Yes, I was watching yesterday Ivan D. Morozov's senior national team debut in Helsinki. It was the same ice hall where I saw live also Pavel Dorofeyev in the November in the U20 tournament so that place is becoming pretty meaningful for me because Dorofeyev and Morozov are only Golden Knights's prospects that I have seen live so far and both of them in the same place.
My seat was yesterday in the upper level but during the warm-ups I was at the lower level to see Morozov from close range. I took a couple of videos and photos and will share them now. Unfornately I can include only three media pieces to this post but others are behind the links to Streamable and Imgur. Morozov played in the second line together with Vasili Podkolzin and Kirill Marchenko like normally in the St. Petersburg, Jersey numbers were 11 (Podkolzin), 68 (Marchenko) and 71 (Morozov).
When others stretched, Morozov shot the pucks towards empty net:
Ivan Morozov warm-up 1 - Streamable &
https://i.imgur.com/ZWE9fy5l.jpg
Here SKA boys are practising 2v1 and 3v2 situations. First Podkolzin scores with a wrister and then Morozov scores from the backdoor from Marchenko's pass:
Podkolzin-Morozov-Marchenko 3vs2 goal during warm-ups - Streamable
Morozov played with the puck also a while in the neutral zone:
Ivan Morozov plays with the puck during warm-ups - Streamable
In the end of the warm-ups, Podkolzin ja Morozov shot one-timers. First Morozov gave passes to Podkolzin who bombed slap shots under the cross bar:
Podkolzin-Morozov one-timers during warm-ups - Streamable
.. and then in my favourite video from yesterday, Morozov shot beautiful one-timers from the left circle.
First two shots were off but then he put the last four to the top right corner systematically! I was very excited and happy to see that happening. His shooting technique looks pretty clean to me. Our own Ovechkin. And when he took a couple of breakaways against a goalkeeper, he scored one clinical goal between the pads of the goalkeeper with a quick release. That was a dirty goal but unfortunately I don't have a video about that. Podkolzin tried two times same deke but both of the times goalie saved his attempts from the left bottom corner.
One more picture from the warm-ups. Morozov next to Romanov just in front of me within almost a touching distance, haha:
https://i.imgur.com/D06jOg2l.jpg
During the game I made notes from all the shifts that Podkolzin-Morozov-Marchenko line played. Morozov's total ice time was 19:43 and it was the second biggest number from the away team. Only defender Lyamkin played more. Total number of shifts was 20. Most impressive thing was that Morozov won 12/16 face-offs so he continued where he left in the World Juniors where was the second best face-off taker in the tournament. Total number of shots was four. Finland won the game 3-0. They scored all the goals in the first period. Next I will go through all the shifts pretty quickly. I already wrote today a longer story to Finnish hockey forum so I will only mention now most important things from each shift.
Ivan D. Morozov #71 (Golden Knights 2018 #61) - shift by shift senior national team debut (also starring Vasili Podkolzin and Kirill Marchenko)
Period 1
Finland scored 1-0 on the first minute but luckily Morozov did not get a minus because first line center was still on the ice. However, Podkolzin and Marchenko got minuses but Morozov started his national team career from the center ice in the face-off against Ruotsalainen. He lost the face-off but his first pass in the national team was successful when he dropped the puck to his defender. After that he spend the rest of the shift without a puck. When he forechecked his centre of gravity was low and at the same time he used his stick aggressively with one hand trying to disturb the puck carrier. After Finland dumbed the puck Morozov went to the bench and his first shift was over without any mistakes. You can watch the first shift from my view from the upper level next:
In the second shift Morozov stayed on the neutral zone when Finland changed. He got a long pass from the D and managed to catch the pass even though it came in the air. Then he was also able to continue the pass to the offensive zone under the pressure. After that he battled very well in the corner, won the puck and then passed it to the blue line but defender's slap shot was saved by Tuohimaa, Finnish goalie. However, already in the second shift Ivan showed his skills along the boards.
In the third shift SKA line again created some offence. Morozov battled in the corner against Koivisto and Marchenko came to help. At the same time Podkolzin moved to in front of the net and Marchenko found him with a great pass. Podkolzin was alone against Tuohimaa but Podkolzin's backhand was robbed by Tuohimaa's glove so SKA boys did not get their first points in the national team unfortunately.
