Even though he was only six years old at the time, Nikita Zaitsev knew hockey would be part of his future in 1997.



He was that young when his parents, Igor and Elena, asked him what sport he wanted to play. Not sure of what to try, his mother took Nikita to the nearest hockey rink, which was over a half hour’s drive away.



“I loved it immediately,” Zaitsev said, as he sat in the Maple Leafs dressing room earlier this month. “One day, there was a practice at 6 a.m. My parents felt it was a bit too far and decided not to drive me and I was crying all day. And I didn’t talk to them.



“That became my life,” he added. “I just thought about hockey.”



Zaitsev was born and raised in Biryulyovo, one of Moscow’s poorest industrial suburbs. The crowded 8.5 square kilometre district is home to residents that include a mix of Russian and Muslim migrants, and tensions have always been high.



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