Courtesy Detroit’s Channel 4 News, here’s former Red Wings great Slava Fetisov claiming the infamous 1997 limo accident -- one that saw Detroit defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and team massage therapist Sergei Mnatsakanov suffered debilitating head injuries -- wasn’t an accident at all.
The incident occurred less than a week after the Wings won the ’97 Stanley Cup, their first championship in 42 years. The limo Konstantinov, Mnatsakanov and Fetisov were riding in crossed three lanes of traffic, jumped the curb and slammed into a tree.
The driver, Richard Gnida, was operating the vehicle after despite having his license suspended for drunk driving.
Konstantinov, who suffered major cognitive damage in the crash, recently returned to Detroit for the 2014 Winter Classic alumni game, where he and the rest of the “Russian Five” -- Konstantinov, Fetisov, Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov and Igor Larionov -- were greeted with huge applause from the Red Wings faithful.