Having seen both teams play live on Sunday, I was telling everyone who would listen what my scouting report was. The Russian defense looks terrible. This statement came partly from what I saw in the game against the Czech Republic, and partly just because I wanted to believe it was true.
Obviously my insight proved to be part of the 7-3 beat down that Team Canada unleashed on Russia tonight. That said, it wasn’t the only reason the Russians lost. Here are the main reasons the game ended the way it did.
You can watch the game highlights here.
The Russian Defense is not Physical
The Czech forwards proved that the Russian defense couldn’t win the puck behind the icing line in their own zone. Canada has been the best cycling team in the tournament.
This was a match made for the Canadian forwards and they took full advantage of it.
Nabokov Over-Committed to the Shooter
I’ve never noticed this before, but he clearly wasn’t ready to move laterally when Canada had the puck on the break.
The Russian defense was pressuring the shooter and their “offensive” forwards clearly weren’t back-checking. This constantly left a Canadian shooter open on the far post.
I understand that this puts Nabokov in a tough spot, but the Canadians frequently had a gaping net to shoot at. The goaltender needs to at least force the shooter to pick a corner.
Rarely do you see a goalie pulled that early in the 2nd period, but Nabokov had already given up 6 goals in 23 shots.
Canada Re-discovered Physical Play
Following previous Canadian gameplans versus Ovechkin and company, Canada came out hitting. The goal was to impose a physical presence and they did it.
Forwards were finishing hits on the Russian defencemen and causing them to cough up the puck. Drew Doughty and Shea Weber both battered the Russian forwards with some big hits on Ovechkin and Datsyuk early.
I love when we batter and bruise European teams who clearly aren’t very comfortable playing the physical style of play.
Canada Caused Neutral Zone Turnovers
Other opponents have tried to coral the free-wheeling Russian forwards by crowding them once they gained the zone. The Russians have countered with some creative close-quarter passing and have stick-handled through traffic.
Canada decided to deny the Russians the opportunity to gain steam through the neutral zone. They forced the Russians to move laterally before they gained the blueline and often got fast-break chances and odd-man rushes as a result.
A perfect example of this was the Rick Nash goal in the first period. Jonathan Toews knocked the puck off Malkin’s stick, Mike Richards picked the puck up and fed it to Toews on the break. Toews got the puck to a streaking Nash and he put it past Nabokov.
Toews, Richards and Nash played this system extremely well and frequently turned turnovers into scoring chances.
Karma is a Cold Bitch
In the first period, Alexei Morozov drew a penalty with a dive that would have made his summer Olympic counterparts proud.
In order to right the wrongs of the universe, the black karmic energy that he drew from caused him to fan on a beautiful scoring chance on the very same power play.
Do not anger the hockey gods.
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