‘The Vladinator’ : Hope Comes a Small Step at a Time for Injured Hockey Star, Whose Survival Was in Doubt Five Weeks After June Wreck

Vladimir Konstantinov’s hand is placed on the Stanley Cup. No one really knows what he feels or what he sees when he stares at the silver surface of hockey’s most famous prize.

Irina Konstantinov holds her husband’s hand and he squeezes back ever so softly. When his 8-year-old daughter, Anastasia, enters the hospital room in Royal Oak, Mich., his facial expression hints at recognition and love.

Every new day carries hope. And sadness.

Two months ago -- before the accident that would change lives and abruptly end a celebration -- Konstantinov skated around Joe Louis Arena, carrying the Cup in triumph.

“The Vladinator,” one of the world’s most feared hockey players, and his Detroit Red Wings were NHL champions for the first time in 42 years after sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers. At 30, coming off two consecutive tremendous seasons, Konstantinov was in his prime.

“You see the pictures of Vladi holding the Cup, it’s hard to believe everything that has happened since,” friend, teammate and countryman Igor Larionov said. “We just won it. And now ... this.”

One moment, Konstantinov was sharing a limousine with fellow defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov. The next moment, the front end of the limo was wrapped around a tree.

“Vladi, he is a little brother to me. Sergei, everybody loves him,” Fetisov said. “That first night in the hospital, I kept asking, ‘How are my friends?’ I still don’t like the answer. The whole thing is a terrible memory.”

Konstantinov was comatose for more than five weeks following the June 13 wreck, which came just six days after the Stanley Cup victory.

Last week, Konstantinov emerged from his coma, as Mnatsakanov had a week earlier. Both have been upgraded to fair condition, their injuries no longer life-threatening. They have been moved out of intensive care and into the Rehabilitation Unit at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, a northern suburb of Detroit.

Fetisov, captain of the former Soviet Union’s vaunted Central Red Army juggernaut before coming to the United States in 1989, suffered chest, lung and knee injuries. He was discharged from the hospital a few days after the wreck.

The 43-year-old Mnatsakanov can write notes, mouth words and blow kisses to his wife, Yelena, and sons Max and Art.

“Everybody talks about Vladi being irreplaceable, and he is,” Wings trainer John Wharton said. “Well, Sergei is irreplaceable, too. He’s a warm, caring person who knows the athlete’s body. He’s more than a masseur. He’s the best assistant I’ve ever had.”

Konstantinov has also progressed, but not as quickly. His mind drifts in a semiconscious state, sometimes alert, sometimes not, doctors say.

“I see him and I cry,” said Vyacheslav Kozlov, another of the Red Wings’ famed Russian Five. “It’s very hard to see my friend like that.”

His facial and body movements suggest that he recognizes friends and family. “We Are the Champions” by the rock group Queen, the team’s unofficial anthem, seems to stimulate him. He has started physical therapy, following instructions to squeeze a soft rubber ball and do other simple tasks.

“He’s become much more aware of his environment,” said Dr. Karol Zakalik, a neurosurgeon at Beaumont. “We’re encouraged, but we know we have many, many months of hard rehab ahead of us. It’s too early to say anything about a full recovery.”

Said Larionov: “When you see a man in good shape ... and all of a sudden he’s lost 30 pounds, it’s very sad. It’s emotionally and physically tiring to see him there, like that, when we remember him being so strong.”

Strong? The Colorado Avalanche concentrated so much on Konstantinov’s aggressiveness -- beyond-the-rules aggressiveness, they claimed -- that they lost their focus in the Western Conference finals.

Strong? Check out the nicknames: Vlad the Impaler. Bad Vlad. Vladimir the Terrible. In a video shown on the Joe Louis Arena replay board during games, The Vladinator makes several crushing hits on opposing players, then dons sunglasses and says, “Hasta la vista, baby!”

Strong? Two years ago, he led the league with an incredible plus-60 goals differential. Last season, he was a finalist for the Norris Trophy, given to the NHL’s top defenseman.

An opponent “once told me that Vladi is the hardest-playing Russian he ever saw,” Wings defenseman Bob Rouse said. “No one likes playing against him, but he has the respect of everyone in the league.”

Now, of course, hockey matters little.

“Winning the Stanley Cup was spectacular, but what would top that would be for Vladi and Sergei to sit down with their families for dinner again,” Red Wings associate coach Dave Lewis said.

“Whenever any of us think about the accident, all we keep asking is, ‘Why?’ I don’t know if there’s an answer.”

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The championship gave Detroit -- self-proclaimed “Hockeytown” -- a joyful, red glow.

In the city, in the suburbs and throughout hockey-mad Michigan, shops and streets were adorned with Red Wings flags, pennants and posters. For the first time since 1955, the local team was the best. The summer promised to be full of revelry.

The players were having fun, too. They drank champagne from the Stanley Cup after finishing their sweep of the favored Flyers on June 7. Three days later, they were honored at a downtown rally attended by a million fans.

“This Cup is for you, for Detroit, for Michigan,” Konstantinov yelled to the crowd in his Russian-accented English.

On June 13, the final team function of the season was scheduled: a golf outing, followed by a party at the home of goalie Chris Osgood.

Knowing that a few beers would be consumed, the team lined up limousines to take players from the course to the party. There would be no drunken driving to hurt the Red Wings’ image and mar the celebration.

“That’s the hardest part,” Rouse said. “We did all the right things.”

