Goal Line Report
Remembering Konstantinov
by Patrick Hoffman on 07/08/09 at 07:53 PM ET
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From Michael Farber at DetroitRedWings.com:
In May 2008 Hockey Hall of Famer and Red Wings great Ted Lindsay took the stand in U.S. District Court in the case of Konstantinov et al v. Findlay Ford Lincoln Mercury et al. Terrible Ted, then 82, a blunt talker whose worn mug is the face of Old-Time Hockey, put his right hand on a Bible and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. This was Lindsay’s truth: Eleven years earlier, Vladimir Konstantinov was “the greatest hockey player in the world” and perhaps on his way to being the best defenseman of all time. Lindsay’s assessment of Konstantinov—the Vladinator, Vlad the Impaler, a shot-in-the-dark 11th-round draft pick in 1989 who became an essential part of the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup teams in the ’90s—might have been overly generous, but Lindsay has never been hauled back into court on a perjury charge.
Ten months later, on an unseasonably warm March day, “the greatest hockey player in the world” lurches into the living room of his town house in suburban Detroit, grasping a walker. He has returned from a visit to his doctor and is accompanied by one of the nurses who provide round-the-clock assistance. He plops into a chair at a table off the kitchen to play a card game, Uno, with a Russian-speaking nurse. Irina Konstantinov says her husband really likes Uno. “The left frontal lobe,” she starts. “It handles executive functioning, where a person analyzes their own behavior, determines whether it’s right and appropriate. That he doesn’t have. Destroyed. He can’t process idealistic feelings about life, like love of country or happiness that his child is graduating. Everything for him is matter of fact.”
Click here for more on one of Detroit’s best defensemen.
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Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire’s Ultimate Hockey web site.
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