If ours were Finns ...

For absolute success, young Russians did not have enough experience that their main rivals had

At the youth world hockey championship of the Russian national team and talent, there were enough victorious matches. Except for one lost. And the team was the strongest, which no expert at point blank saw.

If not for the New Year holidays, it is unlikely that hockey lovers could spend several night hours from the television screen almost every day. From this point of view, Russian fans had a great advantage over Europeans who have no long New Year holidays in principle. And for us, the night hockey hours of disappointment almost did not bring, excluding the penultimate night when the semi -finals passed.

The youth world championship is gradually becoming a tournament for Russians, which is freely competing with an adult world championship. And according to the North Americans, the youth has long been ahead of him in almost all the parameters. Of course, you can argue with this, but the quality of the drive in almost every meeting is really much higher among the young. And there has long been no Iron Favorite for a long time - despite the fact that the circle of teams applying for medals, as in adult hockey, is absolutely the same.

Just the Finnish team as the future champion was not considered by anyone now. As many believed, the Finns developed all their star resource in 2014 and especially in 2016, when several future stars of world hockey represented their gold team. Now the forwards of the level of Patrick Line, Essay Puliarvi or Sebastian Aho among the wards of 38-year-old Yussi Achokas were not even mentioned. Two defeats at the group stage only confirmed forecasts. But, as the goalkeeper of the Finnish national team of the YKKA-Pecca Luukkonen will say, “our consciousness has changed” after the victorious quarterfinals with Canada

Maybe it was the most dramatic match of the entire championship, when the undoubted and one hundred percent favorite missed a reciprocal puck a few seconds before the siren.

Already in overtime, the hosts received the right to the penalty throw, did not realize it, and were punished by another break -in counterattack of the Finns. The team stood on the wing when they no longer expected feats from it. Canada at the home tournament was first left without medals.

Of course, for the Finns it was worth cheering in the final, where Favorite number two came out against them, for which there was almost the entire hall. The US national team on the eve overcame the main barrier in the person of the Russian national team and was preparing to break the “random” finalist about the same as at the group stage. But on the other side of the site there were already other Finns - a powerful and united team, which the devil itself is not a brother.

Two teams met, the principles of preparation and formation of which have been different for many years, but equally effective. The Americans lead each age neatly and systematically, at some stage including the national team to the Junior League. The Finns do not resort to such experiments, but their stars from a young age throw adult hockey into the males.

The experience said his word - the Finns led for a long time in the account. She said her word and playing - the US team, albeit not without difficulty, eliminated in the third period a gap of two washers. But the point was still behind the Finnish national team. It is symbolic that he set her a minute to the siren, 17-year-old striker Kaapo, who warmed the puck on a patch and sent her into a short golden flight. These guys could be happy, and not to worry - they may not be top hockey players, but will not only be in demand by the Finnish league.

The Russians, who won the match for the third place from the sensational Swiss on the eve, could only bite the elbows and represent themselves in the place of Finnish peers. Valery Bragin at hand was perhaps the most even since the last victory (“Miracle in Buffalo-2011” has not yet been forgotten) team. She was not going so systematically as American. She did not have the experience that Finns provide her boys. That is, she initially did not have basic trump cards. But the fighting spirit and talent were enough for six victorious matches. Except for one lost.

... Valery Bragin, after an enchanting victory in Buffalo-2011 in the final over Canadians and silver of the next championship, made an attempt to return to the career of the club coach, but it was unsuccessful. Bragin returned to work with the "youth", and by the beginning of the tournament in Vancouver there was one gold, three silver and one bronze on his account. Over the past ten years, the Russians have been outside the medal zone only once, and it was under Bragin last year. The failure did not shake his authority at all, but now the public was waiting for not just confirmation of a stable high level, but no more than a repetition of a miracle in Buffalo.

