Bragin team medal series in the past
According to tradition, the youth team of Russia is among the favorites of each international tournament in which it takes part, and most often confirms this status, winning one of the medal sets. Yes, the championship of the planet among 20-year-old domestic hockey players did not win for a long time (the last triumph dates back to 2011, when the future NHL stars Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Artemy Panarin and Dmitry Orlov played for the youth), but among the winners were stably. In the period from 2012 to 2017, the team of Valeriy Bragin would certainly return home, either with silver or with bronze.
The medal series of the youth national team, which had no analogues, was interrupted at the MFM-2018. In the American Buffalo, for the first time in eight years, the team did not make it to the semifinals, in the most offensive way losing to the hosts of the competition at the very first stage of the playoffs: the decisive goal from the forward of the New York Islanders system Kiefer Bellows missed the national squad for seven and a half minutes before the end of the third period and did not have time to recoup.
Experts subsequently described such a statement as “average”, and the main reasons for the failure of the President of the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) Vladislav Tretyak called the problems with playing discipline and the weak realization of the numerical advantage. There were good reasons for this: for the entire tournament in the USA, the youth team only once distinguished themselves in the majority, having killed 19 out of 20 attempts to play the odd one out.
⚡ The list of players who can play at the MFM has been reduced to 25 hockey players⚡
At the first meeting of the Directorate, teams must include in the application a minimum of 15 field players and 2 goalkeepers. And the final application for the tournament will form 23 hockey player.
Read more: https://t.co/xQgzi4lSiBpic.twitter.com/UnpiCmYJcV
However, the unsatisfactory result of the world championship did not affect the prospects for Bragin’s cooperation with FHR. First, the youth team mentor won a seven-year medal series if not infinite, then close to him the credibility of the hockey officials, and one single failure (partly even due to the recently increased level of competition) could not undermine it.
Secondly, at the end of the MFM in Buffalo, the 62-year-old specialist himself admitted that the generation of Russian players born in 1998 turned out to be weaker than not only their peers from other countries, but also Klim Kostin and Andrei Svechnikov, who were called to the tournament as an exception. Bragin's skills, unfortunately, did not use to the maximum, releasing promising forwards on the ice only in the third or fourth level.
The Super Series helped make a tough choice.
For Svechnikov, unfortunately or fortunately, the MFM in Buffalo will remain the last in his professional career. The forward, selected as the overall summer number of the NHL draft pick, had no visible problems in the main line-up of the Carolina Hurricanes, and the club leading the fight for a place in the playoffs did not predictably let go of one of its top scorers in the world championship in Canada.
By the way, not only the Russian youth faced similar problems. The Swedes, for example, will play in Vancouver and Victoria without the incredibly talented defender Rasmus Dalin, who has already become the leader of the Buffalo Sabers, and the Americans without the Ottawa Senators forward, Brady Tkachuk, who scored ten goals in the current regular championship, world leagues.
The Finnish national team lost two performers at once who could become almost the main stars of the Canadian tournament: Dallas Stars defender Miro Heiskanen and Montreal Canadiens forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi, the first among hockey players of 2000 who debuted in the NHL.
True, even in the absence of Svechnikov and taking into account the injuries that the youth team of Russia faced during the preparation for the MFM, Bragin had to make a very difficult choice when drawing up the final application of the team for the tournament. The coaching staff of the national team, who is assisted by Olympic champion Pyonchkhana Oleg Znarok as a consultant, has not yet announced the final composition - 25 performers continue to prepare for the championship of the planet, as a result of which there will be no two.
📆 Schedule of our team at the group stage of the World Youth Championship.
New Year will be hot 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4uOg7UX5LF
Especially high (as, incidentally, always, when it comes to Russian youths) was competition in the positions of flank attackers. It got to the point that in the test matches that preceded the Canadian tournament, probably the most well known to the general public performer of this convocation of the youth team, Tractor sniper Vitaly Kravtsov tried his hand at the position of center forward. And, by the way, not without success.
In addition to the pupil of the Chelyabinsk hockey team, who scored six goals in the last Gagarin Cup, the leaders of the youth team attacks on the MFM-2019 should be Yaroslavl Lokomotiv representing Grigoriy Denisenko, and also mentioned above Kostin, at the club level speaking for St. Louis Blues in the American hockey league: Klim, who already has experience of playing in a similar tournament in this age group, was given the captain's patch.
It will also be interesting to observe the actions of 17-year-old Vasily Podkolzin, whom FHR Vice-President Roman Rotenberg recently compared with the outstanding Canadian Conor McDavid - if, of course, Bragin will give the talented junior enough playing time.
The captain of our youth team at the World Cup will be striker Klim Kostin.
Under the link - a little more details and player comment https://t.co/sitD4lUaiZpic.twitter.com/0ZYUK2LHtj
But with the defense and the goalkeepers much cleared up during the autumn Super Series, which the Russian youth won in many respects precisely because of confident actions at their own gates. The status of the first number will be argued by speakers in the Higher Hockey League Peter Kochetkov and Daniil Tarasov, and among the defenders it is worthwhile to select first two “Canadians” - Alexander Alekseev, who in the future has good chances to play with his namesake for the Washington Capitals, and Dmitry Samorukov.
The latter surprised at an advanced age with a mature game even at last year’s MFM, being younger than the overwhelming majority of opponents, and most definitely should not get lost in the upcoming tournament. On these two hockey players, as well as the one who “shot” during Savely Olshansky's Super Series, Bragin counts, including when playing in a numerical advantage. The effectiveness of the implementation of which, however, during the preparatory collection left much to be desired.
The key match of the MFM for Russia will take place in the quarterfinals
The format of the World Youth Championship, which takes part in a total of ten teams, is extremely simple. At the end of the main stage of the tournament, the four best teams of each of the two groups go into the quarter-finals and continue to fight for the awards, and the teams finishing fifth hold a mini-series of up to two victories for maintaining registration in the elite division for another season.
Participation in the relegation round is almost certainly not threatened by domestic hockey players: success in the main time of the opening bout of the MFM with Denmark, of course, does not guarantee Bragin’s team a start in the playoffs, but will turn the solution of this task into a formality. But further events promise to turn around much more dynamically.
On the one hand, in Group A, where the Russians got, there is only one opponent who has real chances to outrun Kostin and company in the standings - the Canadians are the owners of the planet, with whom the team will meet on New Year's Eve. Czech Republic and Switzerland with a composition that significantly exceeds last year’s potential in terms of their potential, the domestic youth should, according to the logic of things, beat up and, as a result, go to the quarterfinal either from the first or from the second line.
Another thing is that in no way guarantees a comfortable opponent in the first round of matches to take off: in Quintet B, Finns, Swedes and Americans, who are also on the extended list of contenders for the medal, and uncomfortable at any level, can be brilliant neutralize the strengths of superior in the class of the enemy in a single meeting. And with some of them (Kazakhstan will probably fight for survival) the Russian team will have to fight at the start of the playoffs.
📸 The first training session of our guys on the ice at the main arena of the youth world championship - Rogers Arena in Vancouver pic.twitter.com/t563134Ot4
- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 26, 2018Therefore, the quarter-final match of the world championship will most likely be decisive for the youth team. Having beaten a really strong opponent under pressure and having gained confidence in their own abilities for hockey players of any age, Russians will be able to relax in medal matches and show what the current generation is capable of.
By the same scenario, by the way, the triumphal for Bragin MFM-2011 was also unfolding: in the first round of the playoffs, the team led by Kuznetsov, put the Finns in overtime, after playing the lag in two goals in the last minutes of the third period, and after such a miraculous rescue neither Sweden nor Canada could scare them.