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Impact of Olympics on Russian Hockey

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flaneur

flaneur

Registered User
Jul 17, 2013
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The Russian Federation wanted to showcase the KHL as a legitimate rival to the NHL this Olympics but I think the opposite may have happened. With the early flameout of the Russian team and the dominating performance by teams composed mainly of NHL players, especially Canada, the NHL made a definitive case that it is the best league.

It made me wonder: What will be the impact of these Olympics on Russian hockey development? With the Olympics being in Russia, I imagine that a lot of Russian children watched these games. Do you guys think that there will be an increase of young Russian players who will want to play in the NHL? Or maybe conversely, less Russians will want to play in the NHL and instead want to stay in Russia with the KHL out of patriotism to help develop their own league?

Also with the Russian coach being 'eaten alive' for using outdated game strategy will there be a change in the way the game is played/coached in Russia?
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Russia brought their usual flashy top 4 players to the tournament. But anyone who knows hockey knew they would be dead in the water at the Olympics.

- Paper thin up front beyond their Big 4 (Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk).
- Awful defense.
- Terrible strategy and system
 
TheBigOne said:
Russia brought their usual flashy top 4 players to the tournament. But anyone who knows hockey knew they would be dead in the water at the Olympics.

- Paper thin up front beyond their Big 4 (Ovechkin, Malkin, Datsyuk, Kovalchuk).
- Awful defense.
- Terrible strategy and system
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After that they still have Bobrovsky who is a very strong Goalie. Part of the reason they lost to Finland was because he wasn't the starter

Other than Bobrovsky I totally agree. Clearly the KHL is at a much lower level.
 
Finland had more KHLers than Russia. In fact, it was the KHL guys for Russia who were the only ones doing anything.

How can you say they were trying to showcase the KHL when they didn't leave any worthy NHLers behind? I mean, who do you think should have been there? Nail Yakupov? lol
 
WarriorofTime said:
Finland had more KHLers than Russia. In fact, it was the KHL guys for Russia who were the only ones doing anything.

How can you say they were trying to showcase the KHL when they didn't leave any worthy NHLers behind? I mean, who do you think should have been there? Nail Yakupov? lol
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Yak would have been better than Popov.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Finland had more KHLers than Russia. In fact, it was the KHL guys for Russia who were the only ones doing anything.

How can you say they were trying to showcase the KHL when they didn't leave any worthy NHLers behind? I mean, who do you think should have been there? Nail Yakupov? lol
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There might be a case to be made for someone like Kulikov or Orlov on defense (Gonchar might have been a tough choice, too), and maybe Burmistrov or even Komarov might have been effective up front (and hey, why not Yakupov?). I'm not claiming any huge potential difference between them all in the end, but they had to make some choices when they set that roster that involved leaving some good NHLers out. A bigger (yet similarly small) difference could have been something else, like playing Varlamov over Bobrovsky.

Bottom line is I don't think they were mentally ready enough for how tight and grueling these games were going to be (right up to the final buzzers), how hard it would be to execute and create more chances for high percentage plays, and ended up getting disappointing performances from a lot of players on top of that. As much as they could probably trust at least one of their goalies to repeatedly hold up well to that kind of stress, I don't think they were overly committed to playing the "same kind of hockey" everyone else was throughout the tournament (especially in front of the home crowd) and don't think they were quite prepared enough to fall back to that kind of "plan B" as a kind of "damage control".
 
Ohashi_Jouzu said:
There might be a case to be made for someone like Kulikov or Orlov on defense (Gonchar might have been a tough choice, too), and maybe Burmistrov or even Komarov might have been effective up front (and hey, why not Yakupov?). I'm not claiming any huge potential difference between them all in the end, but they had to make some choices when they set that roster that involved leaving some good NHLers out. A bigger (yet similarly small) difference could have been something else, like playing Varlamov over Bobrovsky.

