‘He did things only the great players could do’
Fellow Canucks remember Soviet star
Tony Tanti never spoke much with Vladimir Krutov — at least not in a common language — but he communicated with him a lot while driving the Russian to and from the rink for practices and games when both were playing for the Vancouver Canucks.
“I lived in West Van and he was in North Van so I picked him up, drove him to practice and games and back every day,” said Tanti, who was traded in January of that 1989-90 season.
“He understood more than he spoke, but he was actually a pretty funny guy. He had a good, dry sense of humour.”
Krutov, one of the Soviet Union’s all-time great hockey players and part of the national team’s storied KLM Line, died at age 52 in Moscow on Wednesday. No cause of death was released but Krutov was reported to have been admitted to hospital several days earlier with stomach bleeding.
Krutov came to the Canucks from the Soviet Union in 1989 along with countryman and linemate Igor Larionov. Both were storied hockey players, but they were as different as two people could be.
Larionov, who was outgoing, cosmopolitan and already could speak some English, made a relatively easy adjustment to North America. But Krutov was less worldly, spoke virtually no English and struggled with the new environment.
“Igor and he came over at the same time, but there was a big difference between the two,” said Tanti, who settled in the Vancouver area after he retired from hockey.
“Igor was married to the figure skater [Elena Batanova, former world junior champion] and he knew what the world was all about. I don’t think Kruts knew what he was getting into until he came over. He was just a hockey player. I think it was a culture shock when he came over.”
Larionov, who went on to win three Stanley Cups with Detroit, was able to attend canucks training camp and quickly adjusted to NHL life. Krutov missed camp due to red tape and arrived overweight and in poor conditioning, which set him back for much of the season. He finished with 11 goals and 34 points in 61 games in his only NHL season.
“His hands were incredible,” said Tanti. “The problem was he just couldn’t get there on a consistent basis and he would get tired over the course of the game. But he did things only the great players could do. When I played against him in ’86 and ’87 at the world championships, he was probably the best of the three [on the KLM line that also included Sergei Makarov].”
The expectations were huge that Krutov and Larionov — two of the top players in international hockey — would make the Canucks an elite team. The math worked but the chemistry failed miserably, and Vancouver not only didn’t excel, they missed the playoffs that season much to the bitter disappointment of their fans.
Garth Butcher, also a member of that team, said Krutov and Larionov were also up against the hockey angst that still characterized Canadian-Soviet relations.
“It was a different time and the Russians hadn’t been in the NHL yet, so there was a feeling amongst players that, who are these guys coming and taking our jobs?” said Butcher, who lives in Bellingham, Wash.
Butcher said Krutov struggled with living outside the rigid Soviet hockey environment.
“I think over there they were used to such a strict regimen, they watched what they ate and how they worked out,” said Butcher. “I think it was a hard adjustment for him. He had the language barrier, much more than Igor. I think he was used to being told where to go and what to do and all he did was go play hockey.”
Krutov, Larionov and Makarov led the Soviet team to gold in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. Krutov also won five world championship titles in the 1980s.
“I think we certainly saw flashes of brilliance,” said Butcher. “I remember one game in Winnipeg where he did a couple things and I just said, wow, where did that come from? But he was a great player over his career and he should still be remembered for that legacy.”