Wayne Gretzky travels to Russia and meets Vladislav Tretiak and his family.
I love Tretiak’s little girl doing a dance in the living room.
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“All players of the Soviet Red Army are fans of the Montreal Canadiens.”
Never mind the Cold War or the purges, I’ve got a whole new reason to hate the Soviet Union.
These two meeting is just great on so many levels – one of the greatest goalies ever meeting with one of the greatest goal scorers ever. On the ice, they would have that weird sports mixture of both hatred and respect. They were the ultimate competitive hockey rivals, but off the ice, they were the quickest of friends.
And I love that moment when Gretzky says that one of the greatest honors for any athlete in Canada would be to have dinner or even meet Tretiak in person. Tretiak gives that genuinely humble reaction. It’s so rare in professional athletes to see that. It is truly genuine and honest. I love him.
Yes – I loved his reaction there too!!
I’m sure you remember Tretiak in that HBO documentary talking about how much time the Red Army hockey players had to spend away from their families, so this must have been a big treat for his wife and kids as well. It’s so much fun watching the little ones show off for their daddy, his guests and the camera. Daddy’s home! Yay!
It’s funny how you can watch a billion hours of hockey and never realize how HUGE these guys are until you see them next to regular people. Gretzky was pretty small for a hockey player, but look at the SIZE of Tretiak.
Tretiak is like a comic book superhero with breast plates!
I love the wife being nervous about cooking the Russian food – but man, what a spread. I’d love to eat all that stuff!
Amazing, too, how modest (by present-day standards) Tretiak was living – although compared to his contemporaries in Russia at that time (like the voiceover dude mentioned) he was doing very well.
The food – she was nervous about serving Chicken Kiev and caviar! I love how Gretzky was this big-time star, yet that was the first time he’d tried that stuff. It was great how open-minded he was about it, too. “You have to eat after you drink.” “Oh, okay. Where I come from we have a saying. ‘Don’t eat when you drink and don’t drink when you eat.'”
Now you’ve got me imagining some retro MTV show – “Cribs: Soviet Red Army Hockey Team.” The guy has a TV and a PIANO in his very own APARTMENT! High rollin’!
What ever happened to Vicky Moss?… Was she dumped for Janet Jones or was it over long before that?
(yeah, while y’all are dissecting the Cold War and the relationship of athletes across the Iron Curtain, my mind is mired in the People magazine aspects of this story… sad, truly sad)
JFH – okay, I can’t believe I know this, but…Gretzky wanted her to give up her singing career and she wouldn’t, so he broke up with her. Before Janet Jones.
I would have broken up with her just for saying “The caviar LOOKS so ugly”.
Eat it, smile, and say you LIKE it.
Dude, Sheila…didn’t she just piss you OFF in that video? “If they can’t taste it, why do they eat it?” SHUT UP. You are the guest of one of the heroes of a foreign country your boyfriend has invited you to visit with him. Tretiak’s wife has just spent countless hours preparing food. I don’t care if it tastes like poop. Grin, say “thank you” and tell her it is fantastic. I’m so glad he didn’t marry that bish.
Em – heheheheh. Actually, part of that may have been that the Canadiens of ’76-’79 were easily the class of the league; part of it may have been that Tretiak was drafted by Montreal (in 1982, I believe). Of course he never got the chance to get to the States but it’s the sort of thing that would endear the Red Army team to that franchise, that they thought so highly of Tretiak.
This footage was stolen from a documentary series called the World’s Greatest Athletes. The series was written, directed and produced by the award winning documentary film maker, Brian McKenna.