Konstantinov, Mnatsakanov and Fetisov got into a limo driven by Richard Gnida, whose license had been revoked because of repeated violations. Traveling about 50 mph through the suburb of Birmingham shortly after 9 p.m., the limo veered sharply across several lanes, jumped a curb and slammed into a tree. The brakes were never applied, said police, who believe Gnida might have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Oakland County prosecutor David Gorcyca said Gnida had marijuana in his system, but the driver’s lawyer said his client hadn’t smoked that day. No charges have been filed as the investigation continues.

Konstantinov, Mnatsakanov and Fetisov weren’t wearing seat belts. They were hurled forward, and Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov smashed their heads against the front of the passenger compartment when the limo hit the tree. Fetisov was spared serious injury when he landed chest-first into the wet bar.

Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov were pulled unconscious from the limo and diagnosed with severe brain trauma. Konstantinov also had an elbow injury that required surgery and Mnatsakanov needed surgery to stabilize his spine.

The next day several teammates visited the hospital and were shocked by the gruesome sight of their fallen friends.

At a brief news conference, captain Steve Yzerman choked back tears and urged fans to “do whatever you do in difficult times that helps make things work out better.”

Larionov was supposed to be in the limo. He decided, instead, to skip the golf outing because his daughters wanted to go swimming.

“My wife talks about fate, but I try not to think about it too much,” Larionov said. “All I know is that you never know what can happen, so you must appreciate every day. I think maybe God saved me. I don’t know why.”

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Vladimir Konstantinov always has beaten the odds.

He grew up in Murmansk, a Russian town north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun shines but two hours a day during the winter.

Hockey was his ticket out, and he made it to Moscow as a teen ager.

“He played with my brother,” Fetisov said. “He’s always had a big heart and been a hard worker.”

Konstantinov joined the Central Red Army team in 1984-85, when he was only 17. But he always looked old for his age. So old, in fact, that his teammates called him “Dyadya” -- or grandpa.

When Fetisov left in 1989, Konstantinov became the Central Army team’s captain. A year later, young star Sergei Fedorov defected and joined the Red Wings, and Konstantinov began thinking that Detroit might also be best for him and his family.

Spreading bribe money and having Konstantinov pretend he was stricken with a rare cancer that could be treated only in the United States, the Red Wings were able to spring Konstantinov in 1991.

Konstantinov needed only a couple of years to learn the North American game well, and he became adept at instigating trouble without getting caught. He often would make first contact, with his stick or elbow, but the referee would only see the opponent retaliating. As the offending player skated to the penalty box, swearing, Konstantinov would smile slyly.

He became noted for his behind-the-scenes stick work -- hence the nickname Vlad the Impaler -- and drove opposing coaches wild.

“He could get a penalty every shift he’s on the ice,” Colorado coach Marc Crawford said during the Western Conference finals.

Despite not being big by today’s defenseman standards (6 feet, 195 pounds), Konstantinov also became a feared body-checker, in open ice and along the boards.

“When you play against the Red Wings,” said Rouse, now a teammate but a former opponent, “you always keep your eye out for Vladi.”

As tough as Konstantinov has been when wearing the Red Wings crest, he is considered a softy at home. He dotes on Anastasia and defers to Irina, who was a civil engineer in Russia.

His wife, who has declined to be interviewed since the accident, “has tremendous courage,” said Lewis, Detroit’s associate coach. “She’s there with Vladi at the hospital from 8 in the morning until 10 at night ... and yet she worries about how the rest of us are doing.”

With her blessing, the other Russian players are taking the Stanley Cup to Moscow from Aug. 16-19, the trophy’s first trip to the former Soviet Union. Konstantinov was supposed to go, too, in what would have been his first visit since defecting. Mnatsakanov, a former Moscow Dynamo trainer, also was invited.

“We can’t really enjoy it, thinking about our two guys in that hospital,” Larionov said. “But Irina said, ‘Don’t worry about us. He’s not going to die. Bring us some memories and some videotape. It will be nice for Vladi to see those pictures.”’

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Doctors are not sure of the prognosis for Konstantinov. Even people with identical traumas react differently because every person’s brain has different healing powers.

But there is hope.

“It’s unlikely that you will win the lottery, but that doesn’t mean you won’t win,” said Ross Zafonte, the medical director for the traumatic brain injury unit at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan.

“You have to think in terms of short steps, not giant leaps like, ‘Will he play hockey again?’ Recognizing family, movements, eating for oneself, propelling a wheelchair, walking. Those are the next phases.”

Some people never complete all those phases, let alone have full recoveries. Medical history, however, is full of amazing stories.

Race-car driver Ernie Irvan, given a 10 percent chance for survival after a 1994 crash, not only came back from severe brain trauma to live a normal life, but he is again a ranked driver.

“It offers hope to everybody in the world,” said Irvan, who won the Miller 400 in June at the same Michigan track where his life almost ended.

For weeks, Konstantinov’s very survival was in doubt. Doctors say that’s no longer the case. They even agreed to let the Red Wings bring the Stanley Cup into Konstantinov’s room for a while to serve as a strong stimulus for the patient -- and to help everybody’s healing process.

“We’re all looking forward to the day when we can get together as a team, a whole team, and really celebrate this Stanley Cup,” Rouse said. “That day will come.”

Larionov stands at Konstantinov’s bedside daily, talking in Russian to his comrade. His message:

“You’re a strong man. You’ve fought through tough times in life and hockey. I know this is the toughest, but you can do it. We’re waiting for you. We miss you. We want you back.”