Translated material
Mandatory program
During the Olympic season, the World Championships lost their appeal
The World Hockey Championship starts today in the Latvian capital. The Russian national team, led by Dynamo Moscow head coach Vladimir Krikunov, will enter the battle tomorrow. Our team will meet with Kazakhstan in the opening round of Group “C” of the preliminary stage. Of course, the significance of the upcoming tournament in the year of the White Olympics is noticeably reduced, and even those NHL players whose clubs did not make it to the playoffs or had already completed the fight in the first round were not particularly in a hurry to help their teams. Our national squad may even be left with the only NHL representative in the lineup - Washington forward Alexander Ovechkin.At the first stage of the World Championship, 16 teams are divided into four quartets. Group A includes the current champion Czech Republic, the hosts of the competition, the silver medalists of the Winter Olympics, the Finns and Slovenes. In the four “B”, the winners of Turin 2006, the Swedes, the Swiss, the Ukrainians and Italy, which last year won a ticket to the high society in the first division competitions, will sort things out among themselves. In addition to Kazakhstan, the Russians were accompanied by Belarus and Slovakia, and finally, two North American teams - Canada and the USA, as well as Denmark and Norway, which returned to the elite, were drawn into group "D". At the second stage, the three best teams from quartets “A” and “D”, “B” and “C” form two sixes, and the results of matches with each other at the first stage are taken into account. Next, the four strongest participants from each sextet will begin the battle in the playoffs directly for the championship awards.
Before flying to Riga, Krikunov announced the team's composition of three goalkeepers, two dozen field players and three official substitutes. The list, however, is not final. No more than 22 people can be nominated for each game, but after the first stage, teams have the right to make three additional applications, inviting those players who will be released from the NHL during the championship. Our team is unlikely to have to use this clause of the regulations. Krikunov had hope for Bryzgalov, but our goalkeeper’s Anaheim beat Calgary in the seventh game of the first round of the playoffs.
After the Olympics, a number of our experienced NHL players, plus Ilya Kovalchuk, subjected Krikunov to strong criticism through the press, and the mentor in response made it clear that he did not particularly need the services of these hockey players. Usually, regardless of any personal circumstances, Alexey Yashin strove to join the national team, but this time he also tactfully refused to participate in the tournament. It seems that this is not just a matter of disagreements between the coach and the players. For the second major competition of the season among national teams, most hockey players had neither moral nor physical strength left, and the prestige of the championship in the year of the Olympics fell so sharply that few people overseas take the world forum seriously. The only thing the head coach is really upset about is Pavel Datsyuk's forced refusal from Detroit - he finished the season on painkillers and even almost poisoned himself with them.
Krikunov has already outlined the playing combinations in which the hockey players will take to the ice, although here, of course, changes may occur as the tournament progresses. In the meantime, it has been decided that the first line of the attack will be Sushinsky, Emeleev and Kharitonov, and the second three will be youth - Kulemin, Malkin, Ovechkin. According to the head coach, he was never able to find the best player in the Super League, Alexei Morozov from Ak Bars. And he doesn’t want to take his teammate Sergei Zinoviev, who did not participate in the training process, into the team, although the hockey player himself, under the threat of possible disqualification from our federation, would like to dot the i’s in relations with Krikunov.
The Czechs have the most impressive list of NHL players. Those 11 players include six forwards and five defensemen. Jaromir Jagr would not mind helping his team, but, as you know, he suffered a serious shoulder injury. The Slovaks have five players from North America. The most striking figure among them is striker Marianne Hossa, a teammate of our Ilya Kovalchuk at Atlanta. Finn was attracted by five Varangians from the NHL. Tre Kronur is made up entirely of domestic players, with the exception of Swiss league striker Christian Berglund. The absence of NHL players is quite understandable - the Swedes already won the Olympics in February, became national heroes, and at the World Championships they simply cannot have sports incentives.
Russian national team composition
Goalkeepers: Barulin (Spartak) or Sokolov (SKA), Zvyagin (Dynamo), Fomichev (CSKA).
Defenders: Atyushov (Metallurg Mg), Kulyash, Bykov (both Dynamo), Zhukov (Lokomotiv), Koltsov (Avangard), Kruchinin (Lada), I. Nikulin (Ak Bars "), Khomitsky "CSKA").
Forwards: Semin, Arkhipov (both Khimik), Grigorenko (Severstal), Emeleev (SKA), Zaripov (Ak Bars), Kulemin, Malkin (both Metallurg Mg), Mikhnov (" Lokomotiv"), A. Nikulin (CSKA), Ovechkin (Washington), Sushinsky, Alexander Kharitonov (both Dynamo).
Substitutes: Misharin, Mozyakin (both CSKA), Gorovikov.