Sport: Ice Hockey Inducted: 2001 Country: Soviet Union Born: 1918
in Kolomna, Russia Died: September, 2005
Nikolay
Epshtein is a near-legendary sports figure in Russia and
the former
Soviet Union. An innovative hockey
coach for 22 years, 1953 to 1975, in the
Soviet National League, he was head
coach of “Chimik” in Voskresensk, Russia,
during an era when the League was
comparable to the professional National
Hockey League.
Epshtein developed many of the
great Soviet hockey players. Among
them were A. Ragulin, E. Ivan, V. Nicotine,
U. Morozov, and V. and A.
Golikov. Igor Larinov, star center on
the Soviet’s famed KLM line with
Vladimir Krutov and Sergei Makarov,
wrote in his autobiography: “Nikolai
Semenovich Epshtein did not copy his
technique from anyone. . . . I consider
him a specialist on the scale of the legendary
Anatoli Tarasov, or Chernyshev.”
Epshtein was head coach of the
Soviet National Team and the Soviet Junior National Team that
won a European
Championship. Epshteen was one of the inaugural inductees
to the Russian Ice Hockey Hall of Fame that opened in Moscow
in March 2004––the 50th anniversary of the first
participation of the USSR in the World Championships.
