Vyacheslav Bykov: bringing gold back to Russia
KHL.ru continues its series about the coaches and players who became legends of the league. The latest edition looks at Vyacheslav Bykov, who ended Russia’s 15-year wait for World Championship gold and was the first man to win the Gagarin Cup with two different clubs.
The forgotten man
In 1990, Vyacheslav Bykov left to play in Switzerland and almost fell from view. In those pre-internet days, it was almost impossible for hockey fans to follow players in other countries. Information about the progress of other European leagues rarely appeared in Russian publications. From time to time, we would see a few results and the latest standings then, once a year, at the end of the season, there would be a summary of the regular season and playoffs, complete with the leading scorers and related stats. Apart from that, there was only a pre-season preview that appeared each fall. In addition, Sport Express ran occasional reports on how Bykov, Andrei Khomutov and Sergei Makarov were getting along in Switzerland.
World Champion 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993, 2008, 2009
1987 Silver medal
1985, 1991 Bronze medal
2011 Gagarin Cup winner
2004 Inducted into the Russian Hockey Hall of Fame
2014 and the IIHF’s
2015 KHL Coach of the Year
Bykov also got some coverage when he played for the national team. But that wasn’t always a regular occurrence. He went to the 1992 Olympics, and the Worlds in 1991, 1993 and 1995. In the 2000s, Bykov was largely forgotten. His playing career was over and he came to Moscow to play in Vyacheslav Fetisov’s farewell game. And, the story goes, he wowed Scotty Bowman with his skating. Of course, the famed Canadian coach was well aware of this center but at the time, catching sight of him at practice and not recognizing him right away, Bowman admitted: “I wanted to bring him to Detroit.”
The years went by. Bykov worked in Switzerland. But he never got the kind of offer his playing career deserved. At best, he served as assistant at Fribourg, where he played for eight years.
Return to Russia
In the spring of 2004, Viktor Tikhonov stepped down at CSKA. It was the end of an era, although the 73-year-old legend remained as club president. In that role, he chose his successor behind the Muscovites’ bench. Two candidates dropped out.
“Then suddenly, in Gushchin’s office, I had a flash of inspiration,” Tikhonov told Sport Express. “Please, place a call to Switzerland. And that’s how CSKA got its coach. He would have been delighted to come as an assistant, and when he discovered he was the head coach, he was stunned.”
In those years, CSKA was not reaching for the stars. In the previous season, it finished tenth among 16 teams. The season before it had the same position. Bykov had time to settle into his role. The kind of instant results demanded from Sergei Fedorov today were not expected. However, the club was financially stable and while it could not match the spending power of the biggest names, the budget was above average. During the NHL lockout, it could invite the likes of Nikolai Zherdev, Alexander Frolov, Andrei Nikolishin and Oleg Saprykin. Alongside, there was Sergei Mozyakin, Alexei Kudashov, Vladimir Tsyplakov, Jan Haida, Martin Strbak, Dmitry Yerofeyev and other strong players.
Bykov’s CSKA finished in that same 10th place. But another change in coaching was not the answer. After all, this was Bykov’s first season as a head coach – and in more difficult circumstances than usual. It was fair to say that the level of the 2004-2005 championship was the highest since the end of the Soviet era, due to an influx of NHLers, including several top-class stars.
Bykov asked for time, both to adapt and to get his team used to his hockey vision. With each passing year, CSKA got better. After missing the playoffs in his first season, he reached the quarter finals in his second campaign, then played in the semis. The team played exciting, attacking hockey. CSKA’s fans, who had long forgotten what it was like to contend for medals, had new hopes of glory. However, fulfilling those hopes was a big ask at that time. There was a tight-knit circle of clubs, the so-called “oligarchs”, contesting top spot. They were boosted by enhanced budgets and matching them was difficult. Meanwhile, after that semi-final, CSKA stagnated and twice fell in the last eight.
Four medals at five World Championships
Meanwhile, Team Russia was changing head coaches like pairs of gloves. From the 1992 Olympics to the spring of 2006, 10 different figures stood behind the bench. Among them, Tikhonov had three spells and Boris Mikhailov had four.
Stability returned in 2006. On April 25, Vladislav Tretiak became president of the Russian Hockey Federation and on Aug. 11 he appointed Bykov as head coach of the national team.
Why Bykov? At the time, he was a rising star with CSKA. His teams played fast, modern, attacking hockey and the man himself was a coach from the new wave, familiar with Russian culture but also with western mentalities. There were hopes that Bykov could establish fruitful dialog with Russian stars in the NHL, who were often reluctant to play for the national team at that time.
However, those stars still needed to be persuaded to join Bykov’s first World Championship team. Here, the national team’s bosses caught a break – the tournament was taking place in Moscow and Mytishchi. As a rule, players were unlikely to turn down the chance to play a World Championship on home ice.
