By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 23, 2012
We won’t talk about the fact that Canada is coming home without hardware. Except for saying that. We’re done now. Yes, the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships have come to a close, and Canada got lost on its way to medal. Whoops, there it is again. Oh well. There was still some good hockey to be seen – if you have PVR or a weird sleep schedule. The main point of interest? Russia came out on top.
Yes, the biggest country is taking home gold this year, for the first time since Switzerland in 2009. After their country’s less-than-stellar showing at the 2010 Olympics, this is sure to be a thing of joy for Russians everywhere.
Yevgeni Malkin, alternate captain for the Pittsburgh Penguins, was named not only tournament MVP but also best forward of the championship. This may be surprising, as he tends to live in Sidney Crosby’s shadow – but apparently he’s kind of good. His hat trick against Finland helped garner the 6-2 win that ensured his team a place in the gold medal game. Overall, he netted 11 goals and eight assists in the tournament, which narrowly put him ahead from Norway’s Patrick Thoresen who had a paltry 18 points.
There’s a lot of things that went right for the Russians. Yes, they have some fairly prodigious players – but they had them in 2010, as well. What made the difference for the win? There’s a few possibilities. One such possibility is the performance of Alexander Ovechkin. His play for the Washington Capitals has seen a gradual turn this year, and fans have seen him evolve from a player that attempted to do it all himself to someone that actually utilizes his teammates. Indeed, he had two assists in the gold medal game and no goals himself.
His take on their success is pretty run of the mill. He cited the coaching, saying that he was proud to play for coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. “Bill” is a former ice hockey player himself, who played for the country between 1973-1988. He was also assistant coach for the Winnipeg Jets in 1994/1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996/1997. Apparently, that’s the recipe for success – at least for this team.
Ovechkin went on to say that everything came together for the team: “the whole atmosphere, the whole system. Everybody understood what we have to do to win.” No word on whether or not this alludes to the fact that Russia hasn’t been a super power since the days of the KGB, and maybe what Bilyaletdinov really brings to the team is a special dictatorship brand of coaching that terrifies his players into succeeding.
Obvious historical political jokes aside, it’s nice to see a superpower back on top if only because it makes tournaments like this more exciting. It’s nice not to be embattled with our neighbours to the south for once, and tournaments like this give players a chance to shine with their countrymen. They give hockey fans something to look forward to in the upcoming seasons: perhaps in the 2012-2013 NHL season, we can now stomach paying attention to the Capitals, rather than attempting to ignore what could previously be referred to only as the “Ovie show.” Maybe, just maybe, this also means that we won’t be treated to a blow-by-blow report on Sidney Crosby’s… blow dryer, because Malkin’s continued success will remind the general public that Pittsburgh has someone else to talk about. If nothing else, it makes for great, physical hockey – so thanks, Russia. We look forward to re-developing our rivalry of past years with a team that can actually handle it.
