World Cup: 2016 World Cup — Team Russia

[Scotty B]

Can the federation just eat a fat one and let Pelino Voroviev Keenan try the coaching gig? Or hire a North American guy, just anyone with a basic level of coaching common sense. The sad thing is Znarok seemed to have a good thing going when he won with Dynamo. At this tournament maybe he was in over his head but he definitely lost his marbles.

Hiring a foreign coach would really shake things up. Risky, although conceivably worth a try. But Keenan? Why stop there? For a real Side Show













may as well have assistant coach Torts for The Full Monty

 

[Juppy61]

A foreign coach will coach foreign hockey. There is russian hockey. It is different. The last thing we need is our best team to be coached to play a different brand of hockey than russian. We'd only lose time with those experiments.

Russia does produce players. We don't need to test that. In any way. This would hurt the development overall.

But Russian hockey doesn't appear to be working. What exactly is Russian hockey anyway?

 

[Fantomas]

But Russian hockey doesn't appear to be working. What exactly is Russian hockey anyway?

What is Swedish hockey? What is Finnish hockey? Impossible to tell now that only NHL hockey remains.

 

[Fantomas]

Discussions about coaching are a distraction. It's not the real problem. I'm not a big Znarok fan, but he did ok. They didn't lose because of him.

 

[Fantomas]

Half agree/disagree. Not in a tournament of this stature. Ovechkin and others were effectively blocking shots, hitting guys, providing plenty of grit. Maybe one of these guys, definitely not both. Then Znaroks got carried away and was even using Kulemin on the PP

Telegin turned out useful but Kulemin was utterly useless IMO. He has been 100% north americanized into a robot 3rd liner. If there used to be any offensive flair to his game its definitely evapourated into thin air.

Kulemin was excellent.

 

[Yakushev72]

Hiring a foreign coach would really shake things up. Risky, although conceivably worth a try. But Keenan? Why stop there? For a real Side Show

Is anyone actually suggesting that Russia would have won the World Cup if only they had a better coach? To me, that is just ridiculous, particularly suggesting that a foreign coach would have some kind of mystic genius that would turn Marchenko, Orlov and Kulikov into shut-down defensemen. Russia cannot win best-on-best tournaments because they lack an adequate defense (and really, offensive players as well, when you get beyond fancy stickhandling and passing as well). Yes, coaching is a big problem for Russia, but the main issue, in my opinion, is a lack of competitive hockey players throughout the system.

Looking at defense alone, I think it is fair to characterize the Russian defense group as slow and small. These are two deadly traits when playing against top-end forwards. Look at how easy it was for Canada to push the Russian defense around, knocking them out of the way and golfing at loose pucks until they finally went in. If they had better skaters on D, maybe they could have done a better job of clearing pucks out of the zone, but that has always been the Achilles' heel of the defense.

However, in the next breath, I would say that Russia didn't play badly. I thought they played up to the level of their capability, given their weaknesses, and showed a lot of fight and passion and commitment! I don't think it was a lack of effort. If they could somehow put together a defense that could support more offensive pressure, you might see a different result!

 

[Jussi]

A foreign coach will coach foreign hockey. There is russian hockey. It is different. The last thing we need is our best team to be coached to play a different brand of hockey than russian. We'd only lose time with those experiments.

Russia does produce players. We don't need to test that. In any way. This would hurt the development overall.

Not necessarily. Curt Lindström didn't coach us to play Swedish hockey and it worked out quite well at the '94 Olympics and '95 Worlds.

 

[Atas2000]

But Russian hockey doesn't appear to be working. What exactly is Russian hockey anyway?

See? You don't even know what it is. Neither would a foreign coach.

One of the few people who does in NA is Scotty Bowman. But will he coach the russian NT? I would support that, but not a proverbial Iron Mike.

 

[Atas2000]

Kulemin was excellent.

Just to give it another vote. Yes. People are repeating useless narratives instead of watching games.

 

[zbornaja36]

Well as long as coaching and selection will be excused so long Russians results will be like weather, depending on individual inspiration and counting on some bad plays from opponent.

Where is most obviously lacking of coaching evident for me? Because even with all those names russian PP sucks. It takes more time to develop chemistry 5 on 5 , but to have so impotent PP is absolutely pathethic. Zaitsev and Markov although slow is still good enough for that one D spot, other goes to OV and with names like Tarasenko, Malkin, Kuznetsov, Kucherov, Panarin they cannot create some pressure ??? Finland PP was much much better ... (the last game i watched)


Coach like Scotty Bowman would be great, is there a coach like that in Russia? For sure not

Malkin sucked for me, but have to watch last game, some of you saying he was ok in Canada game...Dont believe it...

Lastly OV. I believe OV the way he started playing his game last few years would best play with two grinding, solid defensive forwards. Anisimov and Telegin and Ovechkin. That line would be worth a try for me...
Malkin is opposite, he needs players with high iq (would love to try him with Panarin and Radulov). I dont know if he was injured or what, but he was just out...

And more of that Telegin fighting spirit...

 

[Juppy61]

See? You don't even know what it is. Neither would a foreign coach.

One of the few people who does in NA is Scotty Bowman. But will he coach the russian NT? I would support that, but not a proverbial Iron Mike.

No you are right. Please explain it to me because what I see is Russia trying to play defensive hockey and then try to counter attack with individual efforts. Is that Russian hockey?

