“We gave this match away”: what they said after the defeat of Russia from Canada in the final of the Hockey World Championship

“In the group, Canada received, and in the final, emphasized defense”

The final match of the youth world hockey championship turned out to be extremely offensive for the Russian team. 11 minutes before the end, wards of Valery Bragin beat Canada with an advantage of two goals, but in the remaining time they missed three times and missed the trophy. The coach himself after the match with difficulty picked up words, but tried not to criticize the wards much.

“Deletions of Dmitry Voronkov? Emotion overwhelmed. From the situation with goalkeepers, I can only say that we have what we have. In the fourth-goal episode, a rebound failed. Cyril Marchenko held the opponent, but the puck jumped. I think that in this composition of the Russian team there are a lot of promising guys. We are talking about all the defenders and about seven to eight forwards, ”the team mentor summed up.

He also talked about working together with Igor Larionov, who entered the headquarters of the youth team just before the tournament. According to Bragin, after working together with a famous athlete, he changed his views on hockey.

“They always said that Bragin plays defensive hockey. Guys, when this or that tactic is chosen, a lot depends on what composition you have. That's all. Sometimes you need to sacrifice something, it’s easier to play. Now we had a team in which everyone knew how to play in attack. In general, a system involving a game from a position of strength is very promising. I think that in the future all teams will play just like that, ”added Bragin.

The coach of the national team has so far refused to answer the question about further work with the youth team and a new contract with FHR.

“Am I ready to build a team for the MFM from scratch next year?” Constantly ask the same question. I will not discuss the extension of the contract now, it is pointless, ”Bragin emphasized.

As for the opponent’s game, the coach noticed that after the defeat at the stage of the group stage, the Canadians acted carefully.

“They played almost the entire match from the defense, in general, we were waiting for this. The meeting in the group with them turned out to be open, and Canada received. Therefore, in the final, “Maple Leaves” emphasized defense, ”the specialist emphasized.

Finally, the coach talked about a controversial episode in the end of the match, when the judge did not remove the Canadian for getting into the camera installed above the court.

“Yes, an incomprehensible meeting there took place at the arbitrators. Of course, this is pure two minutes, ”Bragin expressed his opinion.

He spoke about the results of the tournament and Larionov. He praised the team for what he said was playing “right hockey.”

“Now you can say a lot of negative things. But I would like to mention the team that played the right hockey. And everything else is difficult to evaluate on emotions. Finals are sometimes very nervous. Including in terms of psychology. I don’t want to focus on anyone specifically, on the surnames - we are talking about the team, ”said the specialist.

The coach also said that hockey players of the youth team in many moments simply did not have enough experience. However, he noted that he was optimistic about the future of these players.

“Do you understand what kind of tension the guys experienced? These guys who from childhood dreamed of playing on such a big "stage"? Of course, I wanted us to abandon a couple of goals in the majority, and not just one. But again, we are talking about emotions. The guys are still inexperienced, raw. But I look at the future of this team with optimism. During this period of time, we were able to make an interesting team. She liked the audience, the fans. I don’t want to shoot arrows of criticism at anyone. The team wins and loses together, ”added Larionov.

“I think we deserved more than silver medals”

As for the hockey players of the Russian national team, they were all very upset, but found the strength not only to sum up the results of the match and tournament, but also to admit that they themselves were to blame for the defeat from Canada.

“Now it’s hard to draw conclusions. I was happy to play with all the boys. The coaching staff made a team of us, we had 23 brothers in the squad, we played for Russia, but, unfortunately, it was Canada Day. We played no worse, dominated all rivals. I can’t say what was wrong, but the Canadians have flown. They threw some kind of puck from the heel, most of them scored. It’s hard to analyze all the episodes, I don’t even want to find out something, ”said defender Yegor Zamula.

The hockey player also spoke about the controversial episode with the puck hitting the camera in the end of the meeting.

“They tried to win, but were defeated. And then nothing can be changed, just move on. At the end, Canadians were not given a removal for throwing the puck? This is all a must watch. They would give two minutes, and we would have a chance. Everything could be different, ”complained Zamula.

Despite the generally successful performance of the Russian national team, defender Alexander Romanov became the only Russian player to get into the symbolic national team of the tournament. However, he was not particularly happy about this.

“It's nice, but if the team lost, then what's the difference?” I think we deserved more than silver medals. In my opinion, Russia is the best team of the tournament. Maybe someone will argue. But stupid deletions broke our game. According to them, everyone should speak for himself. I don’t know what anyone had in mind. Canadians also looked good. Now you just have to live on, come back and play for your clubs. Although during this time we have become each other's family and brothers. This is the best team, ”the athlete emphasized.

And forward Nikita Alexandrov, who opened the scoring in the match with Canada, like Zamula, said that Russia itself had given the game to Maple Leaves.

"I have no words. I can not say anything. They fought to the end, but this was not enough. There are a lot of deletions. I agree with Zamula, who said that everything was in our hands. What will I remember about the team? Of course, our team is cool. Good relations with everyone. Thanks to all the guys for the work. Thanks to the coaching staff for believing in me, ”said the hockey player.

As part of the Canadians, Barrett Hayton became one of the main characters. The captain of the North Americans was injured in the semifinals with Finland, but found the strength to go on the ice in the decisive confrontation and scored the most important third goal.

“I am grateful to our entire team. We have amazing chemistry! I'm really happy now. We fully believed that we could win. Now we are experiencing incredible emotions. In the final game, everything was decided by the details. We made good use of the majority, the Russian team - not so much. How does my sore shoulder feel? A million bucks! ”Hayton said on TSN.