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

It's unfortunate that, while we have the NHL in North America and there is no doubt that it's the greatest hockey league in the world, we miss all that goes on over seas, only to rely on a few press clippings.

This past weekend, the Kontinental Hockey League just held their All-Star game, and like many wish it was in the NHL, the game was held outdoors.

Red Square was the locale, and while the 2,500 fans that came out were just a fraction of the droves that attended the Bridgestone Winter Classic a few weeks ago, it still sounded as if it were a fairly exciting game.

The English branch of the KHL's website has a photo gallery, and the pictures really tell the story of an enjoyable matchup that, because it was an All-Star game, was fun on all levels.

While Wrigley Field is also full of history, you also get a feel for some of Russia's beautiful scenery and storied history that's housed in Red Square with these galleries, and sitting amongst the historic and beautiful buildings could have only added to aura of this All-Star game.

But because of the distance, those of us in North America missed out on all the finer points of Team Yashin taking on Team Jagr this past weekend, and the scoring dominance of Pavel Brendl, Marcel Hossa, and Oleg Saprykin (I'm not sure if this was supposed to be sarcastic).

But while this All-Star game was a big deal simply for Russia and the KHL, there was another during the locked-out season of 2004/05 that would've meant so much more to so many more.

Igor Larionov was one of the greatest Russian Hockey players in the country's history. His popularity in Russia rivaled that of Wayne Gretzky in Canada and his multiple gold medals at International competitions such as the Olympics, Canada Cups, World Championships, and World Junior competitions is legendary.

Larionov also won three Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings, which undoubtedly helped his selection as a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee in 2008.

But Larionov sponsored one event that captured all of this and added the final exclamation point to his storied career.

Like every great player he went out on his terms and on his turf.

This was just a little bit different though.

Let's face it: No one was doing much of anything in the locked-out 2004/05 season. Some players were over playing in Europe, while others were staying at home in North America in hopes the lockout would end.

Larionov had no need to worry about job security though. With the end of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Larionov's career also ended, although it was hard to fathom "The Professor" ever retiring.

But Larionov decided that his last NHL game wouldn't be his last game. His last game would in fact be on December 13th, 2004 in Moscow's Luzhniki arena, and it'd be a game pitting World All Stars against Russian All Stars.

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.