The '02 Olympics' top goalie has not heard from Russian officials. If he does, it might not matter.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published May 17, 2004
PHILADELPHIA - Nikolai Khabibulin said he would love to play in this summer's World Cup tournament.
But eight days before rosters need to be finalized for the eight-team event that begins Aug. 30 in Helsinki, Finland, the Lightning goalie said no one from the Russian Ice Hockey Federation has asked.
What's more, Khabibulin said unless Russia figures out its management and coaching problems, he is not sure he would accept an invitation.
"If they had the right people in charge, yeah, I would consider it," he said. "But there's nobody to talk to right now. If it stays the way it is right now, I don't think I'm going to be talking to anybody."
Would Khabibulin be disappointed?
"Yes," he said.
The World Cup will be a big deal and not just because the NHL might shut down the day after the Sept. 14 gold medal game in Toronto, when the collective bargaining agreement between the players and league runs out.
"It's the best players in the world," Lightning goalie John Grahame said. "It's like an All-Star Game that matters. It will have all the intensity of a Stanley Cup final except you're doing it for your country."
The Lightning should be well represented in the tournament that includes the United States, Canada, Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Germany and France.
Wing Martin St. Louis and center Brad Richards will play for Canada. Left wing Fredrik Modin is a good candidate to play for Sweden, which will announce its team today. Defenseman Pavel Kubina could play for the Czech Republic and Grahame for the United States.
"Any time you can play for your country, it's a whole different thing," Grahame said. "It's the pride of your country. It's the pride of all the people who live there. If you get picked or are just in the running, it says something about your ability, and you want to show you can compete on that stage."
Which brings us back to Khabibulin.
He would seem a natural choice. He leads the playoffs with four shutouts and a .946 save percentage and is second with a 1.44 goals-against average. He also sparkled for Russia at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and was named by the International Ice Hockey Federation as that tournament's top goalie.
Asked if he would consider playing in the World Cup, Khabibulin, 31, said, "Yeah, because it's a big tournament and it's great to represent your country. But at the same time, if they can't figure out what's going on in Russia with the coaches, it's not really clear what's going to happen."
Khabibulin was not specific about his perception of Russia's problems, but it is easy to speculate they pertain to legendary coach Viktor Tikhonov and Igor Larionov's apparent inability to secure the job of general manager of the national team.
Tikhonov coached the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. The story is he took for himself the gold medal that should have belonged to Khabibulin, who did not play as the No. 3 goalie.
It is one of the reasons Khabibulin did not play for Russia in the 1998 Olympics and was the start of a saga that ended in 2002, when Khabibulin was finally awarded his medal.
The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Larionov, a former Soviet great and NHL star, was denied the GM job after a disagreement with the Russian Federation.
The paper said Larionov arranged for former Canadiens great Larry Robinson to coach. A Reuters report said a foreigner behind Russia's bench was deemed unthinkable. Instead, Tikhonov led the team to a 10th-place finish in this month's world championships.
As a result, Reuters reported, Tikhonov's job is in danger. Khabibulin said he is watching and waiting.
"There will be a lot of great players there," he said of the World Cup. "Having said that, I think they have to figure out first what they have to do to get the thing straightened out."
