Photo credit: sportbox.ru

Last week, highly touted Washington Capitals prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov finally put pen to paper, signing a two-year deal with Traktor Chelyabinsk to stay in Russia through the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. While the news was a total bummer for Caps fans, it also put a merciful end to the period of time at RMNB I’m referring to as KUZNETMANIA! What’s Kuznetmania!?, you ask? An epoch in which every day brings a new Kuzya interview or an editorial from some famous hockey analyst who feels compelled to comment on if Kuznetsov’s should stay or go to the NHL.

At one point the mania spurred to words the normally tight-lipped George McPhee. On December 30th, before the Capitals took on Buffalo, McPhee weighed in on the issue, telling the Washington Post,”[Evgeny] needs to play in a better league. Sometimes when you’re not playing at the highest level you can develop bad habits. We don’t want that stuff to become engrained — so get him to the best league you can and get working with him.”

Totally. And we’re not quite done with the opining yet. In a wide-ranging interview with Sportsbox.ru, Hockey Hall of Famer and father of total babes Igor Larionov spoke about corruption in the Russian government, the Eurocup soccer tournament, the World Championships, and — of course — Evgeny Kuznetsov’s new deal to stay in the KHL.

“It’s his decision,” Larionov began. “I think he has people who give him advice. But my opinion is: he made a mistake.”

Larionov, who won three Stanley Cup championships with the Detroit Red Wings (1997, 1998, 2002) and is considered one of the greatest passers of all-time, spent half of his career in Russia and half of it in North America.

In fact, The Professor was instrumental in breaking the barrier that kept Soviet players from joining the NHL in the late eighties. Frustrated with a strict Soviet system which reportedly kept its players living in barracks for 11 months of the year, Larionov signed with the Vancouver Canucks in 1989 and never looked back.

“[Kuznetsov] can grow in North America because hockey there is more demanding, a player’s formation happens much faster than here,” Larionov continued. “It’s very competitive and you have to battle in every single game. You don’t see that in Russia. You can argue with me here, but I’m saying so because I can compare.”

Wise words from a wise man. Hopefully Kuznetsov heeds them soon.

Translation by Fedor Fedin.

Alex Semin cries after receiving his silver medal.

Today, Russia’s 27 game World Championships winning streak came to a devastating end in a post-olympic rematch against Jaromir Jagr’s Czech Republic team. And much like the match in the Olympics earlier in the year, the pivotal play of today’s World Championships gold medal game was a huge Alex Ovechkin hit. But this time, it was the Russian Machine accidentally laying out and injuring one of his own teammates, Sergei Fedorov (above), which led to Tomas Rolinek’s game winning goal in the second period. Riding stellar goaltending from Tomas Vokoun and an incredible team defense, the Czechs took a 2 goal lead into the third period that they would never relinquish. Our beloved Ruskies fall to the Czech Republic 2-1. Silver has never tasted so bitter.

Like one would expect, the Russians came out and played with fire. But much like the Canadiens/Capitals series, most of Russia’s chances came from the perimeter. And the Czechs waited and pounced on any mistakes Russia made. A sense of real urgency only revealed itself towards the end of the third period. And by then it was too late for Russia.

You can't blame Varly. Semyon Varlamov had 23 saves in today's loss.

Our own Fedor Fedin blames the coaching of Vyacheslav “Slava” Bykov and Igor Zakharkin for not realizing the potential of such a star-filled Russian roster. People in Russia may blame the superstars on Russia’s roster like Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeni Malkin, but if you watched today’s game, it’s clear the system and coaching is not where it should be. Fedor believes strongly that former Red Wings player Igor Larionov should be named the new coach of the National Team. Make it happen, Russia. The clock’s ticking.

Moving forward, we extend our congratulations to Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin and Semyon Varlamov for winning silver and playing pretty incredibly considering their extremely difficult schedule this year. Playing in a 82 NHL Regular Season, the Olympics, the NHL Playoffs and the World Championships must have taken a huge toll on their bodies and we hope they take the next few weeks to relax and put this year behind them.

Below are a few screen captures from today’s game. Common theme: devastation.

Here are some reflections of the Canada and Russia game in the words of players, coaches and famous analysts back home in Russia. All quotes were translated by Fedor Fedin and pulled from interviews by “Soviet Sport,” “Sport-Express,” & “Sports Day By Day.”

