GDT: Group A - May 8 - Kazakhstan (4) vs Russia (6)

[Siberian]

It's been proven many times before that starting slow and then building momentum for the playoffs is actually a good thing. I like the fact team Russia is not firing on all cylinders in the first week.

 

[hammerwielder]

So Datsyuk gets only 14 minutes of ice time? Less than Plotnikov?? While Dadonov plays nearly 23 minutes, Mozyakin 21?

Another KHL coach preferring loser KHL players. This is why Russia gets blown away in every best on best competition.

Pavel, you better come back to the NHL next year...

 

[hammerwielder]

Can any of our Kazakh colleagues tell us why Dallman is not on the team? He's been the best Kazakh D-man for several years.

 

[airbus1094]

Yegor Korshkov was born in Novosibirsk, Russia (just like his dad - Alexei). So he is Russian. Kazakhstan - is just a country where he played.

He grew up in Kazakhstan and his youth team was in Karaganda. He was developed by Kazakhstan. That was my point, Kazakhstan has developed decent players, just that the best of them either play for Russia or moved to Russia and changed citizenship to not count as foreigners. I mean are you counting Burakovsky as an Austrian prospect because he was born there, or should Nabokov not have played for Russia because he was born in Kazakhstan? I think Korshokov played for/in Kazakhstan until he was like 15 or 16 years old when he promptly became an assistant captain on Russia's U-17. He's ethnically Russian (like a third of KZ), but was never a Russian prospect. We also have had Alexander Yakovenko who played for Russia U-18 in the past few years (he was born and raised in KZ, none of your arguments make sense here).

 

[airbus1094]

Can any of our Kazakh colleagues tell us why Dallman is not on the team? He's been the best Kazakh D-man for several years.

I don't think there has been any official reason, but he's said in an interview that it was for family and personal reasons.

 

[airbus1094]

Kazakhstan has little less than 5000 registered hockey players, while Czech Republic has more than 100.000. Talent pool is simply not big enough, however that doesn't mean they can't drastically improve their programs, numbers are not everything of course. Number of registered hockey players in Latvia is very similar.

We've honestly gotten better with every year, the fall of the Soviet Union had an especially rough impact on hockey in KZ and development hasn't really gotten back on track until the last 8 or so years. Now we are starting to see the fruits of our labor, players to pick from for the u-18 instead of just taking whoever was available, the u-18 and u-20 solidly in the 1A division. Should see them do nothing but improve in the next few years.

 

[Salavat Yulaev]

Can any of our Kazakh colleagues tell us why Dallman is not on the team? He's been the best Kazakh D-man for several years.

Allegedly, family problems in the US. His wife promised that he would join team in Moscow. But obviously he couldn't do it.

 

[Salavat Yulaev]

We've honestly gotten better with every year, the fall of the Soviet Union had an especially rough impact on hockey in KZ and development hasn't really gotten back on track until the last 8 or so years. Now we are starting to see the fruits of our labor, players to pick from for the u-18 instead of just taking whoever was available, the u-18 and u-20 solidly in the 1A division. Should see them do nothing but improve in the next few years.

Plus the number of ice rinks grows fast. Even in absolutely non-hockey south regions like Taraz. Here in Almaty I've counted four hockey schools for little kids. So hopefully in 10-15 years we will have much more young talented guys for national team. Today these kids watch games of our team and want to play like Boyd, Bochensky and Dawes. IMO, that's the biggest input of BBD in the development of ice hockey in Kazakhstan