The Russian national ice hockey team held the last rehearsal before the start of the 2021 World Youth Championship.
Two days before the meeting with the Americans at the group stage, Igor Larionov's charges took to the ice of the Rogers Place arena in Edmonton to try their hand at confronting the ice owners and the current gold medalists - the Canadians.
Although the meeting ended with the defeat of the guests with a minimum score, in general it gave the fans hope for the successful performance of the domestic team at the tournament.
The current situation in the world has led to the fact that the coaches of the youth teams were practically deprived of the opportunity to look at their players in action on the eve of the world championship.
For comparison, if a year ago Valery Bragin had a chance to test the team in a number of control meetings, as well as in the traditional Super Series, Larionov did not have such a thing.
With the exception of the Karjala Cup, he could assess the condition of his hockey players only in two friendly matches - with Canada and Slovakia.
True, later their number was completely reduced to one, which automatically made the duel with the founders of hockey extremely important.
On paper, there was every reason to believe that in this meeting, the national team has a chance to appear in better physical shape.
In Russia, the season began in September, as a result of which most of the hockey players managed to get in good shape and hold more than 20 meetings both in the KHL and in less status leagues of the country.
In North America, they began to play only in October-November, and this is if we talk exclusively about the junior championships.
In the NHL, the start of the regular season is scheduled for January 13, as a result of which the athletes performing there were completely deprived of competitive practice.
But in fact, this did not become an advantage.
The rivals approached the full-time match in approximately the same form, which became clearly visible even in the first minutes.
The Canadians acted in a very energy-intensive manner - they often stayed in the wrong half of the court during defense, actively used forechecking and achieved success.
This was facilitated by the desire of the Russians to leave their zone at all costs through a pass and generally rely on short and medium passes.
In this regard, I immediately recalled the brilliant performance of the team at last year's tournament, which was largely associated with the arrival of Larionov on the coaching bridge.
True, this sometimes did harm even then, but this time it did provoke a lot of losses.
In general, the match turned out to be quite equal and demonstrated that both opponents are not yet 100% ready for the tournament.
Hockey players often sinned with inaccurate transmissions, the reason for which was not only imperfect form, but also problems with mutual understanding.
Obviously, the teams will have to "swing" during the championship itself, which can make it a little more unpredictable than usual.
As for the Russian team, the second link, in which Yegor Chinakhov and Arseniy Gritsyuk were the soloists, showed themselves brighter than others.
And this is not surprising, because both defend the colors of Avangard and understand each other a little better on the ice.
Each of them could chalk up at least two goals, but at the decisive moment there was not enough implementation.
“Chinakhov?
He saved the goals until the official matches.
I'm not worried about him.
He is a very interesting hockey player who makes the game more spectacular, and his link is sharp and promising.
We have a good player who can take any position and bring more benefit than today, "Sport-Express quotes Larionov.
Some of the most dangerous moments with the participation of hockey players occurred in the second period.
First, Gritsyuk dragged the puck to the opponent's goal, and Chinakhov checked the Devon Levy's goal post for strength, and then Arseniy himself went to a rendezvous with the goalkeeper.
Shakir Mukhamadullin performed an excellent cutting pass from his third of the pitch, but the Hawks forward threw it past.
The rest of the links were not as productive in the attack.
But if they did not expect something like this from the third and fourth, then they probably wanted to see more active actions from the first.
Of course, Marat Khusnutdinov, Rodion Amirov and Vasily Podkolzin did not fail, but they looked more faded than their partners in the second three.
Although they had several excellent moments to print the gate of the Canadians.
Perhaps the most memorable was the spectacular breakthrough in the center performed by the right forward SKA.
But that evening, Levy acted beyond praise.
“The first link?
We have plan B and plan C. We need to analyze the match.
In the next 48 hours, we will decide how we will go against the United States.
It is very important to understand how these changes will affect the guys.
Khusnutdinov, Podkolzin and Amirov played together for the entire training camp.
The first match is difficult for everyone.
So far we will not make hasty conclusions, ”the mentor expressed his opinion.
Speaking of Levi's high class, one cannot fail to mention Yaroslav Askarov.
The record holder among domestic goalkeepers in the NHL draft has not missed a single washer and made 22 saves.
According to this indicator, he was only slightly behind Levy (23).
And this despite the fact that I spent one less period on the ice.
Therefore, the decision to recognize the goalkeeper as the best in the Russian national team in this match looks quite logical.
It is worth noting that Askarov has made significant progress over the year and promises to appear in much better shape at the current World Championship.
A similar opinion is expressed by Larionov, noting that the experience of performing at the MFM-2020 went to Yaroslav exclusively for the benefit.
“I am glad that a good goalkeeper is growing in our country.
I do not want to praise Yaroslav, but I know that he is a demanding professional, a morally stable young man.
It can be seen that in comparison with the last world championship, he became more experienced, calmer.
He was already here - it plays a colossal role for the goalkeeper.
It is impossible to reach that level without failures that were in the past.
The player progresses, draws some conclusions.
We are very pleased with his development and the fact that he plays an important role in our team, ”Larionov said.
Askarov's replacement did not provide any reasons for criticism either.
Despite the fact that it was Artur Akhtyamov who missed the only goal in the match, there is practically nothing to blame him for.
Firstly, in the episode with a goal, Vasily Ponomarev did not act in the best way, allowing Jamie Drysdale to throw freely almost from the border of the right circle, so the “shot” was almost perfect.
The puck flew out from under the defender and ended up in the top nine.
Critics also did not deserve the defenders, who held a meeting with the "maple leaves" at a high level.
In addition to Mukhamadullin, Daniil Chaika and Semyon Chistyakov, who actively helped ahead, stood out.
A slight disappointment was the majority play of the Russian national team.
Larionov's wards had three incomplete opportunities to excel in unequal compositions, but each time they did not act in the best way.
In two cases, they could not cope with the pressure of the enemy and found themselves with difficulty in his zone, and they completely ruined the third chance.
Seven seconds after Bowen Byram was sent off, Amirov received a minor penalty.
It is worth recalling that at last year's tournament, the realization of the numerical advantage for a long time was one of the main problems of the Russian team.
"Dry" series stretched for three meetings, and managed to achieve their goal only on the 17th attempt.
So far there is no good reason to believe that this time the national team will have to experience similar problems, but the meeting with Canada was a kind of first bell.