Remembering Anatoly Tarasov

Today marks 21 years since the death of legendary Soviet ice hockey coach Anatoly Tarasov.

During his career, Anatoly made a huge impression on the country's growing ice hockey culture, and he was a massive part of why the USSR raised to the top of the game. Between 1947 and 1975, he worked as a senior coach for HC CSKA Moscow, and during that time, his club won the national championship an incredible eighteen times. He also fulfiled that role for the Soviet Union's national team in 1958, 1959 and 1960, and worked a further ten years in Arkady Chernyshev's coaching line-up.

Having inspired so many young players across the country, Anatoly has had ice hockey books published, and academies have been named after him. The IIHF included him in their Hall of Fame, and several Soviet players such as Vladislav Tretyak, Boris Mikhaylov, Valery Kharlamov, Vladimir Petrov and Boris Alexandrov have gone on to become world and Olympic champions.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation