GDT: Russia vs. Slovakia - 02/16/06 - 8:00pm Torino - 2:00pm ET

[Slitty]

I only saw it to some point in the 3rd period when it was still 3-3... so I guess I missed the part I shouldnt have seen anyways.

Going but what I did see, I was surprised we didnt pull away at the 2-1 point as we were playing very well. I wasnt impressed with our defence, they looked slow and at several points I remember Slovakian forwards blowing by Gonchar and A. Markov and them not being fast enough to turn around and catch up. I was however most impressed with D. Markov.


What upset me most was the quality of commentating... they called Datsyuk, Kozlov, when breaking down Russia's second goal on which Datsyuk got an assist. They showed someone from the Russian training staff before the game and said that was Krikunov with his name written under him. They also made a big deal about Kharitonov-Malkin-Sushinsky playing on the powerplay and called them the 4th line when they aren't the 4th line and it makes sense for them to play on the powerplay since they have been playing together all Eurotour and Olympic warmup matches and thus have established chemistry and ARE WELL RESTED!

 

[Den]

I only saw it to some point in the 3rd period when it was still 3-3... so I guess I missed the part I shouldnt have seen anyways.

Going but what I did see, I was surprised we didnt pull away at the 2-1 point as we were playing very well. I wasnt impressed with our defence, they looked slow and at several points I remember Slovakian forwards blowing by Gonchar and A. Markov and them not being fast enough to turn around and catch up. I was however most impressed with D. Markov.


What upset me most was the quality of commentating... they called Datsyuk, Kozlov, when breaking down Russia's second goal on which Datsyuk got an assist. They showed someone from the Russian training staff before the game and said that was Krikunov with his name written under him. They also made a big deal about Kharitonov-Malkin-Sushinsky playing on the powerplay and called them the 4th line when they aren't the 4th line and it makes sense for them to play on the powerplay since they have been playing together all Eurotour and Olympic warmup matches and thus have established chemistry and ARE WELL RESTED!

I agree, the CBC comments were very unprofessional

 

[roccol]

Who said Slava Kozlov does nothing?

18 goals and 34 assists.

Slava Kozlov is better then Viktor Kozlov, Max Afinogenov, Igor Korolyuk and a few others on this squad for that matter. Ditto for Sergei Brylin. I'll take players who know what it is to win championships any day of the week.

 

[Vladiator]

I do not want a coach who can't even motivate his team to aim for a gold medal.
I do not want a coach who would settle for a bronze medal.
I do not want a coach, who does not know s...t about NHL and our opponents.

Trust me, if not for Pavel, we wouldn't get half as many good players as we did.

For God's sake, Sokolov is his favourite goalie. (the guy who's admitedly scared to play vs North Americans)

Long before the games, Krikunov has admited that he doesn't even know some of the players on his team
He just saw them on TV or something.......

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

1) And King would know every Russian player?

2) Name me a better goalie than Sokolov except Khabi and Nabokov (and may be Bryzgalov).

3) He didn't say that he thinks we can only get bronze. He was asked what he thought about a bronze medal and he said that it would be OK. Do you think he won't motivate the players to play for gold? Do you think the players are so stupid that they will stop willing to play for gold simply because their coach gave an interview?

4) You know some stuff about Russia's opponents from the NHL, right? Why do you think that our head coach does not know anything about them? He knows more about the NHL than Tikhonov or Tarasov ever did and it didn't stop them from winning.

5) Finally, do you really want for our National Team coach to give orders to our National Team players in English? I could understand something like that happenning in football where we suck. But this is hockey. We still can produce good players and we still have good coaches (you don't like Krikunov, but what do you have against e.g. Jurzinov). BTW, not that long ago people like Scotty Bowman were learning from us. But could you ever imagine Canda having a Russian coach?

Normally, I don't disagree with the stuff that you right. But you are waaaay too pessimistic after just one game.

 

[nik jr]

Everyone is blaming Bryzgalov for some reason. But look back at the game 36 shots given away along with 8 power plays and numerous breaks.

Russia needed a better defensive forwards, Kharitonov and Viktor Kozlov are pretty much deadweight. Kharitonov doesn't have the size and Kozlov doesn't have the speed. Why players like Brylin and S. Kozlov weren't taken I don't know.

Secondly the Russian defense was always rushing up in attack. The Slovaks were smarter, their defenders just absorbed the attacks, minimised shots and then counter attacked. Russia should have followed suit and although it might have been dull game, I believe the Slovak defense would have cracked first.

Its going to be a difficult 2nd match for Russia against Sweden. Who are lot better in defense, their forwards also have a good mix of speed, skill and size. If Nabokov is in goal then Russia can match them defensively and they do have more speed up front.

So they should take page or 80 out of Slovakia's game plans and just defend eagerly and look to scorch Sweden on odd-man rushes, counterattacks and powerplays.

i don't think that gameplan is good for russia. seems passive. if u wanna just sit back and defend, u better have an elite goalie. i don't think russia's players are suited to "defending eagerly."
their strength is offense; they should be aggressive. just need to not be so aggressive that other team can get many odd-man chances. kovalchuk-datsyuk-kovalev line was effective. russia was up 2-1 and 3-2. it's not like they weren't competitive. russia should be able to draw more penalties too.
also, slovakia's counterattack was only effective b/c russia's weak D. sweden's D is not weak.

i don't like afinogenov. so fast, nice moves, but gets nowhere. he tries to do too much alone. i liked the lines, tho.

i think russia tried too many long passes which didn't connect or went for icing. don't know why they couldn't skate past the redline more. actually that happened in all the games i saw. maybe i'm just not used to no-touch icing.

didn't look like russia had a PP unit. but the 1st line looked good on PP.

