MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman regarding the 25th anniversary of the Russian Five‘s debut against the Calgary Flames, on October 27, 2020:
“That was a wonderful time in Detroit,” Bowman said. “I didn’t play them together all the time; I was always fearful that because it was such a unique way to play, somebody’s going to figure out (how to defend them). They scored some spectacular goals. You look at the tapes now and see what they could do. They were great players. They gave our team something that nobody else had. Anytime you can have something unique, it’s a special group.”
The Red Wings defeated the Flames 3-0. Kozlov and Larionov scored goals, Fedorov and Konstantinov provided assists and Fetisov registered a team-high four shots on goal.
“They had practiced a couple of times before that and we announced we were going to play them as a unit,” Bowman, 87, said Tuesday in an interview with MLive. “Oh my God, they took over that game. We only played three lines at the time and they were playing every third shift. That was the start.”
