February 15, 2000

Hockey Dynasties

I am the family face;
Flesh perishes, I live on,
Projecting trait and trace
Through time to times anon,
And leaping from place to place
Over oblivion.
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928),
English novelist, poet. Heredity.

What does the word "dynasty" mean? Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it as following: "Dy.nas.ty n, pl -ties (14c) 1: a succession of rulers of the same line of descent 2: a powerful group or family that maintains its position for a considerable time."

In our case, the second meaning is the most appropriate because there are lots of examples of dynasties in the history of famous world hockey.

For instance, Canadians are proud of their famous NHL family of the six Sutter brothers. They even kindly joke on this, "There are hardly any men in this league who could escape from our clan." Moreover show me the person who has never heard of Maurice and Henri Richard, Bobby and Dennis Hull, the Espositos, the Howes or the Gretzkys and I’ll call him a hockey hater, to be more exact not a real citizen of the Maple Leaf country. Like in that old joke told by Jack Kent Cooke, the Los Angeles Kings’ owner, on his team’s feeble drawing power: "There are 800,000 Canadians living in the L.A. area, and I’ve just discovered why they left Canada. They hate hockey." I guess some will tell me that Canadian hockey is in danger of being sold out to the U.S. where its empire is on the rise and the quotation given above has nothing in common with today’s situation. In this case, I have nothing against this opinion. The loss of Canadian traditional hockey cities is evident in the near future. Of course, the situation has greatly changed but the idea of heredity and dynasties still survives. I don’t believe that there will be no more future Lindroses (Eric and Bret), Primeaus (Keith and Wayne), Lemieuxs (Claude and Jocelyn), Kariyas (Paul, Steve) in hockey’s spiritual homeland.

The former USSR and now Russia are no exceptions to the rules. Here hockey has always been and continues to be the family business. Russia has always had at least one prominent sibling combination or hockey family (father-son).

In 1958, the famous Ragulin triplets started playing for Khimik Voskresensk. Anatoly was a goaltender, Alexander played defenseman and Mikhail forward. The most legendary of them is Alexander who is 10-time world and 3-time Olympic champion. He was also a defenseman for the 1972 Russian team that narrowly lost to Canada in the Superseries.

The same club is famous as well for its sibling combination the Syrtsovs. Alexander, Vladimir and Gennady. Nickolay Epstein, 80, who is considered the grandfather of hockey in Voskresensk, even tried to join them in one scoring line during exhibition games of the 1968/69 season but unfortunately the idea failed. Later, Gennady started to play defenseman. Alexander turned out to be the most gifted one among the brothers. He was the one who was named to the 1970 team USSR for "the Prize of Izvestia" tournament. He played for 11 years in the USSR big league. Vladimir played 10 seasons and Gennady played 7 seasons. Later, in 1992 Gennady was appointed head coach of his native club, for which his son Alexander also played.

In the fall of 1967, Dynamo Moscow acquired an 18-year-old named Alexander Maltsev, who also joined Khimik Voskresensk because his talent was initially discovered by Nickolay Epstein. Today he is 17-season veteran, 9-time world and 2-time Olympic champion. Moreover, he was a forward for the 1972 and 1974 Russian teams in the Superseries. His brother Sergei made his debut with the Dynamo as well. The third brother Anatoly, who like his brothers was a forward, tried out for the same team but failed to make the lineup and had to join Olympia for which he played more than 10 years.

There is also Igrek, Rashit and Rinat GIMAYEV, Sergei, Alexei and Gennady MARKIN, Pavel, Yuri and Viktor KOSTICHKIN, Pavel and his twin brothers Dimitri and Alexander SKUGAREV.

But the ones fans should care about, the ones who have caught their attention with their outstanding play are without any doubt the Mayorovs, the Golikovs, the Makarovs, the Koreshkovs, the Mironovs and the Bures.

Here I guess many of my frequent readers ask me: "You are talking about dynasties? So give us an example of any Soviet/Russian father-son ‘coach-player’ hockey combination? For instance here in Canada we have Colorado GM Pierre Lacroix who is the father of NYR player Eric Lacroix and Canadian hockey legend Bobby Hull and his ‘American’ son Brett who is the 1999 Stanley Cup owner with the Dallas Stars. "

On this I will answer once again that USSR/Russia are not the exception to the rule. Real hockey fans will remember Valerie Borisovich Kharlamov. He had been a unique forward for the 1972 and ‘74 USSR team in the Superseries and amazed the Canadian crowd by his superb play with his outstanding speedy skating enriched with lots of different dipsy doodles. Today his son, Washington draftee Alexander Kharlamov, plays in the West Coast Hockey League for Tacoma. The teammate of Valerie Kharlamov Boris Mikhailov who was also a participant in the memorable 1972 and ‘74 superseries now governs team CSKA for which his son Egor Mikhailov plays. There is also Alexandre Sergeyevich Volchkov, popular former forward for the 1972 USSR team in the Superseries and legendary CSKA, who has been working as a coach with CSKA Moscow before the arrival of his former teammate Boris Mikhailov in Moscow. His son, Alexandre Volchkov, who was a first round draft pick (4th overall) of Washington in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft today plays in the American Hockey League for the Portland Pirates. We are also proud to have new Avangard Omsk head coach (formerly of Lada Togliatti) Gennady Feodorovich Tsygurov and his son Denis who played for the Los Angeles Kings with Wayne Gretzky. Now Denis is a player of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk.

The Soviet/Russian school also has father-son ‘coach-coach’ hockey combinations. For instance, the cult figure of Soviet hockey Victor Vladimirovich Tikhonov governs HC CSKA. His son successfully works in Finland where he coaches Rauman Lukko. There is another key figure of Soviet/Russian hockey, his name is Vladimir Vladimirovich Yurzinov. He had been working with Finnish TPS Turku for five years. Well-known NHLers Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen, Alexei Yashin, Darius Kasparaitis and Viktor Kozlov are the products of his work. He has been an assistant coach of team USSR from 1974 up to 1992 and governed Dynamo Riga and Dynamo Moscow. Also under him, Russia won the silver in the 1998 Olympic games. In 1999 he moved to Switzerland to coach EHC Kloten. Today his son Vladimir Yurzinov continues the Finnish business of his father. He has been working with Ilves and now coaches Porri Esset.

New generations of Russian hockey dynasties are already in the making. In North America, the father of Sergei Fedorov works as a coach and the older brother of Sergei – Feodor - promises to become an NHL calibre player. The natives of the former USSR remember Dimitry Saprykin, the goaltender of legendary CSKA and Spartak Moscow of 1980s, who later successfully managed to teach his son how to score goals against goalies of the caliber of Dominik Hasek. Who but Dimitri can reveal the secrets of netminders’ fears for goals and their weak points to his son Oleg. This was very useful information for a young gifted forward like Calgary’s draftee Oleg Saprykin.

In this activity of brothers and fathers with their sons, there are traits and family traditions. All this proves that Russian hockey was and continues to be the family business.

Denis Neznanov
HockeyZone's Russian Correspondent