Bottom line is I don't think they were mentally ready enough for how tight and grueling these games were going to be (right up to the final buzzers), how hard it would be to execute and create more chances for high percentage plays, and ended up getting disappointing performances from a lot of players on top of that. As much as they could probably trust at least one of their goalies to repeatedly hold up well to that kind of stress, I don't think they were overly committed to playing the "same kind of hockey" everyone else was throughout the tournament (especially in front of the home crowd) and don't think they were quite prepared enough to fall back to that kind of "plan B" as a kind of "damage control".
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Burmistrov and Komarov both play in the KHL. And Komarov is Finnish, not Russian. In fact, he was one of the many KHLers on Team Finland.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Burmistrov and Komarov both play in the KHL. And Komarov is Finnish, not Russian. In fact, he was one of the many KHLers on Team Finland.
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Ha, oh yeah on Komarov. I was actually thinking of other KHL options in my head when I dumped those two down on the page talking about NHL options, and I always brain fart connecting him back to the Finnish team for some reason, kind of ironically.
 
VladNYC said:
No he ****ing wouldn't. They kid has done **** all in his career and has more mental issues than our other "special boys"
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I am not pumping Yak. I am saying that Popov guy was a total waste of a roster spot. Useless. Don't take it as some kind of compliment to Yak. I would have replaced Popov with a pylon.
 
KHL players are not the problem. Awful coaching, development at lower levels a problem.
 
Fantomas said:
KHL players are not the problem. Awful coaching, development at lower levels a problem.
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My Finnish coach potato feel is the NHL guys are the problem. They seem to always have on their team one or two biggest names in the NHL who have been underachieving in the tourney pointswise. When the team has been eliminated by Finland in the latest tourneys the story seems to always has been that if they are behind in the third period the superstar is on the ice all the time and frustrated himself for still not getting the production up.

Which of course is not helped by the coach having playing "this guy" as the only option for whatever reason.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Finland had more KHLers than Russia. In fact, it was the KHL guys for Russia who were the only ones doing anything.
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This. To read Russia's elimination by Finland to mean anything about the KHL is mind-bogglingly stupid.
 
Lempo said:
My Finnish coach potato feel is the NHL guys are the problem.
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No, sorry. The players are just the byproduct of the system. You're missing the forest from the trees.

The Russian hockey authorities always blame the superstars, which is convenient for them, never solves the problems and the status quo continues.
 
Fantomas said:
No, sorry. The players are just the byproduct of the system. You're missing the forest from the trees.

The Russian hockey authorities always blame the superstars, which is convenient for them, never solves the problems and the status quo continues.
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I was thinking as much, but that still is the feel when watching the actual international do-or-die phase games. It may be the fault of Antero Mertaranta who's stock phrases in those games are "-ov is now in the rink all the time" and "he's going hot like an oven hook, look at that mouth yapping". There may be reason why people actually knowing the game don't much appreciate Mertaranta.

So I have taken it for the face value that the coach plays those guys for massive minutes. It seems to outside like everyone wants and expects the superstar to be the guy who win the game for Russia in the end. I don't know if it's the superstar ego forcing that decision on the coach or the coach not daring to not play the superstar when it's tight.
 
Ohashi_Jouzu said:
Ha, oh yeah on Komarov. I was actually thinking of other KHL options in my head when I dumped those two down on the page talking about NHL options, and I always brain fart connecting him back to the Finnish team for some reason, kind of ironically.
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You should have picked that young rising star from Panthers, Barkov instead. ;)
 
When the Russians play like a team they are both entertaining and scary to Watch, depending on what team they play ;) I think it's mostly bad coaching.
 
jekoh said:
This. To read Russia's elimination by Finland to mean anything about the KHL is mind-bogglingly stupid.
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Actually... I don't know. Prior the game people were talking about Aaltonen with his KHL experience being a good asset against Russia while next to useless against Canada/USA. Could it be that the Russian coach's system fit better to opponent's KHL players that their own NHL players, at some level? If so, of course, it would talk not of betterness or worseness but only of differentness.
 
Rob said:
Good point.

I'm curious to see how many Russian NHL players will be on the World Championship team this May?
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The Russian NHL players have admirably participated in the worlds so probably pretty much everyone who isn't injured or in the Playoffs.
 
Urbanskog said:
The Russian NHL players have admirably participated in the worlds so probably pretty much everyone who isn't injured or in the Playoffs.
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I agree that Russians are probably the most patriotic when it comes to hockey. But I heard of a rumor that the superstars like AO, Malkin etc got huge bonusses for participating in the WC (at least when played their home soil). From what I know most of the other NT players get basically their plain tickets and some food :P
 
I'm sure Ovie will go if Washington is eliminated in the first round again but I would not blame him if he decided to sit this one out.
 
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