People act as though the sample size of these single game elimination tournaments are small. I'd tend to agree that single game eliminations aren't the best way to determine who is best, but everyone is measured by the same standard.
In addition to this, correct me if I'm wrong, but Russia hasn't won a TRUE best on best tournament since 1981, right? 1984, 1987,1991 (they should get a pass here),1996, 2004 Canada/World cup were all losses. 1998,2002,2006,2010,2014. That's TEN tournaments and for one reason or another, they haven't been able to win. Russian fans can give all the excuses in the books, but 5 were sanctioned by the NHL, 5 by IIHF. Referee bias cannot be used for all of them. In addition to this, 3 have been on big ice and one on their own home soil.
World championships are good, but let's be honest here: the rosters just aren't up to par. I guarantee Russian players would give up 3 world championship gold for one Olympic gold in a heartbeat. But success is success and it's certainly worth something.
To the heart of the issue, their defense has had major problems the last few years. Top 6 forwards has always been scary, but they are getting a bit long in the tooth and I'm not seeing too many generational players in the pipeline. Goaltending is actually keeping up fairly well and it could be argued that it has more depth than Canada.
Failure for coaches to adapt is another problem. I'm not seeing too much sandpaper in their game (blocked shots, hits etc) and teams need that in a best on best.
Maybe it's time to bring a non-Russian coach to he team? I think that may actually do wonders. It's worth a try for sure.
At the end of the day, as a Canadian fan I was pretty scared of them during the 2010 Olympics. 2014, not so much but with that type of firepower, their PP can kill you. The last decade though the Swiss/Finland teams, as a team, scare me more than the Russians.