Tretiak was a product of playing for an unbelievable team. I've seen him play a number of times (on tape of course) and he doesn't impress me from a goaltending standpoint. I should add the caveat that he played in a very different era where goalies played a very different, stand-up, style. He very rarely saw more than 15-20 shots in a game, and most of those were not high-quality scoring chances. I'm not talking smack, obviously those around him revered him, people who did a lot more in their hockey career than 2 years playing JV goalie at a private college (like me) :-D. It's just my opinion.
Overall, I'm starting to like your argument about Russian hockey, Big. At least I see where you're coming from. I think the Russian league will never be competition for the NHL in terms of drawing the very top Russian players (such as Ovechkin). Even if they occasionally pay NHL salaries, there will never be the same exposure and prestige of playing in the NHL. It could one day be akin to the Japanese Pacific Baseball league or something like that, though.
All that being said, I don't think the emergence of the Russian league is the reason they won this year. Much of it is that, as someone mentioned, the best players for all the teams weren't there. I mean, imagine that Canadian team with Crosby, Staal, and a number of veterans (like Iginla, etc) who decided not to take part. There were a few Russian NHL omissions, Malkin comes to mind, but not as many as Canada. In short, Russia were probably 90% as strong as they could've been, while Canada was more like 60%. I'm not trying to diminish Russia's accomplishment, though; they beat an extremely talented Finnish team just to get to the final.
The only thing NHL has is money. It doesn't have the environment, the coaches, or the culture to GROW AND DEVELOP talent. I hope we are clear on that.
I mean its not like a New Jersey state champion in wrestling bypasses Rutgers to go to Oklahoma State to wrestle. Its just money, Wall street type of a thing. If America had a professional freestyle wrestling league and paid millions, Russian wrestlers would be wrestling there also.
Yes there's money, but there's also the fact that the NHL is older and more prestigious than any other league in the world. It will likely always be that way, and because of it the best players from every country in the world will gravitate towards it.
Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "environment," but the NHL has the most state-of-the-art facilities, the best coaching and training in the world.
I'm also not sure why you mean by "culture." The northern US fans and, it goes without saying, the Canadian ones are the most knowledgeable hockey fans in the world.
The development programs in the US and Canada surpasses those in the Russia or the European countries. This is why there are more top-flight players there. Russia has nothing to compare with the USHL, Quebec League, major juniors, or even D1 hockey. They have a handful of clubs from which they pick their elite players. I'm not sure where you were going with the development angle. USA and Canadian hockey is much deeper in talent than Russia, which is very top-heavy.
Add to all this that the US and Canadian markets are much more lucrative than Russian ones, and you have the reasons why the NHL will always be ahead of any other hockey league.
I don't understand you jpv. Who won the Worlds just now? Soviet Union has 22 World titles to its name. Seems to me Russian hockey players are the best in the world. Where they play ONCE THEY GET GOOD is irrelevant since its all about money.
What I am saying is that with all the resources America has most of the time it can't even compare to Russia in hocKey talent. Money America has but it doesn't have the system to turn kids into great hockey players.
JPV knows what he's talking about. Russia has a good development system, but so does Canada. Everyone grows up playing hockey in Canada. The U.S. probably isn't the same way but there are ample opportunities for young, talented American players who want to train as well.
For what it's worth, the Canadian juniors have been tearing the living hell out of everyone lately... we recently had a Canada vs. Russia jr. series and Canada won 7 games to one or something. Team Russia played a great tournament and has a great team, but unlike freestyle wrestling they aren't the be-all and end all of ice hockey.
They aren't ranked #1 in the world either- apparently Canada still holds the number one ranking (and no, I don't know how they calculate the ranking except that it takes several international tournaments into account.)
I just said Russia is top-heavy, they always have been. Sure, they might have 30 of among the world's greatest players, but talent drops off from there. Canada AND the US have more hockey depth. World Championship teams only have 20 some-odd players on them.
Canada is the best hockey country in the world, no doubt about it. Russia has a lot of talent at the top. The Scandanavian countries are a lot like Russia in that they are great at the top. The USA has some very good depth, but are lacking at the top-end; and this coming from a country where hockey is a second or third tier sport.
Russian hockey went downhill with Soviet breakup. That's why I made a comment that oil money is paying off. Oil doubled in price the last year and Russians won the Worlds again. The last few years the training in Russia picked up in all sports important to Russia. That is also why all of a sudden Russia won 6 golds at worlds in freestyle last year. The prize is up to a million $$$ for Gold this year for Olympics for every Russian Gold medalist.
In other words young Russian hockey players are stepping up and the veterans that play in NHL are more interested to play for Russia due to oil money being available if they choose to play in Russia and due to uncertainties in NHL as it was almost cancelled last year.
Believe me prestige is not as important to Russian hockey players as the big paycheck. They would much rather live among their own in Russia if they can afford everything they get in America.
One other point. Take Beloglasov brothers. In the 90s they worked in Canada, in Japan, and in the USA while Russia went through tough times. As soon as oil money became available and they were offered good salaries to coach in Russia they bolted from they Western and Asian places of work and returned to Russia. Its all about the money but when the money is similar they will choose Russia.
Tretiak was a product of playing for an unbelievable team. I've seen him play a number of times (on tape of course) and he doesn't impress me from a goaltending standpoint. I should add the caveat that he played in a very different era where goalies played a very different, stand-up, style. He very rarely saw more than 15-20 shots in a game, and most of those were not high-quality scoring chances. I'm not talking smack, obviously those around him revered him, people who did a lot more in their hockey career than 2 years playing JV goalie at a private college (like me) :-D. It's just my opinion.
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I watched Tretiak as a young kid in the late 1970's so I don't have the same perspective or hockey analyzing skills as you appear to, so my statement about the best ever may be hyperbole. But the Soviet national team of that ear was unbelievable. I was a NHL fan and thought I was watching the best in the world play, then the Soviets came in and playing a completely different style of hockey proved that there were as good if not better than the NHL. This blew my mind and made the 1980 US hockey gold that much sweeter, which I saw rated as the #1 US sports moment in history.
Re: Russian hockey team makes World finals! 
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