Valery Kharlamov Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Valery Kharlamov, born January 14, 1948 – died August 27, 1981, was a star ice hockey player from the Soviet Union.Born in Moscow, Russia, Valery Kharlamov, despite being relatively small in size is regarded by many as one of the greats of the game. He combined, speed and rapid acceleration and a superb stick handling ability together with creative and unpredictable moves that kept the opposition perpetually off balance.
Kharlamov began playing organized hockey as a boy and at age twenty, was named to the Soviet Union's national team to compete on the world stage. In 1971, playing in the Soviet Union Elite League for CSKA Moscow, his goal scoring earned him his first "Best Sniper Award" and he was voted to the national All Star team. The following year, Kharlamov gained a degree of international recognition when he helped lead his national team to the Gold Medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics. He capped off a remarkable season by winning the scoring championship and being voted the first of his two consecutive Soviet Union MVP Award.
However, it was during the 1972 Summit Series that Valery Kharlamov, along with team-mate, goalie Vladislav Tretiak, became the talk of the hockey world. At Montreal, Canada, in game one of the eight game international series against the best professionals from Canada, a virtually unknown Valery Kharlamov astonished Canadian fans and their star hockey team with his explosive speed, agility, and goal scoring prowess. Kharlamov was voted the game's MVP after he scored two goals while leading his team to an upset victory that shook the foundations of the world of professional ice hockey to the core. Such was the effect of Kharlamov that in game six of the fiercely fought series, Canada's Bobby Clarke, a notoriously dirty player with the Philadelphia Flyers, chased Kharlamov down and slashed him on his ankle that put him out of the game. Kharlamov, who was already wearing a nose-guard as a result of a high stick that broke his nose, was unable to play in game seven and was largely ineffective in the final game. Most knowledgeable observers believe this unwarranted assault by Clarke was a crucial incident that turned the tide of the series in Canada's favour. Years later, John Ferguson, Sr, an assistant coach with Team Canada, was quoted as saying "I called Clarke over to the bench, looked over at Kharlamov and said, 'I think he needs a tap on the ankle.' I didn't think twice about it. It was Us versus Them. And Kharlamov was killing us. I mean, somebody had to do it."
By the end of the series, National Hockey League scouts were drooling at the thought of signing Kharlamov, but in this Cold War era, no Soviet Union player was allowed to leave the country. Such was the respect for Kharlamov's skills that at the time, when asked, many Canadian children named him as one of their favorite players and in the Soviet Union he was a national hero and an inspiration for youngsters playing the game.
In 1973, playing with the Red Army team of the Soviet Union's premier league, Kharlamov remained a star and was a key part of the Soviet national team that won the World Championship for the next three years. At the 1976 Winter Olympics, he scored the game winning goal in the final game to earn his second Olympic Gold Medal. Later that spring, he was seriously injured in a car accident and for a time his hockey career seemed in doubt. While he recovered sufficiently to play top level hockey again, he was not so fortunate in another automobile accident in 1981 that took his life at the age of thirty-three.
Valery Kharlamov is interred in the Kuntsevskoe Cemetery in Moscow.
In 1998, Valery Kharlamov was posthumously inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame.
- Career Highlights - Team:
- 11-time winner of the USSR championship
- 8-time winner of the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships
- 2-time winner of the Olympics Games Gold Medal
- National Awards:
- MVP USSR League 1972, 1973
- USSR All Stars 1971-1976, 1978
- Scoring Champion (Goals) 1971
- Scoring Champion (Points) 1972
- International Awards:
- Voted "Best Forward" at the 1976 World Championships
- IIHF All Star : 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976
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