Valery Nikulin Biography

International Class Master of Sports Pupil ZMK Coaches - Yu. Makarov, V. Graryumov, V. Golts from Ust -Kamenogorsk called Valeria in six the best players of the Eastern Conference. However, recently, in March, Igor Efimovich Dmitriev, the head coach of one of the semifinals of the MHL Cup - Moscow Wings and the second coach of the Russian Olympic team, half -noisy, in a telephone conversation asked: “How is my favorite, Nikulin?!

And as you know, in every joke there is a share of Valery’s truth as part of the Russian Olympic team became the winner of the Izvestia Prize, and then successfully performed in Canada.

Before and in the last quarter -final, stubborn duel of the Chelyabinsk “tractor” with Magnitogorsk Metallurg, Valery equalized the score with a beautiful throw - it was his sixth washer in the MHL Cup - it’s not bad for the defender. Nikulin made this gift to his lettop, but Valery and I spoke a little earlier, under the knock of the wheels of the train, rushing the “Tractor” to the first opponent in the “playoff” of the first Cup of the Interethnic Hockey League MHL-to Kyiv, to meet with the “Falcon-Eskulap”, the statements of the Valery Cup, you still did not know the results of the MHL Cup, you.

Father probably brought to hockey? Yes, I rode for four to five years. From the age of 6, he began to play for "training". Have you been detained in defense because of the dimensions? No, in childhood he played attackers. Scored a lot? Yes, a lot, to the championship of the city. Who retrained you in the defender? It was in the fifth-sixth class. Valera, where do you like to play more?

Where it turns out better, there you have to play. Better in defense? I think yes. Who did you start playing in defense with? With Dimka Ponomarev, now plays in the Chelyabinsk "Mechel". Later in the Chelyabinsk Metallurg, with Andrei Sidorenko he is now in Belarus, heads the Minsk Dynamo. Then I was taken to the army, in Sverdlovsk. At the Armed Force, Valery twice with the team won Silver at the championship of the country's armed forces - with Dimka Tsygurov, the elder brother Denis Tsygurov, now playing under the leadership of his father in the Togliatti Lada.

In Tractor, he constantly played with Igor Matushkin. Then the season did not really play the season - then the shoulder “flew out”, then he broke the knee ligaments and walked in a gypsum. Valera, you talked about your partners in various teams that you began with Igor Matushkin in Tractor. And how did you get from Sverdlovsk SKA to Tractor? I felt that I could play in the Premier League.

In September, there were invitations to other clubs, for example, in the Kharkov Dynamo, who performed at that time in the Major League. He remained in the Tractor - G. Tsygurov invited me through his father to a conversation. We came with our father. Tsygurov said: “We took you note - play a year in the Chelyabinsk Metallurg. I replied that I would play in the Premier League for a year, and I will look there.

What is Gennady Fedorovich? He said: "Start training." Tsygurov and Belousov worked separately with me after training - on ice, on the base. I wanted to prove to the coaches that it was not for nothing that they took me to the team, they believed in me. And you immediately got into the "basis"? Yes, in the first game on October 4, Tsygurov wanted to check me.

There were 11 in Tractor! No one knew whether it would be part of or not. I probably played successfully. Let's go to the match in Minsk. The coaches left me with goalkeepers for rolling, and everyone ran a cross. I believed that I did not get into the composition. But Gennady Fedorovich put me in the first composition with Igor Matushkin. These two successfully played games decided my future fate - they began to put me on matches, and I remained in the “basis”.

And was everything in pink tones further? No, at the end of that season the team was not lucky, we tied at the house with Dynamo Minsk - and did not get to the main final. And in the match with Kazan I was not lucky - they got a puck. There was a concussion - lay a week in the hospital. Valery, in the current team you play in the third shift. Do you think you are the main defender now?

Those who look better today are played. Someone may feel bad. There are no offenses - the strongest plays. Everyone is preparing at the level to play these games we want to adequately perform at the playoffs. How will the Tractor perform in the play-off? If there is luck, then we must reach the final. In the games with the Falcon-Esculap, the Moscow Spartak and Dynamo can be decided by one goal.

The goal was set to take first place. The current season will end. Probably, they called to the metropolitan club, and more than once? So far, only conversations. The next year I will play in Chelyabinsk. Valery, so many scouts in Chelyabinsk was in, and in Moscow, on the prize of Izvestia and in the tour of the Russian Olympic team in Canada there were a lot of them.

Didn't anyone like anyone? The scouts did not fit me. In the evening, in Kyiv, in training, a conversation came to all those who know about hockey behind the scenes of the Sports Palace - this powerful defender was talking about Nikulin gathered in Toronta! Valera, we have already remembered your speech in the Russian Olympic team. But fans are interested in, but have you been invited before to various national teams?

Mostly invited to the fees.In December, in the Olympic team of the USSR, he played in France two matches with Czechs and French and in Canada a match of seven. Here I played paired with Isakov, I was still from the Tractor Matushkin. The rest of the hockey players were from the Resurrection “Chemist” by the national team was trained by his head coach Vasiliev, who practiced the game of three pairs of defenders, in the Canadian manner and from Sverdlovsk.

In the year, before the Universiade, together with Oleg Davydov and Denis Tsygurov, he traveled as part of the student team in Finland. He played four games in the attack. But we were not taken to Games in Japan without even explaining the reason. For the Russian Olympic team, he played four matches on Izvestia and nine games in Canada with the Olympic assembly of Canada abandoned two goals and made four assault passes.

At the end of March, Nikulin, along with four comrades in Tractor, again as part of the Olympic team of Russia went to Canada - approx. We have already discussed all hockey issues, as far as possible in a limited newspaper area of ​​the interview. But the hockey fans, for sure, are more worried about the question: did Nikulin still marry? Yes, in the summer I get married. And leaves the “bachelor” of the team, the only one after this event - Andrei Sapozhnikov in “Proud Loneliness” - approx.

I wish you, Valery, along with all the fans and fans of the Chelyabinsk "tractor" successes in personal life and on ice venues! Read more:.