Was this team capable of what the Finns made “for it”, that is, on the courage and inspiration to pull out the main match? Rather, no than yes. The fact that she can squeeze, to endure, play effectively, and somewhere spectacular, proved six matches, the crown of which was the key and last game of the group stage with Canada. She gave rise to high hopes for Russians and became a foresight of a huge disappointment for the owners. The winner reached the objectively weakest of the Play-OFF participants of the Slovakia, and the loser was supposed to meet the Finns.

The fact that Valery Bragin, when forming the national team to the creative player, will always prefer reliable and more commanding is clear for a long time. And now the strategy worked in the game with Canadians, which, especially in the end, demanded self -adulthood and patience, which the team had in abundance. But already in the semifinals, when the systemic and sharp Americans blocked oxygen to the leading link of the Russian national team, there was no one to catch the impulse.

It was then that many recalled that already on the eve of the championship Bragin refused the services of the two brightest forwarding, lighting in the Kvebek Junior League-Ivan Chekhovich and Alexander Khovanov.

The Americans, who barely fought off the crazy attacks of the Russians at the end of the second and beginning of the third period, did not have to apply some overly in the end to protect their gates. Because the leading link Klim Kostin - Vitaly Kravtsov - Grigory Denisenko came so that she barely moved his legs - and at the same time the coach almost did not remove him from the ice.

Yes, they did not count the puck, which flew into the goal of Kayden Primo from the skate of Nikita Shashkov-but there are no complaints about the Canadian Sudysk Brigade, they were guided by the adjusted rules of the International Hockey Federation. Yes, the Russians were monstrously unlucky when Ivan Muranov was not enough for some centimeters to touch the goalkeeper jumping behind the goalkeeper. Yes, only the “tractor driver” Vitaly Kravtsov had at least three asshums. Yes, the Russian national team was worthy of the best fate, but isn't Canadians or the same Swedes about themselves?

No, in order to win now at the level of the youth world championship, to be played and trained, it is not enough to have almost prevailing stars - at the right moment it is necessary to include additional emotions and strength precisely when, it seems, they are not left at all. In my opinion, all the teams of Valery Bragin - except for the one in which Evgeny Kuznetsov and Artemy Panarin were lit, - just the bit of inspiration and creativity every time was not enough. Having had a time, after having, after having been bydrawn, you can get to the medal zone and even to the final - but you can’t take the title in this way.

True, our comforting finals for bronze have never lost. Which was confirmed by the current very pretty team with a victory over the Swiss with a beautiful hat-trick, the author of which was Kirill Sleepets-the fastest forward of the championship. The best goalkeeper of the tournament, according to the official version of the directorate, was Sochi Pyotr Kochetkov, and Alexander Romanov from CSKA, who only one point lost to the best scorer of the tournament Grigory Denisenko, was the best defender. Denisenko and Romanov also entered the symbolic team according to journalists. So the team from Vancouver with bronze and a bunch of individual trophies returned. Which their owners would probably exchange for command gold.

Valery Bragin, in an interview with praise, did not skimp in an interview with praise, reducing the analysis of fresh traces to the fact that one washer and luck was not enough, and “a very team was a team”.

Valery Nikolaevich did not recall a pair of spoons, but the hockey community recorded them.

This also applies to a forking stabbing with a club performed by Ivan Muranov in a match with the Swiss in the group, and the behavior of the captain of the Klim Kostin national team after the lost semifinals. Emotions are understandable, but the way the leading striker expressed his annoyance does not climb into any gate - the audience, which the Russians, of course, did not sympathize, he naturally declined in understandable English. And such things in North America, where the misconduct of each hockey player, regardless of age and regalia, under a microscope, do not say goodbye.

It was a good tournament. And instructive in all respects. Those of the Russian hockey players who will have the opportunity to play at the next world championship in the Czech Republic can subdacle experience. Unless, of course, the clubs let them turn around, and will not keep in the remote reserve.

An example of the Finns is before my eyes. It would be someone to extract a lesson.