In the hockey team of Russia for the third time in two years the head coach was replaced. The new coach of the national team, as traditionally plays a significant role in its acquisition of the St. Petersburg SKA, was for many years effectively led the national youth team Valery Bragin. Released by Mr. Bragin position in the Junior team will get the Russian hockey legend Igor Larionov, who acted as his consultant. In the Russian hockey community as a whole reacted positively to the appointments, despite the specificity of the background of both the newly promoted specialists.Yesterday Federation of hockey of Russia (FHR) and included among the giants of the Continental hockey League (KHL) SKA confirmed the information about a whole range of notable personnel changes. From the post of chief coach of the national team and Petersburg club left Alexei Kudashov. They took Valery Bragin, before that coached the youth team and since January, combining it with work in coaching the team SKA. The term of the contract of Mr. Bragin with FHR two years. In his national team’s headquarters, as reported by the Russian hockey Federation, came Alexei Zhamnov, Alexander Boikov, Rashit Davydov, Andrei Kozyrev, Alexander Troshin, Yuri Zhdanov and Lars Johansson. The post of chief coach of “youth” will get a legendary centre-forward Igor Larionov: last season he was a consultant for Mr. Bragin.Valery Bragin said the official website of the FHR that “the system works in the main team of the country in search and selection of candidates, the conditions for the development and training of the players long-established”, and “between the national teams of all ages have constant communication, continuity, all have been a single entity and subject to the achievement of the overall result”. Speaking about the upcoming season, the coach said that although he mentioned the system of “giving fruit”, but “at the same time we have very much.” Valery Bragin recalled that because of the pandemic of coronavirus following a world Cup in may 2021 may take place without players in the NHL (North American soccer League, where he played the majority of the Russian stars, is planning a later start and later finish the regular season), and “therefore we must do the maximum to prepare the players acting in Russia.”This training will have been including personally Valery Bragin in the club: SKA traditionally ranks among the biggest suppliers of players for the national team in different formats. Speaking about the club’s objectives, Mr. Bragin said that because of the pandemics of the previous season in the KHL, “unfortunately left unfinished”, “although the team was in good form and claimed the victory.” “Next year, I hope we will be able to continue and successfully finish the job,”— said Valery Bragin, adding that in the offseason the team “withseriously rejuvenated composition” and “will continue to pursue a policy of development of young players”.Vice President SKA Roman Rotenberg, who also directs the staff of a national team Valery Bragin has called “an experienced coach that has proven its worth when working with youth Russian national team and last season in SKA,” and “loving and able to work with both young and experienced players”. Mr. Rothenberg is convinced that “the new headquarters of the SKA is able to maintain a balance between training needs and development of players.” However, he emphasized that “it is especially important to take responsibility for preparing players for the national team of the country”, pointing out that at the Olympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang, where the national team of Russia won the gold, it had 15 players SKA. A win at the next winter Olympic games in 2022 in Beijing, according to Mr. Rothenberg, is “the main purpose”.The package of changes, initiated by FHR and SKA, no matter how sonorous nor were the names involved in them, in any case can be described as certainly extraordinary for a number of reasons. The first is the lack of obvious reasons for the resignation of Alexei Kudashov. In the role of head coach of Russia, he spent one season and has not played a single top-end of the tournament. This test in Kudashov was not due to the coronavirus to disrupt the world Cup 2020.With SKA in the current season Alexei Kudashov was moving to the next collision with the most critical opponent of CSKA. St. Petersburg, who finished the regular season second in the Western conference after the Moscow CSKA, in the time of a stop of the championship because of the coronavirus was preparing for the second round of the Gagarin Cup. Previously various sources as version, at least in part, explains his departure, mentioned “family circumstances”.The second reason is the background of those who got promoted. It is quite specific. 59-year-old Igor Larionov still is not actually engaged in coaching. The 63-year-old Valery Bragin rich coaching track record, but he is very special. Reputation a good expert Mr. Bragin earned solely due to youth (under 20) team. It with a short break throughout the entire ending of the decade and was trained very effectively. Valery Bragin, the team won the world Cup 2011 and the following seven under his command only once, in 2018, didn’t get on the podium. When several of these are considered prestigious tournaments she was quoted not too high because it did not have a rich set of high demand in the NHL ex-juniors. However, at senior level anything like such success Valeriy BrAgin not achieved, although managed to work in “Spartacus”, “Atlanta” and even CSKA. On the contrary, employers are generally quickly parted with him.However, those who closely followed the life of the hockey team of Russia, for extraordinary personnel changes in it are not used to. On the contrary, in the past two years they began to be perceived more as the norm. In 2018, just before the world Cup, SKA and the national team unexpectedly left just leading her to gold penchansky Olympics Oleg Znarok, as well as Valery Bragin, characterized by efficiency and stability. His successor in both roles, Ilya Vorobiev did not last two seasons. At his first world championship, only leading the team, he lost in overtime of the quarterfinals of the favorites to Canadians on the second — won bronze. Championship 2019 in Slovakia team made the only mistake in the semi-finals with the Finns, and interpret it as a serious setback allowed is that the fact that the Russian bid this time two-thirds consisted of NHL stars and looked extremely powerful. But Ilya Vorobiev lost positions in the national team and the club, losing their assistant Alex Kudashov, whose cut on the top of the coaching hierarchy at all came out extremely short.In the Russian hockey community, it seems, on the whole reacted favorably to yesterday’s appointments. Outstanding former striker Pavel Bure described their “y” as “expected and very logical.” In the opinion of Mr. Storm, youth national team of Russia under the direction of Valery Bragin and Igor Larionov at the last world Cup (where she took silver, losing the final to the Canadians) played in “the attack, a combination of hockey, which was nice to look at and which gave the result of”: “And let our team lacked quite a bit to win, it was clear that it should play all our teams”. And the legendary scorer of the USSR national team Boris Mikhailov said that long said Igor Larionov, “that he needs to start a coaching career and pass on his vast experience to the younger generation.” According to the great striker in the Russian hockey “the good youth” and “a lot of guys can grow into players who will be known to the world.”Alex Armor
