Three weaknesses of the strong

Russian national team on the eve of the second stage

The Russian national team passed the first stage of the World Hockey Championship in Switzerland without losses. A rather successful draw led to the fact that our team had only one opponent on its way, who could hardly be called serious. But even two and a half “friendly matches” highlighted the team’s problems.

The first problem is recruitment. Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin had such a choice of players that most of the World Cup participants, perhaps except the Canadian team, were jealous. There were no loud refusals; literally all the players were ready to play for the national team. But the huge choice confused the coaches.

So, once again, the candidacies of Alexey Yashin and Alexey Kovalev were not even considered. Meanwhile, both had very good seasons. Everyone admits that without Yashin, Lokomotiv would not have made it to the final of the KHL championship. He doesn’t get into the foreground, he’s always happy if he makes an assist and doesn’t pull the blanket over himself at all. But the trouble is that Bykov sees Yashin exclusively as a center forward, and Alexey has certainly been playing as a winger for the last two years. The situation with Kovalev is more complicated. It seems that the coach had a conflict with the player, but both sides do not confirm this, but no one explains why one of the most stable NHL hockey players is not invited to the national team under any circumstances.

When choosing forwards from Russia, Bykov and Zakharkin counted too much on the fact that Washington, with Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, would be eliminated from the first round of the playoffs. As a result, Alexey Mikhnov and Maxim Sushinsky, who spent the entire Eurotour playing leading roles in the national team, were “unhooked” from the team. Less touchy forwards Pyotr Schastlivy and Sergei Mozyakin went to Bern, who will calmly survive if they have to spend some time at the championship, but without a guaranteed inclusion in the application.

It turns out that right now there is no one to strengthen ourselves. Nikolai Zherdev, of course, will come. But suddenly a problem with the defenders emerged. Fyodor Tyutin from Columbus was not treated quite correctly. He was told that they were not counting on him yet, but in case of someone's injury they would call. If they had said this to goalkeeper Ilya Bryzgalov, or indeed to any of the experienced players playing in the NHL, then they would have done exactly what Tyutin did. He went on vacation, and when they finally called him, he referred to injury.

It turns out that now coaches will have to both solve the problem with the attackers and deal with the defense. Apparently, Konstantin Korneev, who trains in Bern, will be announced. To be honest, it’s not at all clear why he didn’t play from the first match.

The second problem of our team is team play. Either Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin were too confident that the players would begin to carry out coaching tasks 100%, or the hockey players did not understand what was required of them, but no one can now call the actions of the Russian team balanced.

In attack, of course, there are fewer problems. There is Ilya Kovalchuk, who plays with a great mood and scores regularly. There is Alexey Morozov, who knows how to squeeze the maximum out of one moment. There is an aggressive pairing between Alexander Radulov and Oleg Saprykin. But when changes happen, the style seems to change too. Most wingers frankly don't know what to do when the puck moves into the Russian team's zone. In this regard, it is indicative how the Swiss team players scored. The attack was effective in the second wave; our hockey players did not protect the opponent’s free hockey players. There are many questions about the combination of links. Was it worth it, for example, to put Alexei Tereshchenko with Alexei Morozov and Danis Zaripov when there is Sergei Zinoviev?

The third problem is goalkeeping. Alexander Eremenko, by giving an unrestrained interview to the Russian press, in which he complained about the injustice in recruiting the team, set himself up. Now the coaching staff, which does not forgive such frankness, will make its choice in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov. The Phoenix goalkeeper, of course, has a reserve of skill; he stopped 37 shots in the meeting with the Swiss team, but no one knows how long his courage will last and what will happen to him when he has to meet with the teams of Latvia, and especially Sweden and the USA. And Eremenko will not be able to replace him, as he played the match against the French team with uncertainty. Evgeniy Nabokov from San Jose will not be on this team. And it’s a long way to fly, and the season was too difficult, we need to rest.

So we can only hope that by tomorrow, when the second stage games begin, Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin will find solutions. In principle, there is still more than a week until the playoffs, where we have already reached.

Oleg EREMIN