On February 1, 1941, three-time Olympic champion, eight-time world champion, nine-time USSR champion with CSKA, the attacker Anatoly Firsov was born.
- Firsov was different not only by his killer flick, but also by his technical wealth and diversity - shifty jukes, strickhandling, great passing and skating," says the goalie Alexandr Pashkov, the World, Olympic and Soviet champion. - Now everybody talks about the Ovechkin phenomenon. So Firsov, also right-handed, was shooting just as hard from that point. Some goalies couldn't see the puck and got down in fright. I played with him briefly for CSKA and then at the Sapporo Olympics and I can say that I have never met a more responsible hockey player. For him, there was no such thing as "the game wasn't going well" and he knew how to take control of the game. He took young Vikulov and Polupanov to the top, then Kharlamov.
And the most winning coach in the NHL Scotty Bowman, who designed the "Russian Five" in Detroit, put Firsov above all in the constellation of Soviet attackers.
At the height of the 1961/62 season, Anatoly Tarasov persuaded Firsov to move to CSKA from Spartak, where the 20-year-old forward had little chance to challenge the leadership of Vyacheslav Starshinov and Boris Mayorov. The CSKA team coach told the newcomer to improve his physique. In literally one year he put on a few pounds of muscle mass.
Once Firsov was repairing his Volga and got under the car, but it fell off the jack and attached his hand. The hockey player held the car with his powerful legs for several minutes until help arrived.
After moving to CSKA, Firsov had to move from the center to the wing. He began to master the wrist shot and the "stick – skate - stick" juke. However, his most memorable goal was a curiosity or, as they say nowadays, "trash". In the decisive match of the 1967 World Cup in Vienna, ours were losing to the Canadians with a 0:1 score for a long time and could do nothing with their goalie Seth Martin. In one of the moments Firsov was already on the shift when the puck bounced under his skates, the forward threw it away from the board as a lob, came to the bench and fell into the arms of his partners. Unbreakable Martin relaxed and scored an easy goal. In the third period, Starshinov scored the winning goal. The victory at the 1967 World Championship was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, the country's central newspaper "Pravda" printed a photo of the champion hockey players on the front page.
In Vienna, the young line created by Tarasov in 1965 - Vladimir Vikulov - Viktor Polupanov - Firsov - shone. The 24-year-old Anatoly became a mentor for his 19-year-old partners. This line left a bright mark in our hockey.
And by the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo Tarasov designed a five-man line with a stopper, two halfbacks and two forwards-criks. This was called a "system”. Firsov and Gennady Tsygankov were assigned the role of pointmen, the mighty Alexandr Ragulin was a stopper, attackers - "jewelers" sticks and pucks Kharlamov and Vikulov. The new line won all five micro games and scored 19 goals.
No one could have imagined that the Olympics in Japan would prove to be Firsov's swan song in the national team. He himself refused to go to Prague for the 1972 World Cup. The reasons are still unknown - either he was tired, or he did it at the request of Tarasov, whom he idolized.
After Sapporo, the team was headed by Vsevolod Bobrov, who valued bright individuals. But after Firsov had refused to include him in the 1972 Super Series with the Canadian professionals. At the same time, he invited Starshinov, who had already finished his playing career and headed Spartak.
- Firsov was just not enough to win the Super Series," said Pashkov, a participant in those historic games, but he scored not enough goals. - Maltsev didn't score a single one and I'm sure Firsov would have scored five goals for sure. After all, he continued to shine in the Union championship.
The 1973/74 season was farewell for Firsov and Tarasov. The first of them, already in the status of a playing coach, rarely hit the ice. Then, together with another legend, Veniamin Alexandrov, he joined the staff of Konstantin Loktev who led CSKA. They were at the helm of the team that achieved success in the first USSR-NHL Super Series in 1975/76.
In 1988, Firsov was elected as a people's deputy in a single-mandate constituency in Moscow, not from the CPSU or public institutions. Anatoly Vasilievich tirelessly helped ordinary people, supported pensioners, Afghan warriors, novice cooperators. In 1989, he ran for the post of Chairman of the USSR Hockey Federation. Despite his support from Igor Larionov, the alternative election was won by Leonid Kravchenko, general director of TASS and Deputy Chairman of Gosteleradio, a friend of the party and state leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Firsov went into business, running a hotel with Russian cuisine in Switzerland. But the death of his wife Nadezhda Sergeyevna knocked him down. Almost daily he came on her grave. And in the end, he survived his wife only for 100 days.
A large diamond weighing 181.59 carats was named after Firsov, the one found on August 31, 2000. And in 2014, the governing body of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation established a trophy for the best player in the WHL, the Firsov Prize, based on a poll of hockey players themselves.
Anatoly Vasilievich Firsov
(1/2/1941 – 24/7/2000)
Achievements
Olympic champion (1964, 1968, 1972).
World champion (1964-1971).
Best World Cup forward (1967, 1968, 1971).
At World Games and Olympic Games - 67 games, 66 goals.
Champion of the USSR (1963-1966, 1968, 1970-1973), in 474 games - 346 goals.
The best hockey player of the USSR (1968, 1969, 1971).
He was awarded with the Order of Labor Red Banner (1972).
"Badge of Honor" (1965, 1968.).
