GDT: May 9 • Russia 1, France 2

[Paxton Fettel]

Great accomplishment for French hockey, but let's be serious, the Russians didn't come to play today

 

[Harikkerk]

WTF? hahah

 

[NMF78]

Embarrasing for the Russian NT.

 

[Mehar]

Congrats to Team France. Incredible victory. Just a quick feedback- Did Russia just take this game so lightly that they did not even show up, and thought that this would be a cakewalk?

 

[Tripod]

all I can say as a Flyers fan is: Thank God Bryz was not in net. We would never hear the end of it!!

 

[rschile]

Congrats to Team France. Incredible victory. Just a quick feedback- Did Russia just take this game so lightly that they did not even show up, and thought that this would be a cakewalk?

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't like each other and then stop trying for each other basically, I think ive seen that in russian play before they just get mad at each other when things don't go their way..Rousell had played well in the chel good to see him contributing for France

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Wow, what the **** happened?

Good for France, and in a way, Russia too. They will be constantly reminded of this and will come out harder next game and the rest of the tournament.

 

[The Noot]

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Well I'm looking forward to the next set of power rankings

 

[Pominville Knows]

Will be intreresting which team will get relegated after this and Latvia winning today.

 

[RoyalRed]

France beat Russia? Way to go Russia...

 

[jekoh]

Ah haven't access to this one, any way to have replays on their website as on canal+ ?

You can download it at http://nhltorrents.co.uk

 

[GKJ]

Congrats to France! Great to see a lower-tier country take down one of the big boys.

 

[Like Wall]

What a day!

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

Big win for France, Russia probably didn't show up.

 

[VladNYC*]

Congrads to France for their great achievement. Something tells me Finland is going to take a beating tomorrow.

 

[MrGeno101]

Congrats to France!! The Russian players should all be ashamed by the performance today

 

[RedAce]

You guys think there is any chance Bill will pull his head out of his butt and put in Kuzya??

This kinda of stuff did not happen on Tikhonov.

 

[masa2009]

Locker room celebration, pretty cool.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xzq73m_edf-la-marseillaise-de-l-exploit-face-a-la-russie_sport

 

[Kap-the-Head]

It's funny to see some people crawl out and gloat... The thing is those games have happened before. Look at 1976 WC when Poland beat USSR 6-4. And you could argue that that game was a lot more important as every gained point was important in order to win the Championship. So yeah, embarrassing for team Russia, but definitely irrelevant at this point. What is more interesting, is how this team will respond next game.

 

[Brewster]

Awesome for France. And they didn't even play Huet!

 

[Yakushev72]

Congrats to Team France. Incredible victory. Just a quick feedback- Did Russia just take this game so lightly that they did not even show up, and thought that this would be a cakewalk?

Here's the way I saw it: Russia just skated around in the first period, waiting for pucks to start raining into the French net, but only toyed around on the perimeter, and nothing went in. In the second, Russia scored pretty early, and seemed to assume that now the deluge was going to start. France had no pressure at all on the Russian net, but then midway through the second a turnover turned into a 2 on 1, and Roussel blasted a shot from the top of the circle at a bad angle, but the third string goalie, Koshechkin, left a hole between his legs big enough to drive a truck through, and the puck went in, tying the game at 1-1.

Later in the second, with just a routine scrum behind the goal line, the Defenseman Nikulin lost track of the puck and started to skate to pick up a guy in front of the net. What he didn't know was that the puck carrier was directly behind him, and he literally followed him to a space in the crease point blank in front of the goalie, and had no trouble stuffing the puck behind him. With a 2-1 lead, with the psychological advantage solidly in their favor, France just concentrated on keeping the puck out of their net. The Russians had a whole bunch of high quality chances, but the puck somehow stayed out.

I would say it was a case of the far better team being unwilling to attack the net, probably because everyone just assumed that someone else would surely start making plays, and, as the game went on, the psychological advantage shifted dramatically to the underdog.

 

[Belizarius]

Here's the way I saw it: Russia just skated around in the first period, waiting for pucks to start raining into the French net, but only toyed around on the perimeter, and nothing went in. In the second, Russia scored pretty early, and seemed to assume that now the deluge was going to start. France had no pressure at all on the Russian net, but then midway through the second a turnover turned into a 2 on 1, and Roussel blasted a shot from the top of the circle at a bad angle, but the third string goalie, Koshechkin, left a hole between his legs big enough to drive a truck through, and the puck went in, tying the game at 1-1.

Later in the second, with just a routine scrum behind the goal line, the Defenseman Nikulin lost track of the puck and started to skate to pick up a guy in front of the net. What he didn't know was that the puck carrier was directly behind him, and he literally followed him to a space in the crease point blank in front of the goalie, and had no trouble stuffing the puck behind him. With a 2-1 lead, with the psychological advantage solidly in their favor, France just concentrated on keeping the puck out of their net. The Russians had a whole bunch of high quality chances, but the puck somehow stayed out.

I would say it was a case of the far better team being unwilling to attack the net, probably because everyone just assumed that someone else would surely start making plays, and, as the game went on, the psychological advantage shifted dramatically to the underdog.

Fleury scored France 1st goal with a rocket shot.
Roussel the 2nd one. Poor defense by Nikulin on that one.

France had several good scoring chances by Bertrand or Raux for example.

Overall, it's a huge win for France. More impressive, the media coverage was very unusual : all TV channels, including all 3 major ones, talked about the game in their 20h edition. All the sports website and other newspapers, including "Le Monde", published articles. That is impressive.

 

[switch23]

Haha

 

[Rare Exports*]

Vive la France!