A bit about Pavel Datsyuk and his ‘Magic Game’

Updated 2x at 8:21 AM on Sunday, August 31st: According to Russian Machine Never Breaks’ Ian Odland and the Hockey News’s Sammi Silber, former Red Wings forward and Hockey Hall of Famer Pavel Datsyuk held his final “Magic Game” in Yekaterinburg today.

Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Fedorov and of course Datsyuk took part in the friendly game, and MatchTV’s Pavel Lysenkov conducted a very, very long interview with Datsyuk as part of the celebrations. Kovalchuk, Fedorov and Ovechkin discussed the game, which Datsyuk himself initially described as his “Farewell to Hockey,” and Datsyuk, who works for Avtomobillist Yekaterinburg’s youth program, was named an “Honorary Citizen of Sverdlovsk.” Fedorov also discussed the fact that the Red Wings will eventually retire #13, and Datsyuk expressed some disappointment that his North American teammates couldn’t attend the game.

I’m not going to plug the Lysenkov interview into Google or Firefox because it’s FRICKING LONG, and I’m gonna be honest, I don’t want to spend my Saturday night translating a lengthy Russian interview (it’s been a long week of both work and caregiving as Aunt Annie tweaked her back pretty badly, and I’m kind of fried here), but I can tell you that Pavel’s son, Pavel Jr., is a goaltender, and that, while Datsyuk’s very happy to discuss his start in Detroit on the “Two kids and a goat” line, the evolution of the game after the 2004-2005 lockout, the Wings’ rivalry with Pittsburgh, his personal comparisons to Marian Hossa, and his leadership role on the Wings…

He’s still damn proud about having fought and won against Corey Perry, too.

Right now, Datsyuk’s basically a youth hockey coach with Avtomobilist, and for a long time during the course of his NHL career, he said that he hoped to work with children during his post-NHL career, so it sounds like the Magic Man is “living the dream.”

Update: Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted two Tweets of note from the game:

Here’s more from Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!