Retired NHL star Slava Fetisov, age 51, will start for CSKA Moscow in Friday’s game

Fetisov, 51, to start for CSKA Moscow team

MOSCOW — Former NHL star Slava Fetisov will start for CSKA Moscow on Friday, but doesn’t know how well his 51-year-old body will stand up to the pounding in the Continental Hockey League game.

“I skate fairly often, but this is a different game,” Fetisov said in televised comments after a morning practice. “It’s not a show, it’s a real game, so naturally I have worries.”

The defenseman and former captain of the Soviet Union national team ended his professional career at age 40 after winning a second straight Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 1998.

Fetisov is president of CSKA and a member of the upper house of Russia’s parliament. He got called into action by CSKA coach Sergei Nemchinov after defender Denis Kulyash was injured.

Fetisov will play in Friday’s game against SKA St. Petersburg, hoping to energize the young team.

But many consider it a publicity stunt aimed at attracting attention to the sport. Russia has been trying to restore its hockey to the powerhouse status it held before the collapse of the Soviet Union and before many of the country’s best players followed Fetisov in defecting to the NHL.

“For CSKA it’s a super move,” team captain Konstantin Korneyev said in the Sovetsky Sport newspaper. “I can’t even imagine how much the interest in our team will grow. The fans will go out of their minds.”

Fetisov’s return led the news on Russia’s state television channels throughout the day.

Darius Kasparaitis, another NHL veteran defender who plays for SKA St. Petersburg, told the newspaper that Fetisov’s return will produce a wonderful “show on ice” but said “we won’t spare our rival on the ice no matter who he is.”

It was not clear if Fetisov was expected to play for the rest of the season for CSKA, which is sixth in the division.

He will be the first Russian hockey player to compete at age 51. In the NHL, Gordie Howe played the entire season for the Hartford Whalers at 51, scoring 15 goals and adding 26 assists.