Outstanding players in our country a lot, thanks to the cold climate, genetics, and skill trainers children. But there are a small number of players who, in addition to the phenomenal success on ice, managed to become a very popular figure in the field of unsporting. Now you can not read the word "hockey", next to did not sound and the "Alexander Ovechkin." But everyone in hockey is more or less interested, know that first promoted the figure of this magnitude was in Russian hockey Pavel Bure, the famous "Russian Rocket".

Pavel Bure: just a good hockey player

Pavel Bure was born March 31 1971 in Moscow, the son of Vladimir Bure, the famous Soviet swimmer, multiple Olympic medalist and multiple champion of the USSR, and in combination, and even a descendant of the famous dynasty of watchmakers of German origin, the owners of the company "Pavel Bure" .  Sport heredity showed at future star from an early age: Paul had the makings of an excellent swimming and athletics .  However, once he set foot on the ice hockey rink, it became clear - it is the future hockey player .  My father had six sons in the children's sports school of CSKA Moscow, the biggest and best in the Soviet Union, and has not lost .  Possessing fantastic speed and skating technique and excellent cast, sharp in training, Pavel Bure has quickly become one of the best in each of the age groups of young hockey players .  His game progress was so rapid that in March 1988, when he was not yet 17 years old, he made his debut in the adult team masters CSKA, which in those years was almost equivalent to debut in the national team - in CSKA were gathered the best players and Trainers .  And Bure became immediately cast goals and earn points, all experts recognize it one of the most promising players .  Together with Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny also in the future superstars of world hockey, Bure became the leader of the then CSKA and the Soviet national team in 1989, he won gold at the World Youth Championship, and in 1990 with the team won the world championship and adults .

In 1991, something happened that in those years was almost inevitable for any young and talented national hockey - Paul went to the NHL, to the Canadian Club, "Vancouver Canucks", people see and be seen .  Paul himself later repeatedly reiterated that the great merit in the fact that he played in the NHL, belongs to his more experienced former partner at CSKA, then played for the "Vancouver", the great hockey player Igor Larionov .  Larionov helped the young man twenty years, for the first time turned out to be a long time in another country, who did not know English, to master both in domestic and in the game plan .  The first 10-15 games that Bure spent in the NHL, he remembers how bad - strongly affects the excitement .  But then Bure broke out, so much so that in 65 games scored 34 goals, scored 60 points and deservedly earned the prize of "the best rookie season" .  And from next season, Paul, whose Canadian journalists and fans of enchanting speed nicknamed the "Russian Rocket", was one of the main stars of the league, scoring two of the season on 60 goals and moving the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993-1994 season .

Pavel Bure: the hero of his time

One can only imagine how much statistical record performance could put Bure as individual and team prizes he could earn, if not for injury .  In 1995, he got a serious knee injury that knocked him out for the entire season and became the first in a series of injuries .  Recover, while Paul was only a pale shadow of his former self, he does not have such an imposing terror on defense and not scoring so many goals .  Many experts and fans have already put an end to the "Russian Rocket" .  But the season of 1997-1998 was a watershed .  And it's not so much that Paul then scored 51 goals in a season (the mark of 50 goals is considered to be in the NHL star) .  Bure became a legend thanks to the Olympic Games in Nagano, which was the first, which involved players from NHL .  The Russian team, led by Bure elected captain in brilliant style reached the finals of the tournament, Paul himself was the best scorer (9 goals), scoring 5 goals in one game, in the semifinals virtually alone beating the Finns (score of the match 7: 4) .  And let the final we lost to the Czechs, it was after the Olympics Bure of poorly understood from a distant NHL hockey has become a real hero of the nation .

In 1999, after a sort of strike (Bure wanted to change the team, as the "Vancouver" at the time was an outsider) Paul was traded to the American club, "Florida Panthers", which immediately became the undisputed leader, the author of numerous club records and the main scorer in the NHL . In 2000 and 2001 he became the top scorer of the league, throwing for 58 and 59 goals a season. Later, however, again we started having problems with his knees, require surgery, after which Bure, Florida successor to the "New York Rangers", and could not recover. In 2003, he finished his career as well as reaching two major hockey goals not win the Stanley Cup (in 1994, he stopped a step away from him) and became the Olympic champion (and his second Olympics in the 2002's, Russians were only bronze medals).

It is believed that a distinguished career to turn into a great career Bure prevented not only injuries, but his glamorous image of a hockey player, a kind of Russian hockey Beckham. In fact, after the Olympic Games in 1998, Paul has become extremely popular media person, who increasingly began to see in the "grand" get-togethers, and whose name was more likely to appear in connection with any secular news than on sporting occasions. Thus, for example, it has received a great response in the early 2000s and until the end of anecdotal information about Bure relationship with Anna Kournikova. However, after the sporting career gradually came to naught, and the popularity of secular Pavel Bure, the most noticeable news of which has recently become the information in October 2009 about the long-awaited marriage of former hockey player.

Alexander Babitsky