Makes his tournament even more impressive. Lots of talk about Denisenko and Romanov (both getting overrated by this tournament, especially Denisenko, who had a good tourney stat-wise but was brutal to watch him lose the puck every other shift trying to deke through players)
From the beginning of the tournament, I’ve been saying that Kravtsov doesn’t “look like Kravtsov”
He was playing timid and wasn’t hustling/all over the puck like he usually is and I thought maybe he’s holding back so he doesn’t get injured, he does have a KHL team to get back to where he is the best forward
He wasn’t being used correctly either, while he can play C he was being employed as a defensive center. In his own zone he was down way too low which gave him less of an opportunity to join the rush and in the offensive zone, he was staying up at the blue line making plays from there, usually he’ll be down low or in the middle, not up that high. On the powerplay (which frustrated me the most) Kravtsov was still in the middle playing in front of the net instead of playing RW, where he’s the most lethal generating chances. Kravtsov was also Russia’s best defensive forward, generating a ton of takeaways
Finding out he played in the WJC injured doesn’t surprise me at all
Also, a torn triceps would’ve effected his shot, maybe that’s why most of his shots couldn’t elevate? I remember against the US he had a couple of really good shot opportunities