The Canadians flat out destroyed the Russians. Russia played maybe 6 or 7 minutes of good hockey, and even then it was only when Nemchinov finally decided to pair Artem Anisimov with Alexei Cherepanov. Other than that, the Russians looked awful.

I’m not going to go too much more into it, but I do want to comment on one thing. Cherepanov is being held at bay because of 2 things.

1)The Canadians are taking hard, illegal runs at him every single time he is on the ice. Hits long after the puck has left his stick, and hits up high.

2)The Canadians are shadowing him with 1 or 2 players at all time.

Lets talk about these 2 things in kind, starting with number 1. In North America this won’t happen all the time. Here the Russian team is flat out soft, with no enforcers, and no team toughness. Its a skilled bunch which really doesn’t stand up for each other. On the Rangers Chere will have Orr, Hollweg, Avery, Dubinsky, Jessiman, WHOEVER, to protect him. You won’t be seeing guys like Sutter throwing flying forearms to his head. Or maybe you will, then youll see him in the hospital after Orr breaks his face like he did to Fedoruk after he decided to run a few Rangers. Unfortunately the only guy who seemed to stand up for his teammates on a consistent basis was Anisimov, and even he is not exactly a physical guy. The Canadians have a very tough team, excellently augmented with skill players.

The second point also won’t be as much of an issue in North America, because Chere will not be option 1, 2 and 3 on the team. He will be a piece of the puzzle. Want to shadow him? That’s fine, Bourret will go roughshod on you, or Drury, or Callahan, or whoever. The Rangers are not a one man team.

Also, we saw a flash in this game of what Chere can do. He made a helluva play to set up his linemate for a scoring chance, but the player (didnt catch who) missed the net with his shot.

Let’s see how Chere does in his home town of Omsk where he can actually play on good ice, and not have to worry about slush, fog, or swamplike conditions.

-Inferno

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Cherepanov hasn’t really done much, and AA has been burned on both of Canadas goals. Not a good day for the Rangers prospects. There is still another period to go, but I would hope both players would start showing us a bit more. At least AA has been very active out there and noticeable, Cherepanov really hasn’t done much of anything.

Not good.

-Inferno

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So I’m pretty surprised at how poor the russians are playing. i figured they wouldnt win just because canadas team looks so damn strong, but i didnt expect the russians to flat out not play well.

They just dont look like theyve ever played or practiced together at all. it looks like they want to play pond hockey and go end to end around 5 guys to score their goals, or take a 50 foot slapper inside the corner. thats not how you win at the professional level, nor at the international level.

You’d probably have to point to the coaching as a factor, but dont let the players off the hook either. Cherepanov looks pretty bad out there, Anisimov definitely looks better, but how much better, I am not sure. You need to use your linemates to create plays and defend your own zone. You try to create 