BYKOV: OUR PLAYERS ARE FIERCE

The Russian national ice hockey team meets Canada today in the quarterfinal match of the IIHF World Championship.


"Any match against Canada is always a challenge for our team no matter what tournament it is," said the head coach of the Russian national team Vyacheslav Bykov.

"And the current championship is no exception. We did not choose our opponent, did our work and if the situation turned out this way this is fate."

"Well of course we can try and make some conclusions concerning the performance of the Canadian national team at the group stage. But you understand that a match against Russia is as big a challenge for them as for us."

"They are preparing very seriously to this match no matter how they played in the previous games. Those matches do not show what the opponent look like."

"They will try to play their hockey and neutralize our leading players. And I am not eager to open our trumps though I can say that our players are fierce."

"We will do our best to prepare for the match, to oppose the powerplay of the opponent [Canada has the highest percentage of PP goals at the tournament]."

"These figures show that though the squad of Canada is young they are very skillful and talented. But we have also done a lot of groundwork."

"In any case we should reinforce our play especially in defence. Probably there will be some changes in tactics."