Translated material
Throw from the shadows
Sidney Crosby puts an end to the Olympic Games program
Canadian forward Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin's teammate in Pittsburgh, scored the most important goal of his career, bringing the team victory in overtime (3:2). Having spent the entire tournament in the shadows, he repeated the feat of Ilya Kovalchuk, who returned the world champion title to Russia in Quebec. Crosby excelled when needed.It is no coincidence that Sidney was not included in the symbolic team of the Olympic Games and did not receive the title of “most valuable player” of the match. The top five are generally determined before the start of the decisive match, and the most valuable hockey player is named in the last five minutes of regular time. Neither in the previous six meetings, nor in the first 55 minutes of the final game, Sidney was simply not visible on the court, although, of course, he was not out of the lineup. But at the decisive moment, he gave Canada another Olympic medal. “The winning goal? I hardly remember what happened. I just threw the puck and then guys started jumping on me. I'm happy. I, like all the players on our team, grew up and was proud of Canada, dreaming of one day becoming part of the national team. I think we all wanted to score that winning goal. Anyone else could have scored that goal, but I’m happy that this opportunity was given to me,” Crosby said immediately after the match.
The real heroes of the meeting were the goalkeepers. It is quite natural that American Ryan Miller became not only the best goalkeeper of the tournament, but also the best in the final match. Just think, he stopped 36 shots in the decisive match - considering the level of the opponents, that's 36 feats. His colleague Roberto Luongo was also in perfect order, faltering perhaps only once, 29 seconds before the end of regulation time, when the score was level. And even then only because there was a series of rebounds.
Here we must remember the words of the goalkeeper coach of the Russian national team, Vladislav Tretyak, who, before the start of the qualifying round, said that Luongo was weaker than his colleague Martin Brodeur. And if the Canadians want to win, then they need to bet on the latter. Thus, it becomes clear who exactly mistakenly chose Evgeni Nabokov over Ilya Bryzgalov for the quarterfinals. However, we note that on this day the team would not have been helped by both goalkeepers who stood in goal at the same time.
Everyone recognized that the two strongest teams played in the final. There is only one European in the symbolic Olympic team. But it was impossible not to name Slovakian Pavel Demitra, who became the top scorer of the tournament, among the laureates. All other hockey players are from North America: Canadians Shea Weber, Jonathan Toews and Americans Brian Rafalski and Zach Parise.
In general, the main intrigue now is whether the NHL will pause for the tournament in Sochi. For now, in America they are inclined to miss the next Olympics. In this regard, the victory of the Canadians and the passage of the Americans to the finals is very opportune for the IOC. The press and fans overseas will not understand if the strongest hockey players on the planet miss the next Games. Despite the fact that all hockey fans consider the NHL to be the best tournament in the world, and only specialists are interested in the world championships, the Olympics are beyond competition. It is no coincidence that tickets for not the best seats were sold for $5 thousand and were sold out.
So far, however, nothing has been decided, IIHF President Rene Fasel also speaks about this. There is no agreement, the Americans talk about business, but at the same time they understand that a serious scandal could arise in 2014. The fact is that most Europeans will still go to national teams, no matter what the cost. And the NHL will be in a stupid position. Of course, hockey players can be punished, but what will the league itself look like in this case?
It will be very interesting how the results of the performance at the Olympic Games in Moscow will be assessed. Vladislav Tretyak managed to be re-elected to the post of president of the FHR, but they will still question him not on Luzhnetskaya Embankment, but in other offices. In the meantime, the general manager of the national team says only banal words: “bad luck,” “not our day,” “something didn’t work out.” But these excuses may not be enough.
On the other hand, Tretyak is saved by the fact that the national team has won the World Cup twice and will try to do everything to win in Germany. Usually during the Olympic season, the strongest teams have a cold attitude towards this tournament, and in America and Canada they will definitely not try to win in May. The Russian team, on the contrary, will bring the strongest lineup, however, much will depend on how the Russian stars play overseas.
It is already known for sure that Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin will not be dismissed after the failure in Vancouver. Moreover, there is information that a contract will be discussed with them for the next four years. All that remains is to decide how exactly they will prepare for the Olympics in Sochi. There is an option in which for the next three years this duo will combine work in the national team with the club, and in 2013 they will focus exclusively on preparing for the Winter Games.