Each spring, they get asked if they want to win the Stanley Cup. He and Igor Larionov are heroes in Russia after winning several gold medals and world championships for the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Sergei Fedorov helped the Soviets win gold medals in two world championships, and Slava Kozlov and Vladimir Konstantinov played for world championships. We grow up with different goals in our mind, but still you have to play for a championship team. It doesn't matter if you play for Stanley Cup, for the Olympics, for the world championship.
Nobody ever asks the Canadian players if they want to win the Cup.
Or even the Swedes. But every spring, the Russian Wings have to defend their courage to battle it out for the biggest prize in North American hockey. Kozlov, with eight. Fedorov, with 14. Larionov has 12.