Vyacheslav Bykov will remain head coach of Team Russia (Photo © Associated Press)

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).

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Team Russia latest news: Fedorov misses practice, Kovalchuk out of Malkin’s line, Nabokov to start against Czechs (Photo © Shaun Best, Reuters)

Here is the latest news from the Russian team at the Olympic Games 2010 in Vancouver.

Evgeny Nabokov will start in the game against the Czech Republic
Igor Zakharkin, Russian coach to Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport: “We think that with Nabokov in the net our players feel more confident.”

Sergei Fedorov missed a practice
Zakharkin: “Fedorov has an individual program. But he’s alright, there is no injury.”

New lines in the game against the Czech Republic
Zakharkin: “Maybe we are going to swap the center forwards. We think that Kovalchuk’s efficiency should be higher. We remember what chemistry Malkin and Kovalchuk had at the World Championship 2008, but two years have passed and they are different players now, their styles changed too. There is a bit of imbalance on the Kovalchuk-Malkin-Afinogenov line. We hope to fix it.”

Only first three shootout players were known beforehand in the game against the Slovaks
Zakharkin: “We knew who would have first three shootout attempts, but when it went on… Bykov has a good intuition, but this time it didn’t work. We hoped that the game wouldn’t get to the shootout. Now we are going to make a list of players beforehand.”

New power play lines
According to Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express, the new power play lines look like this:
1. Alexander Ovechkin – Pavel Datsyuk – Evgeni Malkin, Kovalchuk – Gonchar
2. Alexander Semin – Viktor Kozlov – Alexander Radulov, Andrei Markov – Ilya Nikulin.
Ovechkin and Radulov were positioned in front of the goalie, screening him.

Update: Team Russia’s coaches swap Malkin with Datsyuk
According to sports.ru, the new top two lines look like this:
1. Alexander Ovechkin – Evgeni Malkin – Alexander Semin, Sergei Gonchar – Fedor Tyutin.
2. Ilya Kovalchuk – Pavel Datsyuk – Maxim Afinogenov, Konstantin Korneev – Denis Grebeshkov.
The other two lines remain the same:
3. Alexei Morozov – Sergei Zinoviev – Danis Zaripov, Ilya Nikulin – Andrei Markov.
4. Viktor Kozlov – Sergei Fedorov – Alexander Radulov, Dmitriy Kalinin – Anton Volchenkov.

Translation by RussianHockeyFans.com

Igor Zakharkin: “We can’t stand this food anymore” (Photo © Shaun Best, Reuters)

It seems like the food they serve in the Olympic village in Vancouver is really bad.

First it were Alexei Morozov and Semyon Varlamov who complained about the food in the village. According to Morozov the players had to eat in McDonald’s. He also said that with food like this they would “turn up their toes”.

Then it was Ilya Bryzgalov who called the food “terrible”.

Now it’s Team Russia coach Igor Zakharkin who calls Russian officials for help.

“We can’t stand it anymore. It is time for our officials to step in. Our players can’t recover eating the food they serve in the village. It’s not tasty and low in calories. It’s some semi prepared foods! We don’t want it to have an impact on our team”, said Zakharkin to Vitaliy Slavin of Sovetskiy Sport.

Igor Zakharkin: “Starting goalie will be known only in February” (Photo © Sportdaily.ru)

After stating that the Olympic starter should be Evgeny Nabokov, team Russia assistant coach Igor Zakharkin makes an u-turn and says that the first goalie will be known in February only.
Russian Hockey Fans offers you a translation of an interview with Sovietskiy Sport interview in with Zakharkin speaks about goalies’ chances and about Ovechkin’s need not to change his style.

– The other morning i turned on the computer and I got shocked when I read the news about Ovechkin’s injury. We are already thinking seriously about the Olympics. At any moment an injury can arrive.
I don’t know which diagnosis Sasha got, but you can’t joke with knees. This is already Ovechkin’s second injury of the season. I understand that it’s related whit his aggressive style. We are anxious for that. We hope in Washington doctors’ professionalism. And we’ll ask the national team’s doctors to get in touch with Ovechkin. We’ll help as much as possible.

