Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Dump n Chase asked in SportsHockey · 1 decade ago

Does style of play have to do with Canada's comprehensive beatdown of Russia?

Igor Larionov had an interesting take on why Russia lost to Canada. Before the Olympics started, Larionov had warned against praising the Russian star-studded team too much and underestimating the Canadians' approach, both emotional and systemic. Here are his thoughts after Russia's loss:

"The trouble is, we have stopped to appraise the situation realistically," Larionov said. "We have stopped to time ourselves by the NHL clock. We are trying to prove to ourselves that hockey [in North America] is bad and primitive, that we don't need what they are doing here. But look what the Canadians did to us. In almost every game situation, there was tremendous support for each other throughout the ice. In every zone there were people who were ready to fight and help out a teammate. They had superstars who play 20-25 minutes in their [NHL] teams but were ready to accept a small role for the common good and to do some unpleasant work for it, too.

"What Russia lacked was the heart. And you can't even blame [Ovechkin] or any particular players. One person has a bad day - so what? There are 20 on the team. In the Stanley Cup playoffs it often happens that in the beginning, the stars step back in the shadows and it's up to [players like the Detroit Red Wings'] [Kirk] Maltby and [Kris] Draper and [Darren] McCarty to carry the team. And then, when their energy is running out, the skill and experience take over. The mistake of our coaches was their poor familiarity with North American hockey. The Canadians had Sidney Crosby, who toiled everywhere, in all three zones, which is why he is the pride of Canada. We have Ovechkin, but not much beyond him."

I'm not so sure about that last statement, but what do you think?

Update:

To put it another way, the Russians would never think of putting a player like Brendan Morrow on their national team.

6 Answers

Relevance
  • Ryan
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Yes...they need to fire that @ssclown coach and hire Larianov or some other player with common sense to be their next coach, especially since the next Winter Olympics is in Russia...

    I also think they were trying to show how great the KHL is by having so many KHL player, many of whom are NHL has beens or never weres. You look at the differential in talent, you have to play Canada like America did:

    1) Amazing goaltending.

    2) Play as a team.

    3) Play a simple game. If they don't have numbers on the rush, dump and chase. In the offensive zone, work the puck from low to high and get it on net. Get a lot of traffic in front of the net, but don't get over aggressive and end up with all 3 forwards below the faceoff dots. At all times, make sure there is a forward in the mid to high slot. When Canada is regrouping, go into a 1-2-2. In the defensive zone, don't chase the puck, yet pressure the puck carrier and keep them to the outside (i.e. play a disciplined zone defense). It is very important to take away the middle of the ice and to not get mesmorized by the puck. They like to work it low to high and then across to the opposite side for a tap in or a one timer.

    4) Stay out of the penalty box & taking advantage of the power plays.

    5) Get under the skin of guys with tempers (Boyle, Pronger, Perry, Getzlaf, Iginla, etc.) or a reputation to whine (Crosby).

    If a team sticks with these points, especially if they have great goaltending, they have a great shot at winning against Canada. Russia did none of these (well, they did the 5th point, but it was too late) and got their butts kicked...

    Source(s): GO USA!
  • 1 decade ago

    Having played hockey for many years at a fairly high level all I can say is that the most talent does not always win.

    The Russians are supremely talented yes, they appear to lack those intangibles such as heart and possess a will to win at any cost that the Canadians clearly demonstrated.

    The role Mike Richards and Morrow played while not superstars clearly upstaged Ovi, Semin etc because of their will, character and the determination to win and in my mind played as big a role in the win as any of the players.

    When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

  • I think Igor is a wise man (he's not called the Professor for nothing), but he needs to stop looking at it as a "them vs us" perspective and look at it from the perspective of two teams of professional players going at it.

    One of the things that Canada had going for it was depth (an advantage the US also holds). One of the things that Yzerman kept saying over and over (and Burke followed the same approach) was to bring together 'the best collection of players' as opposed to 'a collection of the best players'. Due in part to a variety of reasons (KHL/lack of transfer agreement, etc) the number of Russians in the NHL has decreased from close to 75 in 2002-03 to less than 30 this year, and the wide-held belief is that the ones in the NHL are the best, so the ones from the KHL (minus Fedorov and Radulov) take away from the depth.

    The Soviet Union built teams that consisted of a 'star' line (Mikhailov/Kharlamov/Maltsev or Makarov/Krutov/Larionov or Bure/Mogilny/Fedorov) followed down the line in skill. Those teams were built on 5 man units (Valeri Vasiliev/Vladimir Gusev than Kasatonov/Fetisov) and it's no surprise that Russia is the only team to carry 12 forwards and 8 defensemen here...Bykov was raised on the 5 man unit.

    Since Larionov's time, the Russian system has adopted a lot of North American characteristics (Viktor Tikhonov called them flaws) but because they no longer play as a unit, they have not been able to effectively integrate the characteristics as a team. Canada has also introduced several European characteristics in their game (the neutral zone drop pass for example) but these characteristics have become ubiquitous in our style. Familiarity also has a lot to do with it. All 23 players on Canada see one another as competitors day in and day out.....they know what to expect from one another. Again, the KHL/NHL disparity turned out to be huge (even Switzerland and Germany had teams built largely of players within their own leagues).

    Russia's downfall started in the 3rd period against Latvia. These players were playing in unfamilar roles and either didn't want to adjust, or couldn't adjust. Canada has players like Jarome Iginla....16 months ago Jarome Iginla was ranked #1 by NHL Central Scouting as the league's best player...and in game #1 he scored 3 goals, despite playing 9:23......can you see Ovechkin accepting 9:23 of ice time.

    I don't buy the excuse of the lack of familiarity with North American hockey because all but 4 players have NHL experience, and they were playing 23 NHLers, and they are more than capable of beating us at our own game....but they didn't....and it was like they didn't try.

    Doughty did a great job neutralizing Ovechkin, and it showed. The Russians chose to play a puck chasing game (similar to what Switzerland did) and lost. The Swiss were smart enough to know they were offensively challenged and stayed 'defensive' (and had a goaltender that bailed them out) while the Russians were stupid enough to give the opuck up and watch Nabokov fend for himself.

    In the end, Canmada played their game, and the Russians didn't adjust, and by the 3rd period, the Russians were going through the motions and Canada was dialing it in (one step above mailing it in) because they could.

    I could go on.....

  • 1 decade ago

    It helps if your team actually shows up to play. Milbury's comments may have been a bit crass but they weren't inaccurate. Russia's effort last night was embarrassing. No backcheck, no forecheck, and a determination to play European possession hockey rather than the good ol dump-n-chase.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    from where i sat, the russians were physically a joke. they got beat down and did nothing about it. they didnt use their skill, they played no defense and they couldnt play physical. i could tell they were not ready to play.

  • Jen C
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    I think it just came down to who wanted it more, to be honest.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.