In the late 1980s, the Detroit Red Wings hockey team was a laughing stock, often called the “Dead Wings”. After a wealthy pizza magnate bought the failing franchise, he appointed an unorthodox General Manager to build a championship team. Throwing off conventional wisdom, the new GM looked to America’s mortal enemy in the Cold War, the Soviet Union itself. Through a plot that sounds like a spy novel, the Red Wings organization brought on one Russian after another, nd in the process, changed the way North American hockey is played.