International Hockey Winnipeg Arena

International Hockey Winnipeg Arena

As the penalty time keeper and official score-keeper, I am sitting in the penalty box with Valeri Kharmalov whom I think is the greatest hockey player in the world ever. It is the decade of the 1960's and his touring  Russian National Team is once again beating their opponents, the Canadian National Team in an exhibition game with nothing at stake but national pride . 

I am speaking to Valeri in Ukrainian. He replies in Russian.  We are able to understand each other fairly well. His piercing eyes sparkle as we talk of the tough brand of hockey the Canadian team plays, of all the beautiful women in the crowd, of what a pussycat big Alexander Pavlovich "Rags" Ragulin is off the ice, how hard it was to be on the road for weeks at a time, how to read the numbers on the time-clock in English, and how our time clock works opposite to the European way, counting down instead of up.

Kharlamov is widely considered to be one of the best players of this era, despite never having played in the NHL. Although small in stature, Kharlamov is speedy, intelligent and skilled. Teammates and opposing players consider him one of the best players in the world. While in the penalty box, he gets a new stick from one of his team-mates during a stoppage in play. He leaves me his hockey stick which was cracked in the upper part. 

In 1981, he and his wife and her cousin will die in a car accident in Russia. He will be greatly mourned by the hockey community! I will miss him and remember with sadness the brief but poignant encounter we had.