In the fourth shift Marchenko passed the puck from the left wall to Morozov's skating line to the neutral zone. Morozov was able to dump the puck even though backpressure was hard. Next other defender pinched from the blue line and Morozov played smartly and dropped to the space that defender left behind. And when defender returned to the blue line, Morozov was again free man to go more deep. He moved to the slot, got pass from Podkolzin from the corner and then shot just over the cross bar with a quick release.
In the fifth shift nothing happened but in the sixth shift (16 minutes played) Morozov was a little bit too lazy and slided/glided too much instead of moving his legs. For example he was already going to the bench in the end of the shift but because he just glided in the neutral zone he did not get in time to bench and was forced to go to help defenders because they did not get the puck out of the own zone without the help of the forwards. Of course you don't always have to move your legs and Ivan smartly sometimes played economically saving energies but Ivan was just too passive and flegmatic in that shift. When they played trap, he glided again and was then in late cutting the lane when Finnish player dumped the puck from the red line. However, in other shifts he made better choices and closed the gaps with better timing and made stops along the boards with hits from the glide at the right time.
In the last shift of the period SKA boys played power play. They were in the second unit together with Lyamkin and first line winger Golyshev. Marchenko played in the left side, Morozov was in his own office in the slot and Podkolzin was in the right side or then behind a goal. Morozov touched the puck once during the power play when he calmed the play back to Marchenko. Marchenko and Podkolzin passed a couple of times the puck cross the shorthanded unit but shots from the circles were poor. I have also video from Podkolzin-Morozov-Marchenko trio's first power play shift in the senior national team:
Podkolzin-Morozov-Marchenko trio's first power play shift in the senior national team - Streamable
Morozov's TOI was 6:54 in the first period. He played seven shifts. Face-offs were 2-2 at this stage of the game. SKA line was Russia's best line in this period and only line that regularly created offence in Finland's defensive zone so that's why they played most minutes and coaches trusted them so much that the difference between fifth and sixth shift was only one minute so they played almost two shifts in the row because game was 3-0 and Russia wanted to get back in the game. So SKA line played seven shifts and six of them were positive in my notebook. Very impressive against reigning champions of the world. And in the teams of the coach Jalonen structure of the game is almost always excellent so opponent was not easy.
Period 2
At the first shift Marchenko gave a little pass from the right side on the offensive blue line. Morozov was in the tough spot but was able to deke his teammate Lehtera and he tripped Morozov so Russia got a power play. At the beginning of the power play Morozov won the face-off and then Podkolzin gave him a pass behind the goal line but Morozov's shot from the slot hit the skates of the defender.
In the second shift Morozov again dominated his SKA teammate Lehtera by winning face-off 100-0 in the neutral zone. After that defender gave a long pass to the Marchenko on the right wing. Morozov waited calmly in the neutral zone and did not drop too much. When Marchenko got the pass and crossed the blue line he left the puck to Morozov who was moved close to Marchenko. Then Ivan shot from the right circle but shot went wide. Morozov and Marchenko continued their moves to the left side and in front of the bench they won the puck back together. Morozov went to the bench after that but Marchenko stayed on the ice and gave a fantastic cross-ice pass from the left corner to the right post. Rafikov was there but Tuohimaa robbed him too with the shield.
In the third shift of the period Morozov was in his own zone whole the time but he glued Mustonen to the boards strongly and then in front of the own net he was able to box out Lajunen so goalkeeper Samonov was able to see the shot from the blue line without restrictions. Particularly Morozov's strength in front of the own net was great to see and is something you can see only live and not via television. There were a couple of other shifts too were he boxed out opponents so that goalie was able to see shots better. That is a good skill to have when Morozov sometimes goes to the NHL.
In the fourth shift after the commercial break Morozov basically lost the face-off against Lehtera but because Podkolzin picked the loose puck first Morozov got a win to this face-off stats. Podkolzin used his power skating and carried the puck to the other end and then shot firely from the legs of Melart:
Morozov vs. Lehterä + Podkolzin's dangerous shot - Streamable
After Podkolzin's shot SKA line stayed on the ice. Morozov won the face-off in the offensize zone and then protected the puck strongly behind the goal against Koivisto before passing it to the blue line. Russians pressure relieved when Podkolzin tried to force a pass to the centre towards Marchenko. Morozov dropped down to collect the puck from the defenders. He got the pass to the central lane and then carried the puck over the neutral zone but in the offensive blue line he tried a little backhand pass to the winger on the right wing but that pass was too weak and Finland forced a turnover. Finns got 3v1 attack but luckily Pulkkinen's cross-ice pass was too high so nothing bad did not happened in the end but that was Morozov's first mistake of the game and it took almost 30 minutes and 10 shifts to see that happen.
