wilka91*
Registered User
- May 5, 2004
- 4,251
- 1
Alexander Steblin, president of the Russian Hockey Federation, was interviewed earlier today by Sovetsky Sport (Click here for the full interview in Russian).
The article is in Russian, so I'm just going to translate the most important things he said :
Q : So who will coach our (national) team at the World Cup?
Steblin : At the beginning of next week we will reveal the name of the national team's general manager. It is going to be a Russian. The composition of the coaching staff will mainly depend on him.
Q : Does Tikhonov have any chance of keeping his job?
Steblin : At the World Championship some players, especially NHLers, expressed their discontent regarding the coach. We can't close our eyes on such facts. The World Cup is organized by the NHL. Most of the players on the Russian team will be from the NHL (...). The World Cup will be played under NHL rules, on smaller rinks, and that the coach must know how to play against other NHL players.
Obviously what he's trying to say is that Tikhonov is OUT, and that the federation will name a GM who knows the NHL well enough.
In my opinion it's going to be either Larionov (even if he declared last month that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the team) or Pavel Bure (oh no!!!).
Steblin also indicated that the GM will be Russian, but does it suggest that the coach might be a foreigner? Could be!!!!!!!!!!
In the same edition Slava Fetisov also gave an interview (Click here for the full story) speaking out about the state of Russian hockey in the past 10 years and its future. Basically his solution is 1-hire a young coach because Tikhonov is too old even if his contract runs through 2006, and 2-replace the staff at the head of the Federation (bye bye Steblin, you're out).
The article is in Russian, so I'm just going to translate the most important things he said :
Q : So who will coach our (national) team at the World Cup?
Steblin : At the beginning of next week we will reveal the name of the national team's general manager. It is going to be a Russian. The composition of the coaching staff will mainly depend on him.
Q : Does Tikhonov have any chance of keeping his job?
Steblin : At the World Championship some players, especially NHLers, expressed their discontent regarding the coach. We can't close our eyes on such facts. The World Cup is organized by the NHL. Most of the players on the Russian team will be from the NHL (...). The World Cup will be played under NHL rules, on smaller rinks, and that the coach must know how to play against other NHL players.
Obviously what he's trying to say is that Tikhonov is OUT, and that the federation will name a GM who knows the NHL well enough.
In my opinion it's going to be either Larionov (even if he declared last month that he doesn't want to have anything to do with the team) or Pavel Bure (oh no!!!).
Steblin also indicated that the GM will be Russian, but does it suggest that the coach might be a foreigner? Could be!!!!!!!!!!
In the same edition Slava Fetisov also gave an interview (Click here for the full story) speaking out about the state of Russian hockey in the past 10 years and its future. Basically his solution is 1-hire a young coach because Tikhonov is too old even if his contract runs through 2006, and 2-replace the staff at the head of the Federation (bye bye Steblin, you're out).