Hockey In Red Square

On December 9th, Team Russia will take on the world in a charity match at an outdoor rink built in the famous Red Square.

Russia will be headlined by the reunification of the KLM line - Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov will skate together. Vyacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, long feuding defensemen, will put aside their differences for charity. Vladimir Malakhov, Valeri Kamensky and Alexander Mogilny are also lacing up the skates for honorary coach Viktor Tikhonov. Vladislav Tretiak will make a rare appearance in net.

Playing for Team World will be Paul Coffey, Mark Howe, Reed Larson, Jari Kurri, Tomas Sandstrom, Mats Naslund, Steve Shutt, Doug Brown, Esa Tikkanen and the Stastny brothers Peter and Anton. Billy Smith will play in nets and Scotty Bowman will be the coach.

No offense to the World squad, but I'm a tad disappointed that there aren't some bigger names participating. In a perfect world I'd love to see Paul Henderson and Phil Esposito return to Moscow. Or how about regular Old Timers Hockey Challenge participants like Guy Lafleur, Glenn Anderson, Dale Hawerchuk or even Tiger Williams.

For that matter, I hope several Russians from the past, namely Pavel Bure, Boris Mikhailov and Alexander Kharlamov, son of the great Valery Kharlamov, are involved in some way.