NIKOLAI DROZDETSKY - "HARD TO PRONOUNCE, IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP"

Yes, you got it, last day photo shows one of my all time favourite player Nikolai Drozdetsky. During 1981 Canada Cup when he became popular in Canada one of article headers said "Drozdetsky - hard to pronounce, impossible to stop". An excellent description of this player...

Nikolai Vladimirovich Drozdetsky (Jun 14, 1957, Kolpino - Nov 24, 1995, St. Petersburg) was a Russian ice hockey right winger, who competed for the USSR. He played for SKA Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) from 1974-1979, then for CSKA Moscow (Red Army team) from 1979 until part way through the 1986/87 season, when he played again for Leningrad, until 1989. He finished his career with Borås HC in Sweden from 1989-1995. He was named most valuable player of the Soviet elite league in 1984. He scored 252 goals in 503 league games and 64 goals in 109 international games with the Soviet national team.

Drozdetsky played on the Soviet national team in 1981, 1982, 1984, and 1985, which won the IIHF World Championships in 1981 and 1982, the Olympic Gold medal in 1984, the 1981 Canada Cup, and the 1981, 1982, and 1985 European championships. He led all goal scorers at the 1984 Olympics with ten goals in seven games, and also led the Soviet team with 12 points.

He died from complications of diabetes.

There is an excellent article about Nikolai here, unfortunately it's Russsian...