2006, Canada. Russia - 2nd place. Trainer Sergey Mikhalev
The head coach of the team ordered a “media guide”, which any self-respecting team has. It cost Sergei Mikhalev $ 3,000 of personal funds - in the federation nobody was interested in this, and the coach did not want to disgrace ...
The tournament was remembered by the soft game of Evgeni Malkin. In the final, our team lost to Canadians - 0: 5.
Upon returning to his homeland, Mikhalev accused the players of lack of will during the decisive meeting and, in parting, quarreled with all hockey players.
Evgeni Malkin: “We underestimated the Canadians a little and were poorly prepared for the final meeting. I don’t know why, but before the final we didn’t even study the video of the opponent’s game. The final is a duel that always stands apart. It requires more attention and seriousness. Probably, we didn’t have enough of what is considered to be the uniqueness of the moment;
2005 year, USA. Russia - 2nd place. Trainer Sergey Gersonsky
The final match was lost to Canadians with a score of 1: 6. Largely due to the moral breakdown of goalkeeper Anton Khudobin. “He was so worried that he even vomited before going out onto the ice,” says one of the players. “But the coach did not attach any importance to this and still put the guy on the game.” The goalkeeper missed the first goal in the 51st second, and by the 24th minute it was already 1: 3. Only after this Khudobin was replaced.
By the way, the appointment of Gersonsky was a surprise in hockey circles. Previously, he worked only as an assistant. For example, Vladimir Plyushchev was responsible for the theory and development of tactics. But when I had to steer alone, it suddenly became clear that Gersonsky was completely unable to talk to people. Young guys should have been ignited with emotions, but they did not receive them.
2004 year, Finland. Russia is the 5th place. Coach Rafail Ishmatov
That year, the star of coach Ishmatova began to roll. As a result, he failed miserably with the team, which was called the undisputed favorite of the tournament. Indeed, in its composition were Malkin, Semin, Ovechkin.
But Ishmatov became interested in experiments. For example, he moved Ovechkin from the first link to the third. And if at the preliminary stage this did without consequences, then in the quarter finals the Finns sorted out the Russians (4: 3), having scored the winning goal 13 seconds before the end of regular time.
An interesting story with Alexander Semin. To participate in the World Cup, Totn fled from America, but Ishmatov did not want to include him in the team. Then, succumbing to persuasion, still took the attacker to the tournament. He “took revenge” by betraying pale matches.
Rafail Ishmatov: “There were problems in the national team, and I talked about them even before leaving for Finland. And during the group stage they showed up from the first match - this is both the goalie line and the defense. Yes, we were equipped with attackers, as they say, only 50 percent. Therefore, literally every game was given “with blood.” In the key meeting of the group tournament with the US team, game discipline failed - a huge number of unjustified deletions. "
2003 year. Canada. Russia - 1st place. Coach Rafail Ishmatov.
It is generally recognized that Russian coaches are very lucky with this age. He was very productive for talents, and the most striking of them was called Nikolai Zherdev (who, incidentally, did not show off at the World Cup). The main rivals did not have such a selection of players.
The tournament once again showed the hockey gift of Alexander Ovechkin, who became one of the tournament's top scorers.
2002, Czech Republic. Russia - 1st place. Trainer Vladimir Plyushchev
Before the championship, the head coach sent away all the advisory agents and assembled a team to your taste. The result was gold after the Moscow failure a year earlier, when the team was seventh. Plyushchev's predecessor, Peter Vorobyov, was reproached, by the way, precisely for the fact that he was not independent in the choice of composition.
It's funny that Plushev's gold team became the toughest in the tournament, gaining 185 penalty minutes.
Alexey Shevchenko