BYKOV: OUR TASK IS THE OLYMPIC GOLD

Russian hockey team’s head coach Vyacheslav Bykov believes that all teams will be very dangerous at the coming Olympic hockey tournament.


Recent injury of Salavat Yulaev defenceman Oleg Tverdovsky became a surprise for everyone. "Ufa club doctors determined that he is not ready to help the national team at the Olympic games", said Bykov. "After that we decided to withdraw Oleg from list of reserve players".

"We won’t change this list and will take to Canada Eremenko, Koshechkin, Proshkin, Atyushov and Tereschenko".

"Rumours that Nikulin missed latest match of Ak Bars because of national team coaches’ demand are not true, Our doctors asked their colleagues from Kazan to give them information about Nikulin’s health and it became clear that he had almost recovered. He will be absolutely all right".

"Russia’s coaching staff is glad that Semyon Varlamov returned to action and sealed a victory in one of lower leagues. Alexandr Eremenko has been showing himself as real supporter of his country and national team for recent several years. He is ready to replace his colleague when it is necessary, however the 23-men list is completed and we cannot introduce any changes into it".

"I don’t think that question of who will be the standard bearer of Russian delegation is very important and I am not ready to comment on it. I asked Alexey Morozov about it and he told me that it would be an honour to be one of candidates for standard bearer".

"What will happen next, I am not to decide it. The national team’s coaches don’t mind if our captain is out of schedule for one day. As for omen that the standard bearer performs unsuccessfully at the Games, we don’t believe in it".

"Vyacheslav Bykov gave an interview after the Russian Hockey Federation committee yesterday. We have no other target besides winning the Olympic gold medals, he said to the journalists".

"Russia will have only one concern, as we will have to be afraid of all competitors, they will be very dangerous. Russia will play the first “final” in Vancouver against Latvia on February 16".

OVECHKIN SCORED HIS FIRST HAT TRICK THIS SEASON

The last game before the Vancouver-2010 of the main NHL stars Alexandr Ovechkin, Evgeniy Malkin and Sidney Crosby ended up with a splendid hat trick of the Washington superstar and 14th consecutive victory of his team.


The NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NBC were forcing Washington and Pittsburgh not to cancel the match because of bad weather in the US capital.

The blizzard blustering in Washington this weekend (called Snovechkin among hockey fans) brought the transport systems to a standstill and many people feared that the Penguins would not be able to arrive.

But they did come (the road took them nine hours) and the match proved to be special. Alexander Ovechkin scored his first hat trick this season and added an assist in the overtime.

That was a beautiful good bye from Alex to his supporters before the Olympics for the last three matches the Capitals play on the road.

"It is always wonderful to win," said the hero of the match hardly catching his breath. "And it is also superb to score especially in such important matches. Moreover after such a bad start of the game."

"Our players have temperament and we deserved this victory."

"I think the weather interfered in the course of the match. We are used to the situations when supporters wind us up during the warm-up and this time many people were late for the start of the match because of the snowstorm."

"And it was unnaturally quiet for us. That probably threw us off our stride a bit. But in the third period supporters helped us and we would not stop."

"I am approaching my perfect conditions before the Vancouver. I must have this tempo."

HC LOKOMOTIV APPOINTS VOROBYEV

Pyotr Vorobyev has been appointed new head coach of HC Lokomotiv on Saturday.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl have sacked Kari Heikkila and appointed Lada former head coach Pyotr Vorobyev. His returned to Yaroslavl nine years later became a surprise for many hockey experts and fans.

"I spoke to Yaroslavl club’s management several days ago", said Vorobyev. "I guessed that they would invite me to Lokomotiv, because the team is not very successful this season. I discussed possibility of my comeback to Yaroslavl only with my wife".

"On Tuesday I will hold the first training with youth team and in a couple of days we will begin preparations for the regular season and playoffs with full squad".

"Our main target for the rest part of the season is to achieve result, but it’s necessary to understand that results not always depends on the coach. At first we need to take maximum points in rest three matches".

LARIONOV: OUR BEST TEAM WAS IN 1980

Famous Russian centerforward Igor Larionov expressed his point of view on the coming Olympic games in Vancouver.


"I don’t like guess-work", said Larionov. "I passed through it all and now I just want to watch it from aside".

"I don’t like various calculations ahead of the tournament on which players will play together. They are not figures for table hockey, they are people with different way of thinking and different level of preparation".

"That is why I prefer not to trust predictions that Russia and Canada are the main favourites of hockey competition. For example I think that Americans are also very strong".

"Veterans’ role is very important for young teams. I was supposed to fulfill this role in Sault Lake City and at first I refused. I was 41, my career in NHL was close to an end and I wanted to win Stanley Cup that year".

"I thought that I would be too overloaded and moreover the national team had other experienced leaders, such as Pavel Bure, Sergey Fyodorov. But Vyacheslav Fetisov asked me to help and I agreed".

"I knew that I would spend seven or eight minutes on ice, but I don’t regret it. I played with talented youngsters Kovalchuk and Datsyuk at the Olympic games".

"To my mind the best Russian team was in Lake Placid in 1980 when I didn’t played. It was unbeatable team as there were no chances that it could have been beaten".

"I would be very happy if our team wins in Vancouver. Do you imagine what it will mean to the whole Russian hockey?"

"Americans won the World youth championship and right after the final they sold six or seven thousand tickets were sold right after the final. And I want to see it too, and I don’t want to analyze something before the Games".

ZUBOV: I AM A HOCKEY PLAYER, NOT POLITICIAN

Sergey Zubov, who recently announced about his refusal to go to Vancouver as reserve player, gave an interview to sport press.


