When the Detroit Red Wings were rebooting their franchise after more than two decades of relative futility, they knew the best place to find world-class players who could help turn things around more quickly were conscripted servants behind the Iron Curtain.All they had to do then was make history by drafting them, then figure out how to get them out. That’s when the Wings turned to Keith Gave, the newsman whose clandestine mission to Helsinki, Finland, was the first phase of a of a years-long series of secret meetings from posh hotel rooms to remote forests around Europe to orchestrate their unlawful departures from the Soviet Union.One defection created an international incident and made global headlines. Another player faked cancer, thanks to the Wings’ extravagant bribes to Russian doctors, including a big American car. Another player who wasn’t quite ready to leave yet felt like he was being kidnapped by an unscrupulous agent. Two others were outcast when they stood up publicly against the Soviet regime, winning their freedom to play in the NHL only after years of struggle.They are the Russian Five: Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. Their individual stories read like pulse-pounding spy novels. The story that unfolded after they were brought together in Detroit by the masterful coach Scotty Bowman is unforgettable.This story includes details never before revealed, and by the man who was there every step of the way – from the day Detroit drafted its first two Soviets in 1989 until they raised the Stanley Cup in 1997, then took it to Moscow for a victory lap around Red Square and the Kremlin.The Russian Five did more to bridge Russian and American relations than decades of diplomacy and dÉtente between the White House and the Kremlin. This is their story.

Picking up where the international best-selling book The Russian Five left off, Vlad the Impaler will have readers alternately laughing—and in tears—with dozens more memorable, untold stories and anecdotes from the Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup championship season in 1997, 25 years ago. The book includes a foreword by Hall of Fame defenseman Slava Fetisov, along with lengthy excerpts from interviews of several members of that team, from captain Steve Yzerman, teammates Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov, and coach Scotty Bowman, among many others. A portion of the proceeds from the book will be earmarked for the Vladimir Konstantinov Special Needs Trust to help ensure the care he needs after suffering catastrophic injuries just a week after he helped the Wings win their first Stanley Cup title in 42 years. #Believe

Like the group of players who stunned the world by upsetting the mighty Soviet Union in the iconic "Miracle Game" at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980, few gave the Team USA women much of a chance to beat the Canadians in the inaugural women''s tournament in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. After all, Canada''s women had dominated their game for decades, winning every major international tournament until then. But when the Gold Medal game had ended, Team USA was standing atop of the podium after a shocking upset that ignited what many consider to be the greatest rivalry in all of sports.Suddenly, just as young boys were inspired by Mike Eruzione and his American teammates to take up the sport of ice hockey and change the game in the United States, little girls could now look up to captain Cammi Granato and her teammates and be similarly inspired. Now they too could play and compete, skate and shout, "She shoots. . . she scores!"Their story unfolds in dramatic, riveting detail in the pages of this book. It reveals how coach Ben Smith assembled this team, making some critical and controversial roster cuts just days before leaving for Japan. It describes how a shocking comeback in a preliminary round game gave the American women the confidence they desperately needed with a kind of momentum they had never experienced heading into a championship showdown with their archrivals. Through exhaustive interviews with dozens of the participants, it explains how that golden moment catapulted the women on both sides of that rivalry to even greater heights as they continue to crash through glass ceilings, inspiring girls and young women in myriad ways that transcend the game itself.

"Hockey Hall of Fame Coach Scotty Bowman: ''Those four guys, they made all the difference''The Grind Line, featuring some of the most popular athletes in Detroit sports history, is one of the most successful units in the history of the National Hockey League, and without peer among so-called ''fourth'' lines, for those who insist on numbering them. Kris Draper, flanked by Kirk Maltby and Joe Kocur, and later Darren McCarty, deserve their rightful place in Detroit shoulder to shoulder with The Production Line – the most famous line in NHL history: Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay alongside Sid Abel, and later Alex Delvecchio, four men whose numbers hang from the rafters at Hockeytown''s Little Caesars Arena. This book argues – and has the receipts to prove it – that the Grind Line was every bit as important in its era (1997-2009) as the Production Line was in the dynastic 1950s.This is the remarkable story of how the Red Wings acquired all four players, one of them in a trade that cost Detroit $1 – for a player who went on to become only the fifth man to play more than 1,000 games for the club. Another was acquired in a trade that was widely considered a minor-league deal. The other two had to plead their way back to the NHL with Detroit after it appeared their careers were over. One of them had been playing beer-league senior hockey before his second chance, and he made it count by winning three Stanley Cup rings with the team.Bowman, the Hall of Famer widely considered to be the greatest coach in the history of the sport, wrote the foreword to this book. And it''s only fitting since he was most responsible for putting the line together and deploying it with lethal results."

