Forward “Ak Bars” Danis Zaripov got to the Novogorsk base by taxi. He asked the driver to drive into the territory, but the valiant security guard Vasechkin stopped holding the crowd of journalists eager to see the training of the national team, and did not allow the player to comfortably get to the locker room.
- Danis, are you just about to train now? - they asked the hockey player who paid off and went to work slowly, although a little more than 20 minutes remained before the lesson.
“No, everything is already there,” the player answered as if he knew that they would not start without him.
Vyacheslav Bykov stood at the door of the locker room and corrected the factory marriage of his club. He was planing something, absentmindedly responding to greetings and thinking a lot. Probably, over who to put in the link with Morozov and Zaripov. Sergey Zinoviev, their club partner in the top three, was injured again and will not be able to take part in the Channel One Cup.
- They gave us the only day off. And in the evening the administrator called and said to go to the national team, - laughing, the forward of “Chemist” Albert Leshchev told, which in the end was put to the Kazan team. “Of course I'm glad I was invited.” Still, this is a chance to get to the World Cup.
Vyacheslav Bykov, meanwhile, made excuses for Zinoviev:
“No, I don’t think that Sergei gets strange injuries just before the calls to the national team,” he assured. “He really has damage.” As far as I know, everyone wants to play in the national team.
But here's the curious thing. If earlier Zinoviev was believed in the word, now they asked me to come to Novogorsk to the doctors so that they would testify to the injury.
Another hockey player who hit the team unexpectedly is Alexei Simakov from CSKA.
- Will they laugh at me again? - he cautiously asked the reporters. The fact is that recently, one of the agents, analyzing the composition of the national team in the central press, said that he was "ridiculous to see Simakov in the national team." “Do I look like a clown?”
“Okay, Alexey, don’t worry,” his reporters reassured him. - Once invited, it means he deserves it.
“Thank you for your kind words,” the forward thawed.
Simakov will replace Alexander Korolyuk from Vityaz in the team, who had problems with the vertebrae. And although the Podolsk striker also broke down before the national team gathered, he was not called in to confirm the diagnosis.
- Why is there again no Sergey Mozyakin, Alexander Guskov in the national team? - pestering Bykov. “They have been playing better and better lately.”
“But were they on the extended list?”
- Not.
- Then there’s nothing to talk about. I'm not going to discuss hockey players who are not here.
At the same time, the head coach noted that he had collected almost all the strongest players playing in the Russian championship now:
- There is still a hockey player who was planned to try, but he was injured.
During the training, not everyone figured out where the third goalkeeper was in the team (they officially called two goalkeepers) and even his name. Difficult to name the name of the partner and hockey players who drove up to the side.
“So this is Alexei Zhigarev from Wings of the Soviets,” the head coach finally admitted. - He just helps the team. Goalkeepers must receive at least some rest during training. But they won’t apply for the Channel One Cup.
The first lesson lasted two hours. There was a small two-way, then practiced the game in unequal compositions. During the rally, Simakov scored a very beautiful puck.
“I think the team will play in just such combinations,” Bykov commented on the composition of the links. - And after the first match we'll see. Maybe something will change. But about goalkeepers, I’m still thinking how they will play and who will be the first to appear on the ice.
The Russian team trained in this composition: Koltsov - Kuteikin, Kharitonov - Happy - Volkov; Proshkin - Nikulin, Zaripov - Morozov - Leshchev; Atyushov - Varlamov, Simakov - Antipov - Chubarov; Kondratiev - Emelin, Nepryaev - Kulemin - Konkov.
The team will test the ice of the new Palace on the Khodynka field on December 13.
Alexey Shevchenko