"Znarok enjoys authority among NHL players"
Less than 4.5 months before the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the Russian ice hockey team has a new head coach.
It was Oleg Znarok, who previously won with the national team of the 2014 World Cup and the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.
The previous coach of the national team, Valery Bragin, will remain at the headquarters and will take the position of a consultant.
According to the President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretyak, the contract with the 58-year-old specialist has been signed for a year.
In the near future, he and Alexei Zhamnov will travel to North America to meet with the Russians in the NHL.
“The znarok is respected among the NHL players, we hope that he will rally the team.
He has charisma, he is a winner.
The World Championship in Minsk proved it, ”TASS quotes Tretyak.
The full composition of the coaching staff has not yet been named, however, according to information from Match TV, it will definitely include the helmsman of Riga Dynamo Sergey Zubov, who will work with the defenders.
In turn, the commentator of the TV channel Dmitry Guberniev wrote in Telegram that the final appointment of the speech is not yet being discussed: allegedly while “consultations are continuing”.
Znarok is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the Russian national team.
For the first time, he headed it in the spring of 2014, replacing Zinetula Bilyaletdinov in this post after a failure at the home Olympics in Sochi.
Then an agreement with him was signed for four years.
The specialist immediately gave the result.
Under his leadership, the team made a splash at the world championship in Minsk, winning all ten matches in regulation time and scoring 42 goals in them.
In the final, the national team broke the resistance of Finland - 5: 2.
In the future, it was not possible to rise to the highest step of the podium, but Russia invariably took medals.
In 2015, Znark's wards were content with silver, devastatingly losing to Canada in the decisive match, and in 2016 and 2017 they took bronze.
At the third in the history of the World Cup in Toronto, the Russians reached the semifinals, where they again lost to the Canadians - 3: 5.
He completed the first stage of work in the Znarok national team with a victory at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, the first for domestic hockey since 1992.
True, the NHL players did not come to South Korea, which made the triumph less valuable in the eyes of some experts and fans.
In addition, in the final, the Russians almost lost to Germany.
Four years later, the specialist will have the opportunity to prove that he is able to become the best at the Olympic Games and with the participation of overseas stars - the league leadership in early September agreed to let their hockey players go to China.
As for Bragin, he managed to hold only one major tournament at the head of the senior national team - the World Championship in Riga, which ended in failure.
In the quarterfinals, Russia unexpectedly lost to Canada, which played in a not very strong composition (1: 2 OT).
After that, there were serious doubts that the hero of the youth championships of the planet would take the adult team to Beijing.
"Since Znarok takes responsibility, then he is ready to bear it"
Most of the experts met the decision to change the coach of the national team on the eve of the Olympic Games and return Znark with understanding and approval.
So, the former mentor of the national team Vyacheslav Bykov believes that this person is more suitable for the position than others.
“I think they are all famous people who know hockey, they are specialists who have a lot of experience and enough victories.
Let's hope that this time our team will win the gold of the Olympic Games, that is, it will defend its title, ”TASS quotes Bykov.
According to the Stanley Cup winner Valery Kamensky, the return of Znark is a risk, like any coaching appointment, but the results shown by him in the past speak in favor of the specialist.
“Whoever is appointed - there would be a risk, this is hockey.
By status, this is a normal choice.
The znarok takes responsibility, which means he is ready to bear it.
He has a sense of winning the Olympics.
He knows how to prepare and who to take.
There is no result, besides how to defend the title.
We will try, and then we will see that the strongest will win.
We have all the players to perform with dignity, "- quotes the words of Kamensky Sport24.
However, there were also those who met the appointment with incomprehension.
So, according to the two-time Olympic champion Vyacheslav Fetisov, this post should have been entrusted to CSKA mentor Sergei Fedorov.
“We need a specialist with experience in the NHL, with an understanding of how the system works - the main rivals at the Olympics will come from there ... Probably, there will be enough charisma to beat the professional team of coaches.
Let's hope.
I can only wish good luck, ”Fetisov said.
In turn, another two-time Olympic champion Boris Mikhailov called the decision to appoint Bragin a consultant to Znarka strange.
“I would like to wish him first to complete the coaching staff, and then, together with colleagues, to complete the team.
Still, he is a titled coach, he won the Gagarin Cup, the World Championship and the Olympic Games several times.
Bragin, for example, did not achieve such success, there was criticism in his direction ... The Federation made its move, now it's up to Znark.
It is desirable that the coaching staff become known to the public, then there will be fewer questions.
In any case, I would like to wish him good luck - he took up a very difficult business, ”Sport24 quotes Mikhailov.