. He tapped on health. I went to the hospital to lie down, I couldn’t be at home anymore.

And then after the second course they said everything was clean. I went through the third and fourth “chemistry” classes calmly, with joy. The joy was that after the second lesson I was checked. If everything hadn’t been clean, I would have had to take four more “chemistry” courses. The total is six. I would then return not in May, but somewhere in July.

Since then, Vanya Miroshnichenko has returned to hockey, scoring in the youth and All-Russian leagues, and in December scored her first goal in the KHL. Cheers to you, Ivan! You are a big boy.

Kuzmenko became an NHL star

2022 has started badly for SKA top scorer Andrey Kuzmenko. He was called up to the Russian national team, he was preparing for the Beijing Winter Games. But at the very last moment he was not included in the main team, then he was generally dismissed from the Olympics on the pretext of microtrauma.

When Kuzmenko returned to SKA’s location from China, they diagnosed the striker with no injuries. And maybe, who knows, such a striker was not enough for the Russian team to beat the Finns in the final.

After the season, Kuzmenko decided to leave for the NHL. Long chose and considered options. As a result, I settled in Vancouver – and I was not mistaken. He was placed in the top link of Swede Elias Pettersson. Andrew constantly shows up in attack. He now has 32 points (15+17) in 34 matches. Kuzmenko survived a big disappointment, but now he is enjoying life, becoming an NHL star.

Fedorov became a coach-champion

When CSKA decided to say goodbye to head coach Igor Nikitin, who led the team to the final, but there he lost to Avangard (2-4), it caused a big surprise.

Later, at a meeting at the army club, it was decided that the new head coach would be … Sergey Fedorov, who worked in the team as a top manager, then as a manager intermediate. It is clear that Fedorov is a great hockey player. But he was never a coach and had no diploma. In the first match, Avangard beat him with a score of 4:0.

But Fedorov learned a new matter, understood the management of CSKA. And in the playoffs, his team won all four rounds, showing character and often even saving hopeless games. Suffice it to say, the Army team won the final with Magnitogorsk, losing 1-3 in the series. It was fantastic!

Champagne in a goblet for Sergei Viktorovich! He showed us that the impossible is possible.

Rotenberg also became a coach

A similar story happened at SKA. First, the vice-president of the St. Petersburg club, Roman Rotenberg, stood on the coaches’ bench. Then he began to work at the headquarters of Valery Bragin. And then he became head coach in early January, before the Olympics.

SKA reached the Western Conference finals, where in the seventh game, in a fierce struggle, they lost to the future champion – CSKA. Although the St. Petersburg team led 3-2 in the series.

During the offseason, SKA went from strength to strength and Rotenberg led his team to first place in the league. It’s safe to assume that SKA as a leader will finish the regular season. This story about how ‘a boy with a golden spoon in his mouth’ didn’t choose the easiest and most rewarding job as a coach, faces criticism every day and does what he loves, succeeding there.

Larionov sets the tone

Igor Larionov also embarked on the path of coaching. Previously, he worked in the youth team of Russia, led it to the World Championships, where we ended up without medals.

But this summer, Igor Nikolayevich became the head coach of the KHL for the first time. He led the modest “Torpedo” from Nizhny Novgorod. We looked at the line-up and understood that the team would not qualify for the playoffs. Who did they decide to reinforce there? Japanese Sato? God forgive!

But Larionov didn’t just make Torpedo one of the strongest teams in the Western Conference. He instilled in the team a very nice offensive style, similar to Soviet hockey. And he created a new fad throughout the KHL, that with a low-budget team you can achieve such success.

It is a special joy to see how Igor Larionov II becomes a great hockey player – the son of Igor Nikolaevich, a center forward similar to his father in the way of playing. Torpedo has already signed a new contract with hockey player Larionov. And it is a great joy for dad to have helped his child so much.

Ovechkin targets Gretzky’s record

800 – 801 – 802 – 803… Alexander the Great scores goals almost every day. The Washington Capitals forward has launched a pipeline that inexorably brings the hockey community closer to the fact that Ovechkin will one day pass Wayne Gretzky (894).

All records are needed for someone to break them one day. But the peculiarity of Ovechkin is that soon he will be 38 years old. He’s already a deep veteran by hockey standards. But at the same time he scores goals, without reducing the intensity of work every year. If the story took place in the Stalin years, and Ovechkin worked in the mine with the same passion, he would certainly receive the title of “stakhanovist” who fulfills 10 standards a day. And we have no doubt that Ovi will surpass Gretzky one day.

Kochetkov became his own in the NHL

Another achievement is a very promising goalkeeper, Pyotr Kochetkov, who could not find himself in big hockey. He was thrown from side to side: Kazan, Penza, Stupino, Sochi, Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Podolsk, Nizhny Novgorod.

Kochetkov spent the last season decently and left for North America. No one believed in him. But the kid won the playoffs with the Chicago Wolves, winning the Calder Cup. And then he broke into the Carolinas goaltending squad, pushing out two goaltenders on one-way contracts.

Charming and smiling, Kochetkov quickly became a favorite among Hurricanes fans. The club has already signed a new contract with him. And if things go like this, then Petya can swing at the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top newcomer. This is how they make a name for themselves in the strongest league in the world.

Kislitsyn saved Neftekhimik

During the season, Neftekhimik lost four goalkeepers at once. Only one Yaroslav Ozolin was completely healthy. Emil Garipov underwent a rehabilitation course after the operation, Alexander Sudnitsin was injured, Artyom Yevpak fell ill, Andrey Tikhomirov played in the last matches with a microtrauma.

Therefore, the Nizhnekamsk club announced a deal for 33-year-old goalkeeper Anton Kislitsyn. He is a graduate of the Nizhnekamsk team. He has played for various VHL clubs and spent the last three seasons at Reaktor MHC, where he worked as a goalie coach.

And it turned out that Neftekhimik made Kislitsyn the main goalkeeper in the match against Vityaz. It’s amazing that he led his team to victory (5:4), despite never having played in the KHL before. His story is fantastic!

Letang returned after a stroke

If we talk about foreign athletes, everyone was shocked by Chris Letang. The Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender suffered a second career stroke. The first time this happened was in 2014 when Letang missed two months. Since then, by the way, Chris has won two Stanley Cups with the Pence.

And here’s another shot. Not everyone believed Letang when he said at such a time that he intended to return to hockey as soon as possible. What’s the matter ! Don’t rush, relax…

But 12 days after the stroke, Letang returned to hockey – he went to the game against Buffalo and scored seven hits.

He remains Pittsburgh’s defensive leader and shows that if you love the game, you can overcome anything.

Gritsyuk and Yakovlev – two kings of shootouts

And finally, one cannot fail to recall once again the Beijing Olympics, where our hockey players won silver.

The Russian national team played the main game against the Swedes in the semi-finals. The game boiled down to shootouts, in which our team, in principle, should have lost. Because the Swedes led in a puck and drove the deal to victory.

And now there was the last throw, on which our fate depended. And that attempt was carried out by… defender Egor Yakovlev, who executed the moment with extreme composure.

Then Yakovlev will say that he regularly shoots in Magnitogorsk, and in order to be calm and balanced during the game, he even works with a psychologist.

Thanks to our goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov, who fired shot after shot. And now 20-year-old Arseniy Gritsyuk, the Olympics debutant, is coming out to beat his attempt. And he scores, making the whole country happy!

Senya could not even imagine at the end of 2021 that he would go to the Olympics and become a hero there. Egor could not imagine that the fate of the Olympic medal would depend on his ball.

But they came out and stood firm, doing what was necessary. Well done!