When the Detroit Red Wings were rebooting their franchise after more than two decades of relative futility, they knew the best place to find world-class players who could help turn things around more quickly were conscripted servants behind the Iron Curtain.All they had to do then was make history by drafting them, then figure out how to get them out. That’s when the Wings turned to Keith Gave, the newsman whose clandestine mission to Helsinki, Finland, was the first phase of a of a years-long series of secret meetings from posh hotel rooms to remote forests around Europe to orchestrate their unlawful departures from the Soviet Union.One defection created an international incident and made global headlines. Another player faked cancer, thanks to the Wings’ extravagant bribes to Russian doctors, including a big American car. Another player who wasn’t quite ready to leave yet felt like he was being kidnapped by an unscrupulous agent. Two others were outcast when they stood up publicly against the Soviet regime, winning their freedom to play in the NHL only after years of struggle.They are the Russian Five: Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vladimir Konstantinov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. Their individual stories read like pulse-pounding spy novels. The story that unfolded after they were brought together in Detroit by the masterful coach Scotty Bowman is unforgettable.This story includes details never before revealed, and by the man who was there every step of the way – from the day Detroit drafted its first two Soviets in 1989 until they raised the Stanley Cup in 1997, then took it to Moscow for a victory lap around Red Square and the Kremlin.The Russian Five did more to bridge Russian and American relations than decades of diplomacy and dÉtente between the White House and the Kremlin. This is their story.

Picking up where the international best-selling book The Russian Five left off, Vlad the Impaler will have readers alternately laughing—and in tears—with dozens more memorable, untold stories and anecdotes from the Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup championship season in 1997, 25 years ago. The book includes a foreword by Hall of Fame defenseman Slava Fetisov, along with lengthy excerpts from interviews of several members of that team, from captain Steve Yzerman, teammates Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Slava Kozlov, and coach Scotty Bowman, among many others. A portion of the proceeds from the book will be earmarked for the Vladimir Konstantinov Special Needs Trust to help ensure the care he needs after suffering catastrophic injuries just a week after he helped the Wings win their first Stanley Cup title in 42 years. #Believe

Like the group of players who stunned the world by upsetting the mighty Soviet Union in the iconic "Miracle Game" at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980, few gave the Team USA women much of a chance to beat the Canadians in the inaugural women''s tournament in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. After all, Canada''s women had dominated their game for decades, winning every major international tournament until then. But when the Gold Medal game had ended, Team USA was standing atop of the podium after a shocking upset that ignited what many consider to be the greatest rivalry in all of sports.Suddenly, just as young boys were inspired by Mike Eruzione and his American teammates to take up the sport of ice hockey and change the game in the United States, little girls could now look up to captain Cammi Granato and her teammates and be similarly inspired. Now they too could play and compete, skate and shout, "She shoots. . . she scores!"Their story unfolds in dramatic, riveting detail in the pages of this book. It reveals how coach Ben Smith assembled this team, making some critical and controversial roster cuts just days before leaving for Japan. It describes how a shocking comeback in a preliminary round game gave the American women the confidence they desperately needed with a kind of momentum they had never experienced heading into a championship showdown with their archrivals. Through exhaustive interviews with dozens of the participants, it explains how that golden moment catapulted the women on both sides of that rivalry to even greater heights as they continue to crash through glass ceilings, inspiring girls and young women in myriad ways that transcend the game itself.

"Hockey Hall of Fame Coach Scotty Bowman: ''Those four guys, they made all the difference''The Grind Line, featuring some of the most popular athletes in Detroit sports history, is one of the most successful units in the history of the National Hockey League, and without peer among so-called ''fourth'' lines, for those who insist on numbering them. Kris Draper, flanked by Kirk Maltby and Joe Kocur, and later Darren McCarty, deserve their rightful place in Detroit shoulder to shoulder with The Production Line – the most famous line in NHL history: Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay alongside Sid Abel, and later Alex Delvecchio, four men whose numbers hang from the rafters at Hockeytown''s Little Caesars Arena. This book argues – and has the receipts to prove it – that the Grind Line was every bit as important in its era (1997-2009) as the Production Line was in the dynastic 1950s.This is the remarkable story of how the Red Wings acquired all four players, one of them in a trade that cost Detroit $1 – for a player who went on to become only the fifth man to play more than 1,000 games for the club. Another was acquired in a trade that was widely considered a minor-league deal. The other two had to plead their way back to the NHL with Detroit after it appeared their careers were over. One of them had been playing beer-league senior hockey before his second chance, and he made it count by winning three Stanley Cup rings with the team.Bowman, the Hall of Famer widely considered to be the greatest coach in the history of the sport, wrote the foreword to this book. And it''s only fitting since he was most responsible for putting the line together and deploying it with lethal results."