Team Russia put together a strong roster, which included Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Radulov, Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov and the Morozov-Zinoviev-Zaripov line. However, the dream of winning gold was shattered by an error in overtime in the semi-final against Finland. In 2007, the team took bronze but could not end a title drought dating back to 1993.
The next World Championship was especially keenly awaited. To mark the 100th anniversary of the IIHF and the 400th anniversary of Quebec, the tournament went to Canada for the first and, so far, only time. The competing teams were expected to be stronger than ever, and that’s how it turned out.
Russia’s top players went to the tournament, with only defenseman Gonchar and forwards Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk unavailable as they continued to battle for the Stanley Cup. The final of this super tournament was memorable in every sense – the latest instalment of the on-going Russia-Canada rivalry, the way the game unfolded and the final outcome.
Both Russia and Canada reached the final with unblemished records. In the gold medal game, the home team was up 4-2 in the third period but the Russians tied it up. Then, in overtime, Rick Nash fired the puck over the boards and Kovalchuk converted the power play. That was he second of the game, and also of the tournament. Bykov had returned belief and respect to the national team and, in doing so, won World Championship gold.
1982 Debut for Team USSR
1988, 1992 Olympic Champion
1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993 World Champion
1987 Silver medal
1985, 1991 Bronze medal
08.09.1982 Debut for Team USSR
18.05.2008 Russia’s first World Championship gold in 15 years
In 2009 in Switzerland there were far fewer NHLers. For the most part, Team Russia called on KHL players who performed to a high standard and won a second successive gold.
Under Bykov, Russia was close to winning a third World Championship in a row. In 2010, no other team came close to the kind of star power that Russia assembled in a bid to atone for the 3-7 loss to Canada in the Olympic quarter-final. However, in the final, Czech goalie Tomas Vokoun played the game of his life to defy Russia’s stellar offense. Limited to just one goal, Russia lost 2-1.
No hockey career passes without its share of misfortune, and Bykov’s time at the national team was no exception. We’ve already mentioned Vancouver. But the coach’s last stand with team Russia was at the 2011 World Championship. This time, Russia lost five games out of nine and three of its wins came by a single goal. Shortly after the tournament, the Russian Hockey Federation dismissed Bykov.
Two Gagarin Cups
However, alongside that disappointment, Bykov also tasted success in 2011. After leaving CSKA in 2009, he took charge of Salavat Yulaev and in two seasons led them to the championship. Indeed, Russia’s poor show at the World Championship may be explained by the fact that there was little time for Bykov to prepare his team after the season in Ufa ended on April 16, less than two weeks before the Worlds began. In the opening game, Russia lost to Germany.
Salavat went into the 2010-2011 season with one of the strongest rosters ever assembled in the KHL. Every player was a big name, as evidenced by the fact that a goalie of the caliber of Alexander Yeryomenko was left on the bench. The top line of Radulov, Patrick Thoresen and Igor Grigorenko sparkled all year. In the conference semi-final, Metallurg might have halted Ufa’s march. However, after battling back from 1-3 in the series, Magnitka went down 0-1 in game seven. After that, Salavat lost just two more games – once to Ak Bars, then once more against Atlant in the final.
In 2011, Bykov went back to Switzerland. He said that there was an “unwritten rule” not to hire him at a Russian team. But in 2014 he was invited to lead SKA, a team which at that time had everything in place to win its first ever title. Who wouldn’t want to see a proven champion coaching that team? “I really missed working,” Bykov said after his appointment.
16.04.2011 Won the Gagarin Cup with Salavat Yulaev
1-7.04.2015 First and only victory from 0-3 in a KHL playoff series
19.04.2015 Won the Gagarin Cup with SKA
Within a year, Bykov had won the Gagarin Cup with SKA. As in Ufa four years earlier, he once again had one of the best teams ever assembled in the KHL. To this day, the combination of Evgeny Dadonov, Vadim Shipachyov and Artemy Panarin resonates. Add to that the power of Kovalchuk, the sophisticated play of imports Roman Cervenka, Toni Martensson and Thoresen. And the character to produce a legendary victory over CSKA, turning a 0-3 deficit into a 4-3 triumph.
After that season, Bykov said that due to family commitments he had to leave SKA. Since then he has not worked in Russia. But there is still hope that sooner or later he will come back for more.
Dossier
Vyacheslav Arkadevich Bykov
Born July 24, 1960, in Chelyabinsk
Playing career: Metallurg Chelyabinsk (1979-80), Traktor (1980-82), CSKA (1982-90), Fribourg (SUI, 1990-98), Lausanne (SUI, 1998-2000).
Honors: Olympic champion (1988, 1992), World Championship gold (1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993(, silver (1987) and bronze (1985, 1991).
Coaching career: CSKA (2004-2009), Team Russia (2006-2011), Salavat Yulaev (2009-2011), SKA (2014/15)
Honors: World Championship gold (2008, 2009), silver (2010) and bronze (2007), Gagarin Cup winner (2011, 2015).
