This week, six-time national best-selling author John U. Bacon comes out with his 10th book, “The Best of Bacon: Select Cuts,” a collection of his top 40 stories from his 25-year career covering sports for a dozen regional and national publications, including The Detroit News. This excerpt tells us the story of Slava Fetisov’s heroic escape from the Soviet Union, all the way to the Detroit Red Wings. It originally ran in The Detroit News in July 1997.
Sometime this summer, Detroit’s 39-year old defenseman Slava Fetisov will have to decide whether to return to the Red Wings for one final season, play somewhere else, or retire.