 

[PanthersFanatic12]

does anyone know what injury stumpel has , and how bad is it

 

[GetPucksDeep]

I'm climbing on the Slovakia bandwagon. They've got three Thrashers in their line-up. That seals it!

 

[shawn_kemp*]

I'm climbing on the Slovakia bandwagon. They've got three Thrashers in their line-up. That seals it!

So is the Kovalchuk Army dead?

 

[Ovechkin_mvp]

I'm climbing on the Slovakia bandwagon. They've got three Thrashers in their line-up. That seals it!

you'll burn in hell

 

[KariyaIsGod*]

So is the Kovalchuk Army dead?

One can only hope...

 

[Bloggins]

They WERE gods a few decades ago

Bobrov
Tarasov
Tikhonov

Their team kicked everyone's butt.

http://www.chidlovski.com/personal/1972/storyper.htm

That's the most stupid thing I have read today.

 

[Ovechkin_mvp]

That's the most stupid thing I have read today.

Then actually, try reading.
There's a link about Russian coaches.

You might as well learn something.

 

[Vladiator]

That's the most stupid thing I have read today.

Please explain yourself

 

[deandebean]

In hockey, there are no guarantees.
however, if you read some posts by die-hard Canadians, they too Guarantee gold for Canada.

After all, we all cheer for our countries, nothing wrong with that, as long as it's done in a respectful way.

You're right, but Siberian doesn't. I applaud Russian hockey for producing individual talents galore. Offensively at least (long time since we saw a Fetisov in the system, though).

The problem has been the team play. Siberian attacked me on that point the last time around, but I repeat: unless the Russians get dirty and attack the net, unless they sacrifice themselves defensively, they will not win. Simple as that. Being fancy individually can get you one goal. But you can't win that way. I thought the Soviets of old proved it.

 

[deandebean]

Please no conclusions after one game. The last NHL game was played on Sunday, and some players arrived yesterday.

Actually, I'm not making fun of the Russians. I'm making fun of those who already cry wolf after one game. If some of you are ready to take Dave King as a coach, you need some assistance. And fast.

 

[Den]

Who said Slava Kozlov does nothing?

18 goals and 34 assists.

Slava Kozlov is better then Viktor Kozlov, Max Afinogenov, Igor Korolyuk.

Learning the players names before making statements would help.
S. Kozlov is a cardinal no for a team that wants to be a TEAM.

 

[Den]

Dats is hilarious in his interview, joker as always:

http://turin.gazeta.ru/turin2006/2006/02/16/a_542572.shtml

 

[Ovechkin_mvp]

Dats is hilarious in his interview, joker as always:

http://turin.gazeta.ru/turin2006/2006/02/16/a_542572.shtml

 

[Nemchinov13]

I'm climbing on the Slovakia bandwagon. They've got three Thrashers in their line-up. That seals it!

For Christ's sake, they have a satan on their team (pun intended).

 

[Nemchinov13]

Dats is hilarious in his interview, joker as always:

http://turin.gazeta.ru/turin2006/2006/02/16/a_542572.shtml

– Говорят, что на Олимпиаде лучше начинать с поражения в групповом турнире, а затем выигрывать в плей-офф…
– Полностью поддерживаю и целиком одобряю намеченный вами план.



For non Russian speaking posters:

Correspondent: They say that it is better to start the Olympics with a defeat in a pool tourney and then win in play offs...

Datsyuk: I fully agree and wholly support your plan

 

[Ovechkin_mvp]

– Говорят, что на Олимпиаде лучше начинать с поражения в групповом турнире, а затем выигрывать в плей-офф…
– Полностью поддерживаю и целиком одобряю намеченный вами план.



For non Russian speaking posters:

Correspondent: They say that it is better to start the Olympics with a defeat in a pool tourney and then win in play offs...

Datsyuk: I fully agree and wholly support your plan

I like the one about "form" - "uniform"

 

[Canuck21t]

Well, I don't know where CBC gets their TV picture from, but the guy had know second thought before spattering: "And here's the Russia head coach Vladimir Krikunov"

CBC and Radio-Canada are not rich like NBC. They have to rely on the hosting nation's feed. It has always been like that with every Olympics.

 

[Canuck21t]

On Russian TV they said that the TV picture is run by canadian crew because italians have less experience with hockey games.

I suspect the Canadian crew were mostly cameramen. I remember it was the same in Nagano.

 

[Canuck21t]

In hockey, there are no guarantees.
however, if you read some posts by die-hard Canadians, they too Guarantee gold for Canada.

After all, we all cheer for our countries, nothing wrong with that, as long as it's done in a respectful way.

The key word is respect and I don't find much of it here. It's kind of insulting when my countrymen are being called idiots left and right and that the Russian team is always perfect and no one should dare critize their beloved team and the only reason Russia loses is because of bad officating.

 

[Ovechkin_mvp]

The key word is respect and I don't find much of it here. It's kind of insulting when my countrymen are being called idiots left and right and that the Russian team is always perfect and no one should dare critize their beloved team and the only reason Russia loses is because of bad officating.

I would read this thread more carefully if I was you