С того знаменитого матча в сентябре 1972 года passed fifty years. But the events of those days are fresh in the memory of hockey fans both in Canada and the post-Soviet space. But many of the participants of that magnificent show, arranged by two great teams of that time, are still alive. Some of them entered the world history and are in the hockey hall of fame, others have not received such fame, but for Soviet hockey they did a lot. One of them is Eugene Zimin.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Zimin was born in Moscow insecond postwar year, 1947, in an intelligent family. His mother was a doctor, and his father was a deputy minister. And this family brought Zhenya a real intellectual. At a young age, he became interested in unknown to many sports fans overseas sports, ice hockey. At the age of sixteen he achieved considerable successes, that he was even invited to play for the Moscow "Locomotive".
Playing in the adult team, Zimin Eugene is notlost among the adult hockey players and was seen as the head coach of the Moscow "Spartak" Vsevolod Bobrov. So Eugene, having played one season in the Moscow "Locomotive", is in the famous "Spartacus" under the guidance of Bobrov, who made him a real hockey player.
Playing at such a young age with adultsathletes, Zhenya did not lose his individuality. The intelligence that his parents brought up in him remained his distinguishing feature in any team, no matter what he later played.
Beginning in 1965, Eugene becomes a playerMoscow "Spartak". How was the eighteen-year-old frail intellectual who approached the glorified Moscow team? Not only opponents, but also teammates were skeptical at the new hockey player. But Vsevolod Bobrov saw that Zimin Eugene - a hockey player who has a great future. After all, Bobrov was not only a great hockey player, but also a great coach.
It was he who saw in the inconspicuous, intelligentthe boy is a real big player. Cooperation Zimin Eugene and Spartak Moscow lasted almost nine years, and this is the main part of the career of this hockey player. After all, the main peaks in the sport he reached on the national and international arena, being a player of this famous club. And the club also achieved its main successes with the participation of this hockey player.
But hockey is a team competitiontherefore, no matter how talented a hockey player, the role of his team-mates also plays an important role. At that moment, when Zimin Eugene, the striker of the team, moved to “Spartak”, his first link shone in him - the Mayorov brothers and the Starshinov. After the first season of Zimin, this link has broken up, Evgeny Mayorov ended his sports career. In “Spartacus,” there were many good strikers, but Vsevolod Bobrov poses nineteen-year-old Zimin with Mayorov and Starshinov. And these athletes showed themselves in a new way, Bobrov was not mistaken. So the link looked and in “Spartacus,” and in the national team. And after the end of the career of two great Spartak players, they are replaced by Yakushev and Shadrin. It is in this composition that this troika approached the famous Canadian series.
Роль Евгения Зимина в канадской суперсерии 1972 year can not be overemphasized. Currently there are not so many people who have seen this match live. And not only because more than forty years have passed since it, but also because far from all had television sets at that time. In addition, the live broadcast of the match due to the difference in time zones was not, and the game was shown only in the record. Nevertheless, the emotions that prevailed then on the ice will not be forgotten by any real hockey fan.
Our athletes didn't start the match very well, andby the seventh minute lost two goals. Psychologically, it was hard for all hockey players, especially since they never faced such pressure from the audience that occurred at the stadium in Montreal. And it was at this time that Zimin Eugene scored the first goal by Canadian professionals. For them it was a shock, from which they could not recover until the end of the match, because, probably, they lost it.
Evgeny Vladimirovich Zimin finished hockeycareer quite early. Two-time world and Olympic champion, European champion, he twice won the Spartak USSR championship, which was much more difficult for an athlete who was not a CSKA player than winning the world championship.
After finishing his hockey career he tries himselfin the coaching field and even wins the European Championship with the youth team. But after that he goes to the USA, where he works as a scout today and finds hockey talents for the “Philadelphia Flyers”.
