The head coach of the Russian national team Alexei Zhamnov spoke about his meetings with Russian NHL players and announced when the coaching staff would decide on the game combinations for the Beijing Olympics.
– I see their positive, the guys themselves are eager to play in China. NHL players did not play in South Korea, so for all the Olympics is a very strong competition. The guys are very optimistic, – TASS quotes Zhamnova.
– You said that you plan to convey to each player the idea of the need to play for the team, no matter how much time they spend on the ice. Do you think they understood your words?
– Everyone perfectly understands this responsibility, that the team wins, not one person. Someone can become a hero, but it is the team that wins, and hockey is a team sport. The guys reacted with understanding to everything that I, Kovalchuk, homepage Gonchar told them. Volodya Malakhov (a member of the selection service of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation) will join us later.
As I said, the mood is good, a lot of positive. The guys have an understanding in terms of the game – we showed them how we want to play, and in the future we will constantly send them information. They will have all the materials, including those on tactical schemes.
Get it right, all teams in the NHL play pretty much the same way. In those two games that we watched, each team has some nuances, pros and cons. We try to collect everything in one base and convey to the guys what we want to see.
– Have you talked with the players about the combinations in which they can go on the ice in Beijing? Do the coaching staff have any plans?
– We, of course, have such plans, but it’s too early to talk about it. I think that later we will understand. Plus, we still have matches, in which we will see other guys with whom we also want to talk. It will be wrong to talk about any combinations now, because anything can happen. Someone, maybe, will shoot, someone will have a recession. It is clear that there are surnames, the backbone that will be at the Olympics, but who in what combination, I am not yet ready to say.
Recall that the hockey tournament at the 2022 Olympics will be held from 9 to 20 February in Beijing. The Russian national team will start the tournament in group B. The rivals are the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Denmark.
