Yes, we can say that in the opening match of the playoffs, with the score 2:1 in favor of Dynamo Moscow, Goncharuk’s unaccounted goal broke the Nizhny Novgorod team. But they canceled it absolutely correctly. And most importantly, in knockout battles, you need to be able to take a hit. Whatever it is, fair or not. Also, quickly present your indestructible arguments against the machinations of the opponent. With this, the young car manufacturers immediately had problems. And the obvious ones. However, the technician has no intention of changing anything.
– We will not give up our style, – Igor Larionov said yesterday after the defeat (1:3). – On the contrary, we ask the guys to work on the ice even with the score 1:2. We don’t want them to run one by one and throw the puck into the zone, because our team’s game is based on improvisation. We want the boys, even in a situation like this, to look for plays at the expense of the pass, of the ingenuity of the game, and thus overcome the redoubts. From what did not work, we can take many positive things. There are moments that we wanted to show that were close to perfection. On Friday we will discuss all these things with the boys, we will make some arrangements. With renewed vigor, we will play the hockey you have seen throughout the season. The series seems long. We prepare the boys to settle down and play the hockey they like to play. We will not, I repeat once again, go back, throw the puck out of the zone, we will play the hockey we know how to play.
Photo source: HC “Torpedo” (Nizhny Novgorod)
Like this! Like golden words. However, if my memory serves me right, and I have it reliable! – “Detroit” in the last century and “Tampa” in this, having broken all NHL records for victories in the regular season, entered the playoffs with wonderful, not to say hate! – humor and under the same flag. We will not change anything, we will all roll on the same skid, because we are a priori the most progressive and intelligent.
And? The regular-season champions were knocked out of the Stanley Cup with deafening uproar and ignominy. The “Lightning” was generally dried up by the provincial “Columbus”, and Kucherov plunged into outright rudeness. The Professor’s talented youth team flew with a whistle over Edmonton at the 2021 World Cup in Canada, where in the quarterfinals they barely defeated the Germans, to later noticeably take the soup out of the Klenovs and Finns. Larionov did not have a chance to improve. But the “red wings” and the “lightning” rebuilt a year later and privatized the Stanley Cup for a couple of seasons.
I terribly want to make a mistake, but nothing shines for the young Volga players in the Gagarin Cup with Brazilian hockey. Sergei Fedorov, the best center in world hockey in the 90s, will confirm this! CSKA has a much more experienced and skilled squad than Torpedo. However, the head coach of the army team understands this perfectly well: even with riders who are not in the Severstal ranking, participating in open hockey is only more expensive for you, and you will spend more strength, and the desired result will not it’s guaranteed. Not without reason in a smooth tournament Andrey Razin with his punks – in a good way! – forced the defending champions to capitulate in three out of four matches. And with what score: 4: 1 (twice) and 6: 4!
Photo source: HC Severstal
Yesterday, you won’t believe it! – Severstal also won. First period. After the break, the Muscovites turned on the turbo cup mode. In the second third, the Cherepovites threw themselves 19 against 3, in the third – 15 against 8 and scored four goals in a row, as if pulled out from under an inkjet printer. One army soldier charges from afar, the other corrects from a penny – and voila! As a result, 5:2 – elementary, Watson! Playoff classic. By the way, both goals in Omsk were scored in the same way in regulation time. Yes, and the only one on the eve of yesterday’s match in Yaroslavl.
Unfortunately, even in Soviet times, when players spent most of the season on the guards, and 3-pointers played for years, our bold combinational style didn’t always come to fruition in teams with the Americans. Did we manage to give Canada at our airfield in Luzhniki even the 1972 Super Series won on their ice?! We scored after lace-sweeping attacks, and Esposito, Henderson and Co. regularly pushed trash from near and far pennies into the net.
Now, when everyone has switched to transatlantic boxlifts, except in three-on-three overtimes, you can still see those notorious Chernyshev, Tarasov, Bobrov, Tikhonov laces. And in virgin form. Because there, in fact, the attack does not begin with a throw, but ends with it. What was the fundamental difference between Soviet and Canadian hockey? That is, the main thing here is control of the puck. You can’t argue with Larionov here.
Photo source: HC “Torpedo” (Nizhny Novgorod)
However, on narrow fields when playing “five by five”, all this no longer works. There is literally no place! Even if your team is full of Malkins, Kucherovs, Panarins, Kaprizovs with McDavids and McKinnons. Simplicity is the key to success. In “Torpedo” now, not only the Five Russians are not visible, it is not even known when Kruchinin will return to the base!
In a word, comrade professor, I warned you. If so, blame yourself! Either way, I’ll be rooting for you. Watching live miracles like the USA win at Lake Placid in 1980 is every puck fan’s dream!
