Chaika (MHL) head coach assistant Dmitry Fedorov in an interview with told how they reconciled Viktor Tikhonov And Igor Larionov.
Larionov played with Tikhonov from 1981 to 1989, playing for CSKA and the USSR national team. The centre-forward scored 434 (204+230) points in 457 matches in the Soviet Union championship. In the first wave of players leaving for the NHL, Larionov went to the Vancouver Canucks.
“By the way, I’m going to tell you a story that I haven’t told anyone. You remember that the player Igor Larionov published in the fall of 1988 a famous letter in Ogonyok, addressed to coach Tikhonov. It happens that even now people argue about who was right then. It is therefore time to put an end to these disputes. Because Larionov himself became a coach.
A few years ago, our “youth team” under the leadership of Igor Nikolayevich lost at the MFM. I came to Tikhonov’s widow, Tatiana Vasilievna. I took a training magazine from him and photographed CSKA drills from the mid-80s.
And now Tatyana Vasilievna says: “What scoundrels scold Igor Larionov! They’re not defending him, but he’s engaged in such a thing…”
I was stunned because she had criticized him in the book! She did not like Tikhonov as an opponent. “Tatyana Vasilievna, it’s amazing to hear such words from you…” – “Igor became a trainer. And it’s really a dog’s job. At the end of his life, Vitya no longer had nothing against Larionov. And Igor himself did not say anything bad about Viktor Vasilyevich. They reconciled. And I fully support Igor. He is not a poor man, he could do anything else. But he took on this difficult task. Yes, it didn’t work now. But then it will work. We have to support, otherwise everyone attacked Larionov like that.
They were a formidable generation who put the interests of the cause before their personal ambitions. And Tikhonov too. Why can’t it be called suffocating, as you said? Because he could forget all the insults and work for the cause.
Now Larionov and Tikhonov are in the same boat. In this profession of coach, with all its advantages and disadvantages. They may have a different perspective on how to build the training process and how to treat people. But now they do the same job.
And look, earlier Igor Nikolaevich often criticized. And now he offers a program. Let’s do it, let’s try it like this. A coach, by definition, has to be optimistic, Fedorov told .
Since 2020, Larionov has been working as a head coach – first in the Russian youth team, and now for the second year in the Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