 

[Paxton Fettel]

Just to give it another vote. Yes. People are repeating useless narratives instead of watching games.

It's not like you were right the entire time. He just played well the last 2 games. Before that, pretty terrible...

 

[zbornaja36]

No you are right. Please explain it to me because what I see is Russia trying to play defensive hockey and then try to counter attack with individual efforts. Is that Russian hockey?

Excatly ... Last time Russians played something remiscent to "russian hockey" was under Bykov. Since him every year they are sliding more and more into same routine from 90's. No chemistry at all and individualistic approach.

 

[Juppy61]

Excatly ... Last time Russians played something remiscent to "russian hockey" was under Bykov. Since him every year they are sliding more and more into same routine from 90's. No chemistry at all and individualistic approach.[/QUOTE

wasnt bykov the coach in Vancouver ?

 

[Caser]

While I'm totally not happy with line combo chaos and the non-existing powerplay, the game against Canada was the best game by Russia NT since 2012 at least. Considering the fact that there are really no alternatives at the moment, I support Znarok staying until 2018, at least maybe then there will be someone else, who will be able to take this job.

 

[zbornaja36]

Excatly ... Last time Russians played something remiscent to "russian hockey" was under Bykov. Since him every year they are sliding more and more into same routine from 90's. No chemistry at all and individualistic approach.[/QUOTE

wasnt bykov the coach in Vancouver ?

Yes he was coach in 2008, 2009 and 2010 iihf also. In 2008 and 2009 i remember solid hockey from russians, in 2009 with B team russia played very solid and pretty to eyes hockey.
In 2010 destruction in Vancouver happend yes, they looked totally off, but do i remember correctly that they played just 3 games before quaterfinals? Russians were known to need some more time to start to gel.. And then just second place in 2010 iihf with much more stacked team than in 2009..

So maybe he got lucky in finding magic in those years (2008 and 2009)or dont know what, but there was solid chemistry and it was against solid B or B- team Canada in both years (with B russian team in 2009 and A/B team in 2008)...

 

[Juppy61]

Yes he was coach in 2008, 2009 and 2010 iihf also. In 2008 and 2009 i remember solid hockey from russians, in 2009 with B team russia played very solid and pretty to eyes hockey.
In 2010 destruction in Vancouver happend yes, they looked totally off, but do i remember correctly that they played just 3 games before quaterfinals? Russians were known to need some more time to start to gel.. And then just second place in 2010 iihf with much more stacked team than in 2009..

So maybe he got lucky in finding magic in those years (2008 and 2009)or dont know what, but there was solid chemistry and it was against solid B or B- team Canada in both years (with B russian team in 2009 and A/B team in 2008)...

Yup I remember those games. 2008 and 2009. Hey played defensive hockey and relied on some pretty decent offensive players for indivualistic efforts., ie kovalchuck. I remember 2008 I believe where Russia was hanging in by a thread with all five players in front of the net trying to keep the puck out. Wasn't pretty but yeah effective, they won. I wouldn't say canada had their a team either. We can't because of the Stanley cup playoffs at the same time which is much more important then iihf wc

 

[Juppy61]

Listen, I enjoyed the fact that Canada won the last two iihf world championships but it is not truly best on best so my enjoyment of the wins is tempered. We had a couple of pretty good teams but there were no A teams there. Impossible to have A teams in IIHF wc because a lot of each countries best players are still playin for the Stanley cup. So, when Canada loses there I don't lose sleep over it. It's a crap shoot every year on who will have the best team because of who is still playing for the Stanley cup. Hid applies to all teams.

 

[snipes]

I think Russian hockey is in a good spot. Nothing to panic about, they've had weak D for years. That's changing.

Zaitsev, Provorov, Paigin, and Sergachev coming up are the best young Russian D we've seen in years.

 

[Juppy61]

I think Russian hockey is in a good spot. Nothing to panic about, they've had weak D for years. That's changing.

Zaitsev, Provorov, Paigin, and Sergachev coming up are the best young Russian D we've seen in years.

Yup, and then they can get back to playing Russian hockey. in all seriousness Russia is still a hockey power but it's Canada's time right now. We are spoiled with a lot of good players, a good system and good coaching. This may change in the near future and the balance of power may change to Russia, or US or Finland or Sweden, etc. I'm enjoying canadas success in the last few years but there are never guarantees that this won't change in the near of medium term future.

 

[snipes]

Yup, and then they can get back to playing Russian hockey. in all seriousness Russia is still a hockey power but it's Canada's time right now. We are spoiled with a lot of good players, a good system and good coaching. This may change in the near future and the balance of power may change to Russia, or US or Finland or Sweden, etc. I'm enjoying canadas success in the last few years but there are never guarantees that this won't change in the near of medium term future.

This. Canada and Russia will always have special bonds as the two hockey superpowers. Canada v Russia will always be the greatest hockey rivalry. 1972 cemented it.

Canada is in a Golden Era right now, but Russian hockey has a bright future in my view. Panarin, Kucherov, etc. are the new wave. With their young D coming up to, Russia looks strong going forward.

 

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Russia has been good in WJC too so I think they will be competitive with Canada, Finland, USA even in the future.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

We're at/close to 1000 posts so I'm going to go ahead and close the thread. A continuation is open here.