"The Russian Five" is a pretty darn good documentary. It's a good mix of hockey, human interest, and tragedy and triumph. I could see a parallel between the long-suffering Astro fan waiting many years for a championship, then having a team full of promise push through to win said championship by both talent and sheer will and determination. In "The Russian Five", it starts with the acceptance of five Russian players in a basically North American (re: more Canadian) brand of hockey and the abuse they had to endure even from their own fans and fellow players. Even when the team started to play well and in some circles they were favored to win the Stanley Cup, it evaded them for many reasons you'll have to watch the documentary to learn about. The Russians as much as anyone were frustrated at not achieving the ultimate goal of hoisting the Lord Stanley cup, but no one knew or cared to know how much it meant to them to bring one home to Detroit as it did any other player on the team. This is key to what happened to finally allow the team in Detroit to gel into one cohesive unit and care deeply for one another that when it was time to finally take the championship. They did it as "one" and no longer saw themselves as a splintered team of Russians and the rest North American hockey players.
It's a good story of how much "team chemistry" added on to the team and individual talent can overcome and win championships. Along the way they faced all sorts of emotional and physical adversity. In the end, they would need the same "as one" team chemsitry to overcome a tradgedy outside the arena and pull together to once again overcome. Why I saw a lot of commonality to the Houston Astros is simply the "overcome obstacles" way the Astros clubhouse did to win a championship. You can have talent, but it takes a special bond to make said talent a championship team. Once they had the Hurrican Harvey tradgedy unite them and the city into a mission driven cause, they were forcing their way into their 2017 run as an unstoppable squad wanting to take the championship for themselves and this city. I'm glad I watched the documentary, it reminded me of the 2017 Houston Astros and how very special that team was and still is to all Astros fans. I guess that is why many of us felt a bit of loss when Charlie F. Morton chose to go to Tampa Bay in 2019. He like several other players embodied what the 2017 team meant to each other and the city. Now, let's go 2019 Houston Astros... take your "Five Cubans" and get back into the groove to strangle hold the championship run.
Oh and screw the Yankees and Dodgers!
