0 rationale behind this thinking.
1)Medals do matter if you coach the teams that shouldn't even sniff one. For examples, see 14/15 roster. That basically was the tournament that made Bragin's career (the later part of it) as it showed he gives Russia a chance to win with almost any team. A bigger part of that roster capped out as depth-level KHL players. If you are going to slander him for losing finals where he was "favorite", at the same time acknowledge his successes with the teams that were legitimately terrible. Oh but of course, as long as he didn't win gold with those it doesn't matter, right?
2) Russia was the favorite this year? How? According to whom?
3) So who is this "the winner" you talk about? Russia should open the revolving door of C-list candidates because one of them might eventually luck into gold? To replace the coach who produces consistently good results with bad teams just because he didn't win gold in a tournament where his opposition has 5 times more first-rounders on the roster?
When the team underachieves, the first person fans go after is the coach. That's the same everywhere. And yet, Bragin, for the most part, is backed and admired by most in Russia. That should tell you your judgment is missing something.
The 14/15 team was one of Russia's best recent teams. Shestyorkin and Sorokin in goal. Provorov and Gavrikov on the back-end. Buchnevich, Barbashev, Goldobin, Kamenev, Mamin among the forwards. How many good NHL'ers do you think the average non-Canadian WJC team among the other four big five countries usually ends up having? Thats a very good return from that roster. Every roster will end up having some guys who don't make it as high level pro hockey players.
And yes, Russia was the favorite, in my opinion. I said it at the beginning of the tournament, and throughout. I thought they had the best crop of 2000 born players among the four teams, and they had a lot of returning players. They had a very deep defense, they had some standout forwards, and their goaltending was one of the better duos on paper.
If you prefer average results instead of winning Gold every now and then, that's your right to think that way. I'd rather be like Finland where its often Gold or bust. Thats my own opinion, and I think the coach should be judged on winning the tournament. There are five teams that can realistically win. It's not asking a lot to win the tournament a few times every 10 years.
