Takin' a T/O With BT: Igor Larionov and The Game We Never Knew

Certain Hall-of-Famers Chris Chelios, Steve Yzerman, Martin Brodeur, and Nik Lidstrom headlined a team of former Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils (mostly) that had helped Larionov define his NHL career. Kirk Malty, Kris Draper, and Darren McCarty formed the most feared All-Star line in history, while Henrik Zetterberg, Chris Osgood, Thomas Holmstrom, Steve Duschene, Mathieu Dandenault, Jiri Fisher, Martin Lapointe, Brendan Shanahan and Luc Robitaille headlined a lineup of current and former Wings that were dubbed "Team World."

As far as Devils went, Patrick Elias, Scott Gomez, and Jay Pandolfo rounded out the former Devils, along with Sandis Ozolinsh.

Oh, and so was that Steve Yzerman guy—you know, one of the greatest leaders and captains in Detroit Red Wings (and NHL) history?

What about Team Russia? Well, it was essentially a "who's who" of past and present.

Slava Fetisov and Vladimir Kurtov were there from the Red Army days, while Pavel Bure was there following his retirement, seemingly passing the torch to Russian Superstars Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk. Along with the elder Bure was Valeri Bure, Sergei Brylin, Alexei Morozov, Valeri Kamensky, and former-Wing Sergei Fedorov.

Oleg Teverdovsky, Sergei Gonchar, Slava Kozlov, Andrei Nikolishin, Alexei Zhamnov, Sergei Samsonov, Viktor Kozlov and Evgeni Nabokov were also there.

But the slew of All-Stars didn't stop there. The Legendary Scotty Bowman made the trip to Russia along with his old Red Wings coaching staff, and the referee's crew was one of the best the NHL could have offered: Ray Sapinello, Dan McCourt, Paul Devorski, and Dan Marouelli—all hand-picked by Larionov.

The game itself was certainly worth of the All-Star monicker—there was scoring, exciting play, and even a few twists along the way as turncoat Steve Yzerman scored a goal in the third period of a 6-5 Team Russia Win.

Sidenote: To clarify, Yzerman and Larionov switched sides for the final period, so it wasn't like Yzerman had his back turned on the World for three periods. Only one. Traitor.

But win or lose, the game was a fitting end to Larionov's career: A must-watch headliner in Russia, but a tape-delayed (by roughly a week) display in North America where only devout fans of hockey (or Larionov) might watch.

For Larionov though, it was a storybook ending to a storybook career—a book that many more need to read.

Bryan Thiel is a Senior Writer and an NHL Community Leader for Bleacher Report. If you want to get in contact with Bryan you can do so through his profile, and you can also check out his previous work in his archives.

If you'd like to find out even more about the Larionov game, pick up Between the Lines by Rob Simpson and Ray Scapinello and skip to chapter nine.

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