Vyacheslav Bykov, Russian Head Coach:

“You can’t “order” the result. It’s a sport. We were in a situation where we met one of the best teams in the world in the quarterfinal and couldn’t win. What will be the consequence? I don’t know. I think, our successors will give a balanced grade for this. I don’t think that the decision to start Nabokov was a mistake. All the players of the Canadian team put very big pressure on us and we had to get out together. With Zhenya. [Ed. Note - Zhenya - short form of Evgeny]. [...]

All teams had the same conditions and I think that now it doesn’t make any sense if we blame tournament system. It’s hard to say, did additional game against Germany help the Canadian team? Anyways, I have never seen a team who ran 60 minutes without a break. Everyone wanted to see the Crosby / Ovechkin duel. Everyone made a hullabaloo about it, but the match is the game between teams. We tried different lines but the pressure by the four Canadian lines were much higher than ours”.

Igor Zaharkin, Assistant Coach, Team Russia:

“In short-term tournaments psychological motivation plays a huge role. It was a play-off against Canada. It required a special mood. [...]

The guys were a team! We didn’t hear any reproaches about time on ice, about special teams. Defensemen who missed their shifts encouraged their comrades. We had a “live bench”. The goalies weren’t jealous of each other”.

Alex Ovechkin, Team Russia:

“We didn’t play our game. At the start we were unsettled with the goal in the first attack. It were very had for us to find something special when the other team completely dominates. When the time-out was taken – that looked like we cheered up – but when we scored and then they scored twice it’s very hard to play. Zhenka Nabokov and Ilyuha Bryzgalov are not guilty in the goals they conceded. We, defensemen and forwards gave Canadians too many opportunities to score. [...]

It’s stupid to search for explainations now. We just lost, that’s all. [...]

For those who believe in us and love us I want to say: We did everything we could. There were no useless people. No one could say that we had bad team. We have a fine team, everyone fought. But that happened…”

Pavel Datsyuk, Team Russia:

“When did we figure out that we will not able to save the game? We never did. We always believe until the last second that we could still win.”

Vladimir Pluschev, Head Coach of the Russian Junior National team:

“I was shocked about the score and team’s mood for the playoffs. Characters of these stars must be more angry and ready to fight. But they clearly lost an important game”.

Igor Larionov, Double Olympic Champion, Team USSR, Former Hockey Manager:

“The trouble is, we have stopped to appraise the situation realistically. We have stopped to time ourselves by the NHL clock. We are trying to prove to ourselves that hockey [in North America] is bad and primitive, that we don’t need what they are doing here. But look what the Canadians did to us. Can you understand, very big things should stand behind words like “Russia” or “patriotism”. We have to do it day by day. Starting from the juniors. But it’s very deep theme. [...]

Russian fans knew who Crosby was but they didn’t know who Morrow, Toews, Perry, and Richards are. But those guys made the game for Canada. [...]

Understand me, this result was pretty predictable… To understand Canadian playing philosophy, it was enough to watch their previous games and observe how they were creating their own style . Maybe I saw it, but our coaching staff certainly did not. [Ed. Note - I'd love to see The Professor as a Russian Team coach, but I'm sure he wouldn't accept that offer, even if Russian Hockey Federation would make it.].

Alexey Yashin, former NHLer:

“Russian had a lot of advertising of ‘we’ll tear others in pieces.’ It parallels with World Championhip-2000. There was the same: “The best are here, come on”.

Viktor Tikhonov, legendary coach, former coach of CSKA (Red Army), Team USSR, Team Russia:

“Why was Ovi not good? Yeah, he hit Jagr. Cool. And Russia scored in that attack. But even in that game I found out that Czechs were hunting for Sasha. The Canadians just made some hits on him and he failed”.

Bonus: Russian showman, comedy artist and Pens fan Artashes “Tash” Sarkisyan:

“Everything slotted into place. Anyways, in my head everything is pretty clear. And that’s not only because I have Insider Information. I’m glad to introduce the person who made Russia first in the preliminary group and the only (absurdity in the team with that budget) coach on the team in this Olympics… Sergey Viktorovich (Sergei Fedorov’s full name). Hang up your skates. Retire. We need a compos mentis coach and it looks like it’s you…”.