Russian National Hockey Team News

Today the Russian Hockey Federation announced that the team coaches Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin will continue working with the Russian National team.

"Their work with the team was found to be satisfactory," said Vladislav Tretiak to Sovetskiy Sport. "Soon we will meet to discuss the details of the new contract."

This season was very unsuccessful for Russia as it suffered two major losses: in the Olympics' quarterfinal against Canada (3:7) and in the World Championship final against the Czech Republic (1:2).

After the 2-1 loss to Czech Republic in the 2010 World Championship in Germany, Vyacheslav Bykov gave an interview to the popular Russian website Sovietsky Sport. Bykov stated that the sixty percent of today's roster will be playing in the 2014 Olympics, talked about his future with the Russian national team, tried to analyze the reasons of the defeat and also talked about the foreigners policy within the KHL.

Team Czech Republic won the Gold Medal in the 2010 WC Finals.
The Czechs prevailed 2-1 after an early goal by Jakub Klepis assisted by Jaromir Jagr and a marker from Tomas Rolinek late in the second period. Pavel Datsyuk cut down the Czech advantage with a third period goal, but Bykov's team didn't manage to revert the score. Surely this wasn't the best season for Team Russia.

After the 5-2 win in the 2010 World Championship's quarterfinals, goalie Semyon Varlamov gave an interview to Russian sport website Sovietskiy Sport.

Semyon Varlamov: "In the first ten minutes Team Canada always plays very actively. They created some moments. But they didn't manage to score, I don't know why."

Don't be so modest!

Semyon Varlamov: "In a couple of chances they simply didn't have room. I'm not saying that they brought a bad team here. Canada can beat anyone with any roster. But this time we were better."

Did you see that in the second period Brooks Laich slashed Ovechkin from behind? And he's a Caps player too!

Semyon Varlamov: "In general Team Canada played very roughly. When the score was 3-0 [Corey] Perry slashed Sasha [Ovechkin] from behind. That was really dirty. I'm sure that Perry did want to injure him."

Why?

Semyon Varlamov: "So that he couldn't play again in the tournament."

That's mean.

Semyon Varlamov: "Agreed. But in Team Canada there are two players like that. Perry and [Steve] Downie. And the second one really confirms his surname. You know what I mean. He behaved shamefully."

Team Russia defeated team Finland 5-0 in the last Qualification Group game of the 2010 World Championship. Alexander Ovechkin ended his goal streak.

Team Finland started well the first period, putting a lot of pressure over Varlamov. But despite a long 5-on-3 chance with Alexei Emelin and Dmitry Kulikov in the penalty box, the Finns didn't manage to score. With the teams back on even strength Kulikov had a good chance getting out of the sin bin, but he was hooked down by a defenceman, thus drawing a penalty for Bykov's team. On the consequent man advantage team Russia cycled well the puck, but couldn't get it into Vehanen's net.

Team Russia released the preliminary roster for the upcoming 2010 World Championship, that will be played in Germany from May 7th to 23rd.. Bykov and Zakharkin made some changes from the LG Hockey Games line-up. The roster is made up of 11 NHL players and 12 KHL players. The team's captain isn't decided yet. Most likely the starting goaltender duties will be shared between Eremenko and Varlamov, with Koshechkin acting as third goalie.

Goalkeepers:
Alexander Eremenko (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Semyon Varlamov (Washington Capitals)

Defencemen:
Konstantin Korneev (CSKA Moscow)
Vitaly Atyushov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Dmitriy Kalinin (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Ilya Nikulin (Ak Bars Kazan)
Alexei Emelin (Ak Bars Kazan)
Denis Grebeshkov (Nashville Predators)
Dmitry Kulikov (Florida Panthers)

Forwards:
Maxim Afinogenov (Atlanta Thrashers)
Evgeny Artyukhin (Atlanta Thrashers)
Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)
Alexander Semin (Washington Capitals)
Alexei Tereschenko (Ak Bars Kazan)
Artem Anisimov (New York Rangers)
Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey Devils)
Nikolai Kulemin (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Maxim Sushinsky (SKA St. Petersburg)
Sergei Mozyakin (Atlant Mytischi)
Sergei Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)
Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles Kings)
Alexander Svitov (Avangard Omsk)

Ilya Kovalchuk gave an interview to Russian newspaper Sovetskiy Sport where he talked about going to the World Championship without a contract in the NHL, his favorites to win the Stanley Cup, what Russian players agreed to do after failing at the Olympics.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Many thought that you won't play for the national team. It is very risky as you don't have a contract for the next season in the NHL. Besides your wife gave a birth to your son in March. Was this decision hard to take?

Kovalchuk: "After failing in Vancouver all guys agreed to go to the World Championship if there is a chance. We must win and make this season end well.
My wife Nicole understood me at once, told me that the whole family would be watching games on TV and cheer for us. She and the kids stayed in Miami. I spent a week there and flew to Russia."

As reported by the official site of the Russian Hockey Federation, forwards Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey Devils) and Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles Kings), as well as blue liner Denis Grebeshkov (Nashville Predators) have been added to team Russia's roster for the upcoming 2010 IIHF World Championship in Germany as their NHL teams were excluded from the Stanley Cup run.

This is surely a boost for team Russia, who will miss Anton Volchenkov and Igor Grigorenko due to injuries. Bykov and Zakharkin will be also without Alexei Morozov, Danis Zaripov and Sergei Zinoviev, all sidelined with injuries. Salavat Yulaev's Alexander Radulov got a mild injury too and will miss the upcoming LG Hockey games in Sweden, but will play in Germany.

During an interview with Russian popular newspaper Sovietskiy Sport, Ottawa Senators' defenseman Anton Volchenkov won't go to the upcoming 2010 World Championship in Germany. The 28 years old would be free as his Senators just lost the first round NHL playoffs series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Anton Volchenkov: "Now I'm not planning of doing the trip to Germany to play on the World Championship. I need some rehabilitation. There are some problems with my health. I will discuss about this with National Team's head coach Vyacheslav Bykov."

CSKA Moscow forward Denis Parshin has been cut from the National Team camp for the upcoming LG Hockey Games in Sweden, Euro Hockey Tour.

The 2010 Olympic Hockey Tournament has probably been the biggest disappointing ever for Team Russia. The early quarterfinal elimination against Team Canada was the worst result ever.

As soon as the tournament was over for Russia, we published the Top 5 reasons for this fail, now RussianHockeyFans.com judged all the players on the roster.

With the early quarterfinals exit, Team Russia set a new negative record as this was the worse Olympic outcome in their history. Since the first participation, 1956 Olympics in Cortina, Italy, Russia never had such a poor result.

Team Russia's roster was, on paper, the tournament's finest, but they couldn't live up to the expectations, even in the round robin, which Bykov's team ended with two wins and one loss, which determined the pairing with Canada.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you top five reasons why Russia failed at 2010 Olympics.

Team Russia coach, Vyacheslav Bykov, gave an interview to Sovetskiy Sport where he talked about the quarterfinal game between Russia and Canada.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Bykov: "I would like to congratulate Canada with this victory. Unfortunately, the Olympic Games are over for us. I would like apologize to our fans. Today we faced a very strong team. We couldn't get out of their pressure since the very beginning. It was really hard. We tried different variants to change the game and move it to the opponent's zone, but we failed. Canada demonstrated very interesting hockey. It was a pleasure to watch them, and I can't say the same about our team."

- Maybe the reason of the loss is that the Russian players visited some parties recently?