The Miracle on Ice will probably be mentioned once or twice when the U.S. men’s hockey team plays Russia on Feb. 15.
Both sides in Sochi have ties to the famed 1980 Olympics game.
The U.S. roster includes defenseman Ryan Suter, son of Bob Suter, who played for the U.S. Olympic Team in 1980. The Suter story has been told often, as Ryan also played on the 2010 Olympic Team.
The Russia roster released two weeks ago included forward Viktor Tikhonov, a first-time Olympian. Tikhonov, 25, shares his name with the coach of the 1980 Soviet Union Olympic Team, who is his grandfather.
The older Tikhonov, once a Central Red Army colonel, was known as an iron-fisted coach for the 1980, ’84, ’88 and ’92 Olympic Teams. He has been called the Tolstoy of Soviet hockey. It appears he hasn’t changed at age 83.
“Of course my grandfather congratulated me when I told him I was on the team,” Tikhonov told the Moscow Times. “He was very proud to hear the news but first asked me why my club team had lost its last game.”
Tikhonov has never played at a World Championships — injury reportedly kept him out the last two times — and has a chunk of one season of NHL experience. Now with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL, he was chosen for the Russian team over the likes of seasoned NHL forward Alexander Semin.
The Moscow Times interviewed a hockey analyst from a Russian sports daily who said Tikhonov was not selected for the Olympics because of his family ties, that he had earned it.
Tikhonov is far different from his grandfather. He has a California accent and surfer hair and visited Russia for the first time at age 15 with an American passport.
“I received my Russian passport when I was 16 or 17,” Tikhonov told the newspaper. “I am Russian by blood and I cannot imagine playing for another national team. But I still spend time in the U.S. in the summer. I guess I am a Russian-American mix.”
The Globe and Mail recalled an interesting story when a young Tikhonov did go to Moscow and worked out at the Central Red Army headquarters.
“Every day, I’d go over to eat with my grandparents and the last day he came with me and said, ‘I’m just going to watch you work out and see what you’re doing and maybe give you a few pointers.’ So I went in, spent half an hour working out and then he stopped me and said: ‘Turn the music off. You’re not going to do this again. Forget this.’
“Then he took me through a workout that was probably 20 or 30 minutes – the time flew by – little weights, lots of jumping, all legs. I couldn’t walk for two days. He said, ‘This is 30 or 40 per cent of what you should be doing every day.’ I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ “
His father, Vasily, coached in various roles for the San Jose Sharks organization from 1993 to 1999 and died in August, falling from a fourth-floor apartment window.
