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The more he travels the world seeking the true spirit of hockey, the more Dave Bidini feels that the souls of true Canadian hockey lovers are malnourished. Case in point: Right now, the best hockey in the world is being played in Russia -- with NHL players, no less -- and all we hear about is the void left by the lockout.
"We're terrible in this country in terms of the media, and I mostly blame CBC and Hockey Night In Canada, telling the same three stories over and over again," says the rocker-turned-hockey-ambassador, whose The Hockey Nomad Goes To Russia airs Monday on CBC's The Passionate Eye.
His documentary -- a trek from Moscow's Luzhniki arena to Siberia -- closes with a much anticipated game between Omsk (featuring Jaromir Jagr) and Kazan, an oil-rich franchise whose lineup includes Sergei Federov, Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Nikolai Khabibulin and Martin Havlat.
"You've got 12 of the best players in the world playing, in these beautiful rinks, freewheeling, firewagon hockey. It was so entertaining and so thrilling. And people say, 'Oh, you must feel so terrible that there's an NHL lockout.' If anything, the lockout should be opening this f---ing incredible world up to us as Canadians and hockey fans.
"If hockey is our game, and we are the most hockey-obsessed nation on earth, then our national broadcaster should be doing more than sending a hockey goof like me to Russia."
Well, they don't call it The Passionate Eye for nothing.
A followup to his earlier I Am A Hockey Nomad (which saw the Rheostatics' frontman slap on the skates in places like Dubai, Transylvania and Mongolia), the inspiration for his Russian doc came from a rented movie.
"I was watching The Russian Ark -- about the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg -- and I thought, 'How much as a hockey fan do I know about Russia?' It's like that film reveals to you all these things about Russian history, and you realize how little you actually know.
"What I discovered is, as a Canadian, you have this key into the place. Wander into a town with a hockey stick or a guitar and there are always people opening their doors to you."
And the doors were indeed opened. His hosts included 1972 Summit hero Alexander Yakushev and his wife Tatiana and '72 journeyman Yuri Blinov (at one point, Bidini plays pickup hockey with the '72 oldtimers). He also meets the parents of a 12-year-old Siberian hockey phenom named Zenia, and NHLer Darius Kasparaitis, who speaks nostalgically about the good things that were lost with the bad when the Soviet government fell (his memories of neighbourhoods where children were safe and cared-for sounds like a Republican talking about America in the '50s).
The Yakushevs and Zenia's parents both talked frankly about personal tragedies -- both having lost grown children to violence. "I was amazed at the Russians' warmth, how they're ready to tell their stories at the drop of a hat. I didn't expect to interview people about a dead son or daughter."
Bitterness and regret, however, were in short supply. "Someone like Yuri Blinov had a great approach to life. We expected him to be bitter about the way his career played out. And he was so mellow. Even the Canadians, when we raised the question of Bobby Clarke breaking (Valeri) Kharlamov's ankle, he just said, 'Bobby Clarke apologized.'
"I asked Alexander Gusev what it was like to play in a hockey war. He said, 'Sports is not war, war is war.'
"These people's fathers fought at f---- Stalingrad. Sportwise, they have a very, very healthy attitude."