On Frozen Blog

Pavel Lysenkov has been a busy man with interviews in Quebec City and therefore Dmitry Chesnokov has been a busy man with translations in Washington. Again, we thank both gentlemen for passing the following along.

Sergei Fedorov scored the game winner against Switzerland (5:3). After the game he met with Pavel Lysenkov at Hotel Concorde, right after dinner.

To be honest, the plans were to do a long interview with questions about the distant Soviet past [the last time Sergei played at the Worlds was when the Soviet Union still existed]. To debut for Team Russia at World Championships at 38 is a unique fact in itself. Just for that fact one can write odes to Sergei. But Fedorov did not want to talk about it:

“Oh, no, I will only talk about the game against Switzerland. If I start kicking up the past, my brain will start working backwards. And I need to look forward and not lose my concentration. Playoffs are close.”

Sergey sat behind a table, placed a glass full of blackberries [fruits] in front of him, and started talking, putting a blackberry in his mouth after every question.

“I was very surprised that in the first two periods the Swiss stood in front of their blue line and didn’t even attempt to go forward. I have never seen anything like that,” – Fedorov shrugged his shoulders. “And in the third period they changed and started to attack very constructively.”

Maxim Sushinsky said that you told everyone is the locker room during the second intermission the following: “This is it, the Swiss are getting ready for the quarterfinals. “

“The phrase was as follows: “This is a fake. The Swiss are not the way we see them.””

Did you try to warn your teammates against underestimating the Swiss?

“Actually, yes. I was worried that the opponent was planning some kind of a trick. I thought: “Guys, let’s work them up a little bit. Let’s play physical hockey.” But it turned out to be the opposite.”

You words didn’t make it through to your partners?

“That’s not the point. Guys started working on exiting the zone, passing through the neutral zone, entering the offensive zone, and not playing hockey. Actually, in games like this you can afford to improvise. The Swiss gave us full control of the game… They tried to catch us on counter attacks. What if it can be done? In the first two periods it couldn’t be done. We took the puck deep and didn’t give it away.”

Did it cross your mind that the Swiss coach Ralph Krueger told his team before the start of the third period: “Alright, stop fooling around. Let’s play like it’s the quarterfinal.”

“Exactly! They started playing hard. And our thoughts roamed around… I think Team Switzerland will look much better in the quarterfinal than in the third period today. They will kick it up a notch.”

Team Russia had a unique opportunity to “pick” its opponent for the quarterfinals. Was it tempting to take that chance?

“Let’s call things what they are. We are hockey players. We are preparing for a game. And we want to win. That is all. How can one physiologically prepare to play for a loss or a draw?”

But Team Sweden at the Olympics [in Turin] played out their strategy. And they won the gold.

“I don’t know about Turin. I wasn’t there. I can only say that I was giving it 100% while getting ready for the game against Switzerland. I wanted to play the game at a normal speed. It didn’t matter who we’d play in the playoffs. But it turned out to be the Swiss again. To be honest, it looked as if it was Team Switzerland trying to pick the opponent. They intentionally gave you control of the game in the first two periods.”

And what choice did they have?

“Either to play hard, or to save energy. Team Switzerland chose the second. They wanted to play [Team Russia] in the quarterfinals.” Continue reading ›