SKA man Sergey Zubov called sport press correspondent after the match in Sokolniki, where he spend thirty minutes on the ice and was the only one player to score the shootout goal.

"After the KHL All-Star Game and departure to Novokuznetsk I was very busy", said Zubov. "That is why I had to talk to journalists at night, as I don’t have enough spare time".

"I didn’t expect that my announcement in sport press about my refusal to go to the Olympic games as reserve player would provoke big interest".

"I have been reading articles in mass media for these six days, read commentaries and online blogs. I was surprised that fans responded to my announcement aggressively, but most of all I was sad that atmosphere of the national team’s preparations for the Olympics had been disturbed".

"I am not a politician, I am hockey player and I don’t predict all my public moves unlike hockey ones. Moreover I haven’t lived in Russia for a long time and I haven’t restored my vocabulary yet".

"I think that most probably I was right except the harsh form of my refusal. At the same time I would like to introduce clarity in my announcement".

"Believe me that I have no claims to the head coach Vyacheslav Bykov. Slava and I are both products of HC CSKA, we played in one club and national team and we are in perfect relations".

"I know that he has done a lot to restore atmosphere in the national team and Russia’s two victories at the World Championships. I also know in which situation he is ahead of the Olympic games".

"My refusal was provoked by a call of administrator, who warned me that coaches take me to Vancouver as reserve player. I won’t hide that this conversation shocked me and the explanation is not in the fact that I would be in reserve. The main thing is the form how they informed me about it. To my mind people showed they are not professionals by behaving this way, and I was not ready for it after seventeen seasons of playing in NHL".

"I think that not all people deal with their own business in the Russian hockey and Bykov is just a hostage of this system. The team of managers should be responsible for formation of the national team’s squad and holding talks with players, while in Russia the head coach has to deal with this job".

"Vladislav Tretyak is famous former goalkeeper, the world hockey legend, he is manager of our national team, however managers’ work is something absolutely different from what we used to see in Russia. In NHL junior administrator or masseur would never call you and inform you that coaches take you to the team’s roster or not. It’s all manager’s responsibility".

"Each NHL player has his own agent and manager contacts him at first. That is the main reason why American and Canadian teams never face problems with the national team’s preparations".

HEATLEY: I HOPE NHL WILL LET US GO TO SOCHI

Sport press correspondent talked to San Jose Sharks winger and the best scorer of Canadian hockey team Dany Heatley.


The best scorer of Canadian national team in the World championships suffered three losses to Russia in recent four years. Taking into account Heatley’s friendship with Ilya Kovalchuk and his performances for Ak Bars in season-2004/05 the Canadian winger has special relations with Russia.

Press service of the Sharks gave russian correspondent an opportunity to talk to Dany Heatley, who is supposed to be one of Canada’s leaders at the Olympic games in Vancouver.

"I like Russians very much and I have many close friends from this country. One of my best friends is Ilya Kovalchuk, with whom we came to NHL and Atlanta. He is not only the great player, but also a real friend, and I can say the same thing about Vyacheslav Kozlov".

"I had perfect relations with many players in Kazan. You know no matter where I play I always find good Russian players, for example Anton Volchenkov in Ottawa and Evgeniy Nabokov in San Jose".

"Russian men like playing hockey and possess competitive spirit. They never want to lose and work very hard getting pleasure from the game".

"The Olympic games will begin soon and the main target for Canada will be to reach the final match and if Russia does the same thing it will be a really great match".

"Russia beat us in finals of two recent World championships and it’s impossible to forget about it. We want to take revenge on them as it would make us happy".

"Matches against Russia have always been historic events for Canadian team. If we meet in the final in Vancouver it will be a great ice battle".

"The World championship in Quebec in 2008 was special for Canada, since it was our first home world tournament. It was perfect and gave us many positive emotions".

"As for the loss in the final, it’s always painful. In our case it was even more unpleasant because we played at home and took two-goal lead ahead of the third period. Our future was in our own hands, but we let the opponents fight back and beat us".

"We should understand that hockey is popular kind of sport in many countries and there will be many good teams in Vancouver. And no teams are guaranteed a place in the final or easy way to the top".

"I hope that NHL will allow players to participate in the Olympic games in future. It’s very important and exciting when players from all over the world gather together to determine the strongest team".

"Both Stanley Cup and Olympic gold are important, but in different ways. Maybe Stanley Cup is even more significant, because you spend the whole your career in NHL and dream of winning this trophy every year".

"The Olympic games are on the second place, very close to the first one. Players think about them only once in four years unlike Stanley Cup".

NABOKOV: GOALKEEPER CAN WIN THE OLYMPIC GAMES

The World champion and the world’s best goalkeeper-2008 Evgeniy Nabokov gave an interview to russian sport press.


One of the NHL’s strongest goalkeepers, who has been defending colours of San Jose Sharks during nine seasons, Evgeniy Nabokov spoke to special correspondent Igor Rabiner, who visited North America ahead of Vancouver Olympic games.

"I really feel that time of the Olympic games is approaching", said Nabokov. "Everybody think and talk about it in San Jose".

"Maybe organizers of all pre-Olympic events and mass media are concentrated on the Games even more than players, because we will have to play in NHL at first. For example San Jose will play seven matches before going to Vancouver and we try to focus on them. And only journalists don’t let us forget about Olympic games for some time.

"Our club will have a six-match away series, we will arrive from Buffalo on February13-14 night and will depart to Vancouver next evening".

"I keep my famous Torino goaltender’s mask at home. I thought it’s impossible to give someone my mask from my first Olympics, so my three-year-old son Andrey plays with it now".