The Russian Ice Hockey Federation has extended the contract with the head coach of the national team Alexei Zhamnov. Under him, our team took second place at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. However, while the work of a specialist will be very little. This year the team will meet only once – in December at the traditional Channel One Cup. At the same time, the FHR is creating the Team of Young Stars of Russia – in fact, it will become an alternative to the national team. Why this is necessary, and why the actual dual power is preserved in Russian hockey – in the material of Izvestia.
Another year of Zhamnov
President of the Russian Hockey Federation (FHR) Vladislav Tretyak told reporters on July 23 that the national team’s head coach Alexei Zhamnov would continue to work with the national team.
– The contract has already been signed for a year, – said Vladislav Tretyak. – We promised Zhamnov that if he succeeds at the Olympic Games, he will continue. We have kept our promise. Zhamnov will do a lot of work – travel around the country, give lectures, watch young people. As a head coach, he should be aware of all the affairs in our hockey industry. In December, we will assemble the squad from the strongest.
Zhamnov’s previous contract with the FHR was calculated until June 2022. It included work at the Beijing Olympics and the World Championships in Finland. But, as you know, the IIHF suspended Russia from participating in the World Cup for political reasons.
Zhamnov became the head coach of the national team in the fall of 2021. In September, after the defeat of Russia in the quarterfinals of the 2021 World Cup in Riga, clouds gathered over the head of the headquarters of the national team Roman Rotenberg and head coach Valery Bragin. Several groups of influence in Russian hockey teamed up in order to take control of the hockey federation. The inflamed struggle demanded immediate action from the FHR – a new candidate was needed.
In September, during the IIHF congress in St. Petersburg, Tretyak and Rotenberg named a new person to replace Valery Bragin. It was Oleg Znarok, who led the national team to victory at the 2018 Olympics and the 2014 World Cup. At the same time, all previous frictions between this coach and the leaders of the federation had been settled by that time. However, the opponents did not agree with this option – they needed their own candidate.
To resolve the situation, the chairman of the board of the FHR, Arkady Rotenberg, gathered an expert council. Among the candidates, in addition to Znark, were proposed coach-debutant from CSKA, the famous player in the past Sergei Fedorov and former army coach Igor Nikitin. These candidates were also rejected by the council and eventually supported the appointment of Alexei Zhamnov. It seemed like a compromise – it turned out that the FHR actually made concessions.
staff affairs
Zhamnov assembled his headquarters. It included Sergei Fedorov, Dynamo head coach Alexei Kudashov, and Sergei Gonchar, a former NHL player who worked as a video coach for Pittsburgh for some time. The team was managed by two-time world champion Ilya Kovalchuk. The team’s advisers are CSKA President Igor Esmantovich and one of the many vice-presidents of the KHL Valery Kamensky.
Promising changes did not ensure the fulfillment of the main task. The Russian team, being the favorite of the Games in Beijing, could not confirm the status of Olympic champions. The team was accompanied by image and organizational failures. Questions also arose about tactics – according to Izvestia, Gonchar was responsible for it, however, the game of our team was built exclusively on defense, striking in the simplicity and scarcity of improvisation in attack.
Even with such baggage, we managed to reach the final. In the quarterfinals, Russia barely defeated the Danes (3:1), in the semifinals – the Swedes (2:1 B), but lost to the Finns in the decisive game. According to Izvestia, most of the national team players were dissatisfied with the work of the headquarters – in particular, Gonchar, since the chosen tactics did not correspond to the attacking capabilities of the national team hockey players.
Search for analogues
After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the IIHF suspended our country from the 2022 World Cup. And in the hockey world of Russia there is still a dual power. On the one hand, the FHR remained under the control of Arkady and Vladislav Tretiak, who on May 19 was unanimously elected for the next term. On the other hand, their opponents retain control of the national team.
Which Zhamnov is the head coach is still unclear. He did not graduate from the Higher School of Economics, and before being invited to the post of helmsman of the national team, he never worked as one. He delegated all the work on operational management in the team to his assistants. During the May matches with Belarus, the team was led by the head coach of the youth team, Sergei Zubov, since Zhamnov considered it pointless to work with the national team in the absence of the World Cup.
As a result, Vladislav Tretyak still did not break his promise to extend the contract with Zhamnov in case of winning Olympic medals. But at the same time, FHR First Vice-President Roman Rotenberg announced the creation of a new team, the Russian Young Stars Team, on Match TV in June.
– Let’s remember the 2016 World Cup, there was a team of young stars of North America – McDavid, McKinnon, Matthews played. We are doing a similar project so that our guys develop as much as possible, to be stars inside. It will be a separate PR. It’s like Red Car. New assembly, ”Rothenberg said then.
In fact, we are talking about creating an alternative to the national team. It is the team of young stars that will take part in friendly matches with Belarus, Kazakhstan, as well as KHL clubs throughout the year.
The national team, headed by Zhamnov, will meet only once – in December at the traditional Channel One Cup. By the way, the same team of young stars will become one of her rivals there.
– The very situation in which the FHR is run by some people, and the national team by others is unhealthy, – noted in an interview with Izvestia, the honored coach of the Russian Federation Vladimir Plushev. – Zhamnov with his staff did not fulfill the main task at the Olympic Games-2022, and the team’s performance left much to be desired. But, apparently, since Russia failed to compete at the World Cup, it was decided to give Zhamnov another chance. Wherein I want to believe that everyone who is responsible for our hockey will join forces, and will not share power. When we return to the international arena, we will need to immediately show the result, but apart we will not come to anything.
To note that, according to Vladislav Tretiak, the national team can return to the international arena at any time.
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