Vyacheslav Bykov: “Olympic silver would be a failure” (Photo © Sports.ru)
Team Russia head coach Vyacheslav Bykov had an interview with Sport-Express in which he discussed many things about the Olympics and the Russian national team.
RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation of the most important parts:
– I think that among the top teams only Finland has little pressure. The Americans will try hard to show that they aren’t inferior to Canada and thus they’ll do all the possible to disappoint their neighbors. Pressure on the Canadians is heavy, since they play at home and they got to the last two WC finals. It’s heavy also on Sweden, because they the reigning Olympic champions. Czech Repubblic will have to deal with pressure too, they didn’t manage to repeat their Nagano triumph and people still haven’t forget it. People will demand a lot from us too. In this sense probably Team Finland can play more quitely. But everything depends not on the pressure itself, but on how you can deal with it.
–Would you call the silver medal a failure?
Absolutely. Anyone who goes to the Olympics want to get the Gold.