Yes. Very true. Russia however prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain, same thing and clearly just about the best at it on the Planet for over a 25-35 year span. The transition from Communism to a Democracy, "open market" of sorts & so on, upheavels within the sports federation, funding drying up, what funds were available funneled primarily to supporting up & coming offensive players, mostly forwards and at the cost of others & the national team program. Indeed, a rift developing between Tretiak & Fetisov who ran against him for the Presidency awhile back as you know. The failure at Sochi, Tretiak openly admitting that yes, serious systemic problems at the developmental level that at one time were unimaginable as Yakushev72 alludes to. So hopefully they find a solution, get their acts together. Shame really. Russian hockey was top of the tree, and theyve fallen hard hitting every branch on the way down. Big problems in Canada & with the NHL as well, though in denial.... The Finns, noted for generally excellent Goaltending & defensive play if never much of a powerhouse offensively. Though obviously produced a number of great forwards over the decades.
I completely agree! In the Soviet era, it was the Soviets who had the distinct system to which everyone conformed, and everybody on the team knew their role and how to play it. The goal was to create an invincible national team, but in the process, they surely created a thing of beauty - a work of art, if you will. So for example, the national team, but also every club team, assigned its 3 best forwards to the first line. In the 1970's, a team like Gorky Torpedo assigned its 3 best forwards - Skvortsov, Varnakov and Kovin - to the first line, so they could be assigned at any given moment to the national team intact. Everybody was on the same page throughout the hockey system.
With no real national team to establish as a final destination, now there seems to be no cohesion at all in Russian hockey. Certainly a lot less than Sweden, Finland and, of course, Canada. Its not surprising to me that Fetisov, who identifies himself as a fierce patriot, would eventually lock horns with Tretyak, who has really accomplished exactly nothing as the head of RHF.
In fact, you could say in some ways that hockey has gone in the toilet. Why is it that Russia, with a population of 143 million people, lacks comparable depth of hockey talent to Sweden and Finland, with a tiny fraction of the population? Because there is no hockey throughout much of Russia. Take the permafrost cities in the Urals and Siberia, for example. There are a number of major cities - Perm, Kemerovo, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, etc., - where hockey barely exists! Bandy is the big winter sport in those places. Tretyak has failed badly in developing hockey throughout Russia, and its not surprising that Fetisov is taking him to task for it. Since the Soviet-era players left the Olympics in 2002, Russia has never finished higher than 6th in the Olympic Games! I'm glad someone is pissed!
. but that's the foundation made from sand, it won't get us far
