Vladislav Tretiak has never lost in Montreal. Tomorrow evening, back in the city where he’s enjoyed many of his finest hours, the Russian goaltending legend wins yet again.
Tretiak and countryman Alex Kovalev will raise thousands of dollars for their charitable foundations at a gala cocktail auction at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Scores of items are up for bid in silent and called auctions, including a flight, round of golf, dinner and pick-up hockey with Kovalev (all separate items); stunning one-of-a-kind watches and rings from Tretiak’s private collection; Russian works of art; and photos and game-used jerseys and sticks signed by NHL superstars Alexander Ovechkin, Andrei Markov, Evgeni Malkin and Martin Brodeur, among others.
Also to be won will be a trip for two to Russia aboard a Swiss International A380, a red-carpet prize that includes a private visit to Moscow’s Kremlin Palace and Russia’s parliament, the State Dumas.
A year ago today, as general manager of Russia’s 2010 Olympic hockey team, Tretiak was at the Bell Centre scouting the Montreal-Washington Capitals game and having dinner with Canadiens all-star Markov, feeling out the defenceman’s health as he neared a return to action following a sliced foot tendon suffered in the season’s opening game.
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Russia finished a disappointing sixth in Vancouver and, incredibly, Markov is back on the shelf, his right knee reinjured this month.
But a happy if flight-delayed Tretiak landed back in Dorval from Moscow via Paris last evening, 41 years after he first arrived as a 17-year-old. He is delighted to be back for the auction that will benefit his foundation and that of Kovalev, the popular former Canadien who will arrive in town tomorrow following his Senators game tonight in Ottawa.
“The first time I came to Montreal, I remember it the same as yesterday,” Tretiak said in his hotel suite last night, his body telling him it was nearing 4 a.m. after an endless travel day.
“Canada, for us, was a special country. It was very close to Russia on the mental side -we both loved hockey. I remember big cars. Good cars. Oldsmobiles, Chryslers, big Fords. Russian cars were not so big, the design didn’t look so good. Here, big streets, big downtown, big buildings.
“The first time I went to the Forum -unbelievable, fantastic.”
The charitable foundations of Tretiak and Kovalev focus on the care of medical-needy children, both in Canada and Russia.
For the past 15 years, Tretiak has worked to buy medical supplies, equipment and incubators for prematurely born children while bringing North American specialists to Russia for urgently needed surgeries.
Kovalev’s foundation, operated with its co-founder, Montreal pediatric surgeon Suzanne Vobecky, has for its three-year existence worked to improve the physical and emotional health of young Canadian cardiac patients. It also provides hands-on care in Russia for families of children too poor or remotely placed to have necessary attention.
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