– A common opinion is that Ovechkin should play more cautiously. And stay off his risky style not to get the same fate as Eric Lindros…
You can’t say for sure. Alexander plays power hockey and he’s comfortable with that. On ice he acts he follows his feelings, he plays like he’s used to and like he can. If he’ll change, then he wouldn’t be Ovechkin anymore. And also other players might get injuries.
Do you remember what Porthos says in “The three musketeers”? “I am going to fight – because I am going to fight”. He can’t be any different. And there is nothing to fear about his style. Especially considering that fans love his style.

– Getting back to the Olympics, during a radio interview with “Komsomolskaya Pravda” you said that you see Evgeny Nabokov as the first goalie. And what about Ilya Bryzgalov?
– Firstly, I wasn’t asked about Bryzgalov. Secondly, I put the stress on the fact that we a good set of players and a good interchangeability within the roster. But we can’t anticipate in November what is going to happen in February. The core of my speech was that we have a very good group of goalies.
Ilya Bryzgalov has a non-ordinary personality, he’s having a great season. He can play important matches at a very high level, like he showed in the 2009 WC finals against Canada.
Semen Varlamov is a young guy whit a big potential. He plays in Washington with confidence. He’s the future of Russian hockey. Nikolay Khabibulin – unfortunately I don’t know him in person and I only lie on information that they give us from overseas. Alexander Eremenko – you can rely on him, he will make a save when it’s needed the most.
All the named goalies, included Vasily Koshechkin, will skate in the Olympic training camp. Anyone of them has chances to go to Vancouver. And the starter will be known not now, but on mid February. We don’t want to rush on this theme. Let us work quietly.

– Did you already decide what kind of roster you’ll declare on December 25th?
So far we haven’t had a final information from the IIHF. I hope that the Russian Hockey Federation would get a stronger position in negotiations with the people from international federation responsible of the Olympic games’ organization. We are thinking about two solutions. The first one would be forming a list around the New Year with NHL players only. The second solution – claiming NHL players and an expanded list of candidates from the KHL. But they didn’t give us a final response yet.

By wearing good quality goalie masks you can be sure that you’d hit the goal.

Igor Zakharkin: “Evgeny Nabokov should be the Olympics’ starter” (Photo © Associated Press)

In this interview with Sovietskiy Sport, Team Russia’s assistant coach Igor Zakharkin stated that Evgeny Nabokov will most likely be the starting goalkeeper in Vancouver. He also indicated that they plan to reunite the famous ZZM (Zaripov, Zinoviev, Morozov) line.

– Did you have talks with Evgeny Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov? Did you talk with Evgeny Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov? Who of them will have to be a backup goalie and resign himself to this decision?
– There can’t be two first goalies in a game and there is no doubt that Evgeny Nabokov should be the starter. He’s a great goalkeeper with undeniable qualities. He excellently commands the defense. He’s a player with a winning soul who can turn up the team’s spirit. All this makes in my sight Evgeny Nabokov a first goalie.

– According to which principle will you form the team’s roster? 13+7 or four regular lines?
– Now we are more inclined towards the second variant. The Olympic tournament’s peculiarity is its shortness. It’s only six matches. And we could always play with less quality forwards. Do you remember the 2009 WC in Bern, when we played almost all the games with 11 forwards? Sometimes even 10.

– Ovechkin and Kovalchuk are ready to play half match. This is an usual practice in the NHL.
– Exactly. Kovalchuk in 2009 WC in Bern played 25 to 30 minutes a night.

– And as a result they were among the tournaments’ most valuable players. And what can you say about the possibile line Ovechkin – Datsyuk – Semin and the Kazan unit made up of Zaripov, Tereschenko and Morozov?
– We consider many variants. All of them have their pluses and minuses. Datsyuk is an universal player, able to play in any unit. But it’s important to talk not about the lines, but about the way the team plays.

– But I won’t go ahead, it was just playing with names. Why won’t you reunite the ZZM line? I think that Zinoviev will be ready to play with Morozov and Zaripov.
– If we’ll see that Malkin is good and will arise the necessity to strengthen the Semin – Ovechkin combo, then we’ll put them in one line. And on the other way around, if Kovalchuk and Afinogenov will need help, then Zinoviev will play between them.

– Which combination will you test in the First Channel Cup?
– We want to see how Fedorov interacts with Kozlov. And once again Radulov will play with Saprykin. And why not reunite Zinoviev with Zaripov and Morozov? We’ll try, but this is all theory, you’ll see the practice halfway through December in the Khodynka.

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