The first stage of the Euro Tour in the post-Olympic season is not the tournament, based on the results of which it is worth making far-reaching conclusions. At the moment, none of the coaches of the four strongest teams of the Old World does not set the task for their players to win at any cost. Ilya Vorobyov, like his colleagues from Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, spent their debut in the 2018/19 campaign international pause in order to check the nearest reserve of national teams and “light up” at a decent level of performers who had previously remained in the shadow of first-size stars. It is logical that, as part of the Russian squad for the Karjal Cup, there were no, say, Pavel Datsyuk and Nikita Gusev - their mentor, who works with creative attackers in SKA on a daily basis, is well known. These and other Olympic champions Pyonchkhana (for example, defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who also did not fly with the national team to Finland) do not need additional verification.
But the coaching staff of Vorobiev significantly rejuvenated the squad, whose average age did not even reach 25 years, and attracted additional attention to the regular competition, inviting representatives of nine Continental Hockey League (KHL) clubs to Finland, including Avtomobilist, ahead of in the league summary of the league, both army giants. Eight absolute debutants, as well as several names forgotten by fans like Andrei Loktionov, who did not play for the national team since the 2014/15 season, somewhat increased their interest in the Karjal Cup, where almost every combination of the national squad pulled into experimental status. There were no surprises except for the format of the goalkeeper brigade: only Ilya Sorokin and Igor Shesterkin, the best goalkeepers with a Russian passport, acting on this side of the Atlantic, took to the ice.
A spoon of tar
The Russian hockey players managed to win the Karjal Cup ahead of time: for this, there were enough victories over Finland and Sweden with a total score of 7: 1. The playing advantage of Vorobyov’s charges in fights with the Scandinavian national teams was tangible, and the mentor was ready to call the meeting with the current world champions perfect, if not the missed puck, which was the result of being removed for violating the number. Not surprisingly, the Russians struck the gate “Tre Krunur” both in equal compositions, and in the majority, and in the minority (Yevgeny Ketov's goal was four-to-five with the most spectacular). And it was those hockey players who distinguished themselves for whom a place in the national team for the spring world championship is not guaranteed.
The defeat of the Czech Republic somewhat impaired the impression of the performance of the Russian team at the Euro Hockey Tour starting stage - first of all, the final score 2: 5, which was the result of the fact that the team conducted the ending with six field players on the ice and missed twice into the empty net. But in fact, it is precisely such matches that provide coaches with more food for thought than other victories: it is not terrible to give up in a de facto friendly competition in an unresolved meeting if you subsequently analyze the mistakes made and do everything possible to avoid repeating them at more serious starts. . This concerns, in particular, the game in the majority. Despite the fact that in each of the three matches played in Finland, Russians punished their opponents for deletion at least once, they played out the numerical advantage convincingly - and, as a result, they could not break the resistance of the Czechs, who fought four of a total of 14 minutes out of 60.
New problem in the center
In recent years, much has been said that the position of the central striker is almost the most scarce in Russian hockey. Truth in this was. If Yevgeny Malkin and Yevgeny Kuznetsov of national-caliber national hockey league (NHL) caliber, who come to the national team only on major holidays because of their employment in their clubs, are taken out of parentheses, Oleg Znark’s predecessor of Vorobiev had a very poor choice of performers for the most important role in the national team. With all due respect to Datsyuk, who continues his magnificent professional career and after joining the “Triple Golden Club”, it is not quite normal that by the age of 40 the “Wizard” remained almost the strongest player in the country in its role.
The Karjal Cup made me look at the situation differently - and not only because of the high-quality game played by the representative of Lokomotiv Loktionov, who justified the advance in the form of a place in the center of the first link. The second three of Alexei Byvaltseva formally showed good hockey, which made the result in a duel with the Swedes (Andrei Kuzmenko scored two of the four goals in that match), and Alexander Kadeykin from Salavat Yulaev who made his debut in the first Russian national team from Salavat Yulaev nicely coped with the duties of the center four-four. praised by experts for the amount of draft work completed at the Eurotour launching stage. Only Denis Zernov from Avangard did not manage to leave the fans a good impression with his game, and he probably will not receive the next invitation to the national team immediately.
Considering that, in addition to Datsyuk, Vadim Shipachev, who had solid statistical indicators in Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo “nominated” in the nominally first link at the 2018 Olympiad, Sergey Andronov, was not called to the Karjal Cup, and Vorobiev could easily There is a problem of choice - at least Loktionov with Kadeikin have deserved their game in Finland to remain in the cage team if not for the whole season, then at least for one stage of the Euro Tour. And this is good: the team claiming the highest places at all official starts is clearly not hindered by healthy competition in a position that nobody could close a year or two ago.
Defenders debutants did not disappoint
And if in attack the coaching staff of the Russian squad diluted the newcomers with proven tournament fighters like Kaprizov, Grigorenko, Ivan Telegin and Alexander Barabanov, who conquered, among other things, the Olympic gold of Pyongchhan, in the defense of the new faces was much more than the old-timers. At the Karjala Cup, Alexey Vasilevsky, Denis Barantsev and Andrei Pedan made their debut in the national team, and for Artem Blazhievsky and Alexander Yelesin, the Finnish stage of Euro Hockey Tour was only the second in their career.
Not a single representative of this five in Helsinki, by and large, did not fail. Unless Ak Bars, the defender of the match against the Czech Republic, who returned to the summer offseason from across the ocean, may have some questions - in combination with Artem Zub Pedan of St. Petersburg, the army did not look too convincing, having worked on the final utility value of -3. But the overall defender managed to distinguish himself with an abandoned puck in the very first official duel for the national team: Finnish goalkeeper Juha Metsola, known to Russian fans for playing for Amur and Salavat Yulaev, suffered from his hand.
But the real discovery of the Karjala Cup was Vasilevsky, whose younger brother, Andrei, brilliantly performs in the NHL for Tampa Bay Lightning. The 25-year-old defender, who moved to Avtomobilist long before the team from Yekaterinburg joined the KHL leaders, just now attracted the attention of the coaching staff of the national team - and the debut in his career justified the debut with a vengeance. In Finland, Alexei managed to play with several partners who already had international experience, did not make serious mistakes, and in the unsuccessful match for the national squad with the Czechs, he took part in both goal combinations, writing down the puck and the final transfer to the majority. Along with Nikita Nesterov, recognized as the best defender of the Euro Tour start stage, Vasilevsky should become the bulwark of the Vorobyov team’s defense this season and, at least, fight for participation in the World Championship.
A look into the future
The December international window promises to be even more interesting for domestic hockey fans, because the second stage of the Euro Tour will be hosted by Russia, and the national team will play both in Moscow (with Sweden and the Czech Republic) and in St. Petersburg (against Finland). According to a long-established tradition, the national team performs in the First Channel Cup in the optimal composition, as far as possible in the absence of NHL representatives. Consequently, fans should wait for the call to the national team of almost all the heroes of Pyonchkhan, headed by Datsyuk. Unless, of course, in the coming month, superveteran will not have serious health problems.
But, I think, six months before the next championship of the planet, Vorobyov’s headquarters will not abandon personnel experiments. First, because in the Karjala Cup, hockey players who were not previously members of the national team cage, showed themselves mostly from their best side. Secondly, the Russian Olympic team, where potential debutants of the national squad are running, won a convincing victory at the friendly tournament held in Germany at the same time as the Finnish championship, winning each of three matches held in Krefeld. And in its composition, too, there is someone to look at.