Kuznetsov: “If we had won, it would have been unfair” (Photo © Francois Laplante)

After the 1-0 defeat to Sweden in the 2012 WJC Gold Medal Game, Evgeny Kuznetsov shared his thoughts about the game with the popular news agency RIA Novosti.

“In the first two periods we had a total of four shots on net. This speaks loud. If we won, it would have been unfair. Makarov was great, he saved the game for us, he stopped everything. So, destiny decided otherwise. So the Silver medal is good? Maybe it’s good for you. It hurts, but life goes on.

Nothing terrible, we have to know how to lose as well. We will make it through. This will temper our character.”

Kuznetsov went on talking about MVP honors: “Being the Most Valuable Player is always pleasant, but it hurts as I didn’t get the Medal I wanted.”

He also tried to analyse the reason which brought to Team Russia’s defeat: “Maybe we lost many phsycological and physical forces in the game against Canada. Team Sweden was better than us, they completely outplayed us. We started playing well during the third period, but we didn’t manage to score. And the overtime… we all made a mistake. There’s no need to blame any player, we all lost.

I wish good luck to all the players who will play in next year’s WJC.”

Jaromir Jagr: “I’ve never seen a fight like this before” (Photo © khl.ru)

Jaromir Jagr, playing for Avangard Omsk of the KHL, spoke about the yesterday’s massive brawl in the game against Vityaz Chekhov.

The game was canceled because there was not enough players to continue the match as the lion’s share of them got game misconducts. Jagr himself fought against Darcy Verot.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of this Jagr interview to Sovsport.ru.

Jagr: “I’ve never seen anything like this before. I have never even heard of such situations. And of course it never happened in the NHL when I was playing there. It just couldn’t happen.

Why not?
Jagr: “The rules. If players fight during the warm-up or jump from the bench to the ice during a fight they can get suspended for 20 games. And it means losing a quarter of the salary. To tell you more, the suspension can be even more severe — six months or a year. No one would like to get a one-year suspension as a result of stupid behavior.”

In your opinion, why did this brawl start?
Jagr: “Because their tough guy Darcy Verot threw the puck at one of our players. Then he skated to another our player at the red line and speared him.”

And how did it happen that you fought Verot? On the video there are you standing near Verot and in the next moment he punches you in the face. As you were not ready for this punch you fell down. Then you get up and got a grip on him. It looked like Greco-Roman wrestling.
Jagr: “If you’re a tough guy you should respect the honor code. There were people fighting around us and I was holding Verot. Then he told me: “Ok, we are done. No fighting”. I released his hand and in a second he punched me in the face. I didn’t see that coming and that’s why I fell down.”

That’s just mean
Jagr: “Yes. But this is what kind of a person Verot is.”

Martin Gerber hospitalized with a serious neck injury (Photo © khl.ru)

Swiss goalie Martin Gerber, who past summer left the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL to play for Atlant Mytischi of the KHL, was hospitalized after suffering a serious neck injury in a game against Vityaz Chekhov on December 13.

According to Russian site lifesports.ru during the second period a Vityaz forward ran into Gerber. As a result Gerber ended up lying on the ice. After being tested by the team’s doctors Gerber was put on a wheel stretcher and taken off the ice. He was sent to a Podolsk municipal hospital where he was diagnosed with a compression fracture of the third cervical vertebra.

“The injury is very serious, Martin can forget about hockey for the next 6 months,” said one of the hospital’s doctors, Igor Suvorov. “Thank God the spinal cord was not hurt and there is no threat to his life. Gerber will soon be sent to a special clinics in Podolsk to undergo computed tomography to ensure the spinal cord is not hurt.”

Martin Gerber is expected to stay at the hospital for at least 2 months.

Update:
Russian newspaper Sovetskiy Sport talked with Atlant GM, Andrei Verevko:

“Gerber underwent computed tomography. The preliminary diagnosis is a compression fracture of the fourth cervical vertebra. Monday morning Gerber will have an advanced medical examination.”

Update (Monday):
Martin Gerber’s injury not so serious. He is expected to be back in 2-3 weeks. Video finally available