OTTAWA–Out on the ice, it was hockey skills and smiles. Nikita Filitov tore it up yesterday, racking up a hat trick and generating a scoring chance on practically every shift in Russia’s 8-1 steam-rolling of Slovakia at the Civic Centre.
After the game it was surprising English skills but no smiles. Not when talk with Filatov turned to the death of his “best friend in hockey,” Alexei Cherepanov.
Cherepanov, the Rangers’ first-round draft pick in 2007, died suddenly during a Russian Superleague game two months ago. The scene was captured on tape but it’s too graphic to link here, too disturbing. Cherepanov collapsed on the Omsk Avangard bench during the third period and his heart stopped. No fibrillator on site. Unbelievably, no stretcher, ambulance or attendant were immediately available. Someone went home early. Just as unbelievably, a genetic heart condition had gone undiagnosed at the NHL combine and New York’s training camp in 2007. Cherepanov was just 19 when he died. He was named the top forward in the 2007 WJC. He would have been on the ice with Filatov at this tournament.
“He is all the time in my mind,” Filatov says.
Understandable. This is Filatov’s first international tournament since Cherepanov’s death. Filatov won’t come out and say it but it’s apparent to anyone familiar with this Russian team: Cherepanov would have been expected to lead this team, but it now falls to him. Cherepanov would have worn the captain’s K, but that’s now sewn over Filatov’s heart.
“We played together on the team that won the under-18s in Tampere [in 2007] and he was the best player on the ice,” Filatov says. “We were a confident team and the confidence started with Alexei. He really helped me a lot with my game and my life. It was such a big honour for me to play with him on teams in international tournaments. He was such a good guy and such a good friend. Every aspect of his life … he always wanted to be the best at whatever he did and I think he was. A unique man.”
Filatov was in Syracuse, doing his apprenticeship with Columbus’ AHL affiliate, when he got the tragic news. “It was a day when we didn’t have a practice, so I slept in very late, into the afternoon,” Filatov says. “I didn’t have breakfast. I just turned on my PC and there was a message from a friend who was at the game the night Alexei died. At first I didn’t believe it.”
Filatov won’t say whether he believes yesterday’s reports of the cause of Cherepanov’s death–according to Russian federal Investigative Committee, tests of Cherepanov’s blood and urine indicated that he had been using stimulants for several months.
“I don’t want to comment on these things,” Filatov says. “Probably it can be true, probably it can’t be true. It doesn’t matter. There is no bringing him back. It’s just sad.”
The Russians are under the radar at the 2009 WJC. Hard to believe given Russia’s impact in world junior history. Talk has focused on the defending champion Canada, last year’s runner-up Sweden and the U.S., the last team to deny Canada gold. But as Filatov noted, when the best players from these nations competed at the spring U18s the Russians skated off with the gold, beating Sweden in the semis and the U.S. in the final. “I think this team is a lot like our team when we won the under-18s,” Filitov says. “We’ve got eight or nine guys from that team here … but not Alexei.”
Cherepanov influenced Filatov to be sure, but it’s hard to imagine two players whose games were more different. Cherepanov was frequently criticized as a floater, a winger who was hard for scouts and team-mates to find on the ice. But his skills were off the boards and his hands almost magical. And as I wrote in a Sportsnet.ca column at the time of his death, Cherepanov had an amazing knack for scoring spectacular goals in the most critical circumstances.
Filatov is a flyer and there’s no taking your eye off him whenever he’s on the ice. He has his own knack of scoring a big goal. Here’s a highlight from the 2007 U-18s: Filatov scoring an overtime winner in the quarter-finals vs Switzerland. (It’s the last clip in the sequence, a representative sample of his skill.) Players make the best scouts, so I asked Steven Stamkos who was the best he faced in that tournament: He didn’t hesitate … not Cherepanov but Filatov. Is there a chance that CBJ landed the best prospect in the 2008 draft with the sixth pick overall? Maybe. Looked like a good chance yesterday.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Russians knocked off the Swedes on Wednesday. Filatov and his line-mates Evgeni Gratchev and Sergei Andronov do a lot of the heavy lifting for the Russians. “I played with Evgeni the last two years and I really liked it,” Filatov says. “We are a good fit together. We’ve got Andronov on the right wing–very tough, very powerful. Gratchev is a big guy with good hands and he’ins good in both ends of the rink. The game is much better for me when I’m with the big guys because [the opponents’ defence] have to pay attention to them and it gives me room. We’re a tough line to play against.”
The team runs deeper than the one line, though. This team’s Achilles Heel is the same one that almost killed the Russians’ chances at gold at the 2007 U18s: unreliable goaltending. If Filatov’s memories could stop pucks, the Russians might not give up a goal the rest of the way.