Morozov did not practically played in the shorthanded situations but his last two shifts were still shorthanded shifts because he jumped to the ice when there was a few seconds left of penalties. In fifth shift he won the face-off in the offensive zone and Romanov was able to shot slap shot but it went wide pretty much. In the last shift Morozov was able to tackle Melart off the puck in the neutral zone just when penalty expired.
After 40 minutes Morozov's TOI was 12:23. His face-offs were 7-2 so in the second period he won all five face-offs according to stats even though that one against Lehtera was a loss in my papers. Again in this period almost all shifts were positive expect that one where after Morozov's mistake Finns got 3v1 attack but otherwise SKA line continued impressive night.
Period 3
First shift was on the power play after Lehtera took his second penalty of the match. Morozov won his eight face-off, Lyamkin passed to the right side and Podkolzin shot immediately but his one-timer was blocked.
Second shift was on the sixth minute. Morozov got the puck to right wing from defenders and carried the puck then over the neutral zone diagonally. However, his foot speed was not dynamic enough and Finns were able to disturb so much that Morozov forced an offside because he needed to focus protecting the puck instead of passing it forward but he will get more speed during next two years in SKA I am sure for that.
In the next shift Morozov won face-off against Lajunen. Marchenko collected the puck and then fired a wrister from the left circle but it went over the cross bar. SKA boys would have deserved a goal already but finishing was not there yesterday even though they got scoring chances regularly.
In the fourth shift Morozov's line was mainly in the own zone. Morozov was a couple of times a little bit confused where he should be but in the end he again boxed out an opponent in front of the own net and Samonov stopped the shot from the left wing. This shift came almost immediately after previous so again SKA boys played almost two shifts in the row at even strength.
On the 51st minute Marchenko carried to puck to the offensize zone on the right wing, crossed to the middle and shot then low shot. Morozov got the rebound but he was in the minus angle and was not able to score. Russia still got a power play at the same time. Morozov won the face-off of course in the beginning of the power play but then Podkolzin and Golushev got stucked in the corner and when Golushev passed towards blue line Finns got the puck. During a new zone entry attempt Morozov gave bad pass in the neutral zone and other power play unit jumped on the ice.
In the next shift Morozov showed again his skills in the left corner. He protected the puck without problems even though Karjalainen was on his skin. Morozov carried the puck towards blue line and was able to shook Karjalainen off from his back. Then Morozov had a free lane to shoot from the blue line with a wrister but shot was blocked in front of the net.
The second last shift was on 57th minute. Morozov again stayed on the puck in the corner and found Marchenko behind the goal. He freezed the game and then moved in front of net and passed the puck to Podkolzin to the other post. Pass was not great and Podkolzin was not able to shoot one-timer so then he was forced to shoot wide when he finally got the puck to his blade:
In the last shift Morozov got the pass to the right wing and then shot from there to the pads of Tuohimaa:
Ivan Morozov's shot from the right side in his final shift against Finland - Streamable
In the last picture of this message Morozov leaves the ice after his final shift when there was 37 seconds in the clock left:
Imgur
After the last whistle I watched hand shakes and when Russia had applaued to its fans and players started to leave the ice, I left from the stands exactly at the same time when Morozov left the ice. Symbolic. спасибо
, Ivan!
Like I told in the beginning Morozov's TOI was 19:43 which most of Russian forwards. He was a monster in the face-off circle and took about five clean 100-0 victories. I enjoyed a lot to see that. His linemates played 15:26 (Podkolzin) and 16:44 (Marchenko). Theirs plusminus rate was -1 due to first goal but Morozov's was +0. All of them registered four shots which was impressive too. They showed again great chemistry and were the best Russian line in their senior national team debut so I will appreciate that a lot. Only problem was finishing and quality of the shots but it was very positive that they created so many chances against Jalonen's structured Team Finland.
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OT: 2024 Washington Commanders off-season thread: change we can believe in!
