Russia tends to have stellar forwards and recently stellar goaltending too. That usually offsets for the mediocre D. So we are really back to normal this year. Forwards and Askarov will have to carry the load and the D will have to try to not be too big of a liability. And let's not forget our U20 coaching was quite superior to our senior NT coaching even. Here Larionov has some big shoes to fill actually.
I prefer realistic over positive. Saying that Russia produced "so many" great defencemen is a reach. Provorov, Sergachyov, that's two great defencemen in my book, not "so many". Romanov remains to be seen. He gets way overhyped too early. I can only hope he remains calm towards the parise and understands he has to work hard to get to where the hype places him already. Samorukov prosgresses nicely, but I do remember how great he looked at U18 level and then way less impressive as an underager on the U20 team. Those 18 year old defencemen might progress full well in the future, but they are 18 now and in this tournament.
The question was if he is the 1D on this team. Get over yourself.
He is not the 1D on this team. If Larionov would go with that he would be making a mistake. That of course happens.
I can't stand this atas guy at all, but he's right here. Muk has got some great offensive skills but he's a bad defenseman. His decision making is horrendous. He's only Russia's defacto 1D because their D corps this year isn't good.
Gotta ask, why does Russia struggle with creating elite NHL D?
Not sure about that. This guy is still a former first rounder, so his defensive game is not supposed to be so horrible. If you look at this D squad, the vaste majority of the D had success over the past two years by winning the Hlinka Gretzky cup against Canada and by beating team USA at U18. Saying that this D squad isn't good is not the reality in my opinion.
We'd have to start with the fact that the soviet school was adequate, but certainly not the best in defencemen development. The soviet league had brilliant forwards the hockey world does not know much about, because they never made the national team and were "just" stars on some weaker soviet league teams. Defencemen on the other hand we've always had just enough for the national team, but I would not say there were many more world class defencemen. Maybe, it's just a thought, it was because originally hockey in Russia started with bandy players. Many other qualities typical for russian players can be traced back to that. Great skating(which is falling off the cliff lately), stamina(as bandy is played on a huge surface without line changes), cohesion(as it is closer to soccer due to the large surface with more systemic player positions, so they need to know exactly what the whole team is playing and where to go to be there for the teammates). While those things are great, obviously defence in hockey is a way different animal. There is full scale physical contact, there is board battles and so on. So great soviet defencemen were always some sort of special cases and not a product of a pipeline. This heritage probably endures to this day. Btw it was the same with goalies. One could argue inviting some finnish goalie coaches to Russia when the RSL and then KHL started helped. Remember when finnish goalies were all the rage? At least I have already saw a finnish article with Finns arguing that Russia drained them and now they fall behind in goalie development
With defencemen it is the special case scenario. Every once in a while there is just a huge talent you can't really break. Then there is Romanov who is his gradpa's grandson. And he was great soviet defeneman and a coaching legend in the russian leagues. I bet he helped his grandson along the way at all stages and does it now as he is not intrested in coaching for now. There is Provorov who went to the US system at 14 and is basically a product of the US defencemen development system.
The fact remains that there is just from the grassroots on no proper development for defencemen in place. And the KHL btw is most of the time lead by foreign defencemen. So on every level there is no great environment for a defnceman to learn and/or compete. Russia surely needs to change that. Maybe with the most recently installed programs and facilities there will be some improvement there, but it will need time.
As for Devils' prospects I have to say none of them were exactly top rated D prospects, so it's not a revelation they do not pan out at a great rate. As it should be obvious from the above there are actually few russian top prospects on the D for which I would be surprised if they did not become solid NHLers at least.
As for Mukhamadullin, I would not plan the parade just yet either. While he is 18 and those are rarely getting KHL action. He is a former forward. See? Special case. It might work. I just would not put him in the same basket as Provorov or Sergachyov though.
I'd love to hear your thoughts in Filip Kral. This probably isn't the right thread for it but you can PM me if you wish.
He is doing really well in extraliga. Had a 3 point game today. He was pretty noticeable in the games I've seen. I didn't see a big difference between him and zboril and hajek... 2 players that should get NHL games this year. He might end up being a good later round pick for TO. Let him finish in extraliga... See if he gets some national team love. Then use that to get him on the Marlies and see how it goes. It's really hard to evaluate Czech D in the extraliga as that is at least 2 steps away from NHL. I think Simek made jump from extraliga to ahl to nhl within 2 years but he was older. Zboril and hajek leaving gets him more ice time and increased opportunity.
It is not Larionov is bringing it back, it is the Russian Hockey Federation bringing it back.
Second Russian goalie was a big drop off from Askarov. The team definitely lost some confidence in their play with him in nets.
Umm...okay. Bragin did NOT try to bring it back. Larionov in his first game as head coach and it’s already back.
Yes, but probably still the right move to put him in. Obviously, the win means nothing and now they’ve got his feet wet so it’ll be just a little less pressure on him when he plays an actual game. Plus it lets Russia keep Askarov perfect and square in the heads of the Canadian shooters in case of a rematch.
My point is that the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) has changed its development methods & playing philosophy/style and even marketing (comeback of the Red Machine/Красная машина) in recent time. Larionov as head coach is a direct result of that change. So, all ideas coming from the FHR´s front-office, not from Larionov. He is just a man to execute the will of the FHR. If you want to find a personality behind all this, you need to go to Roman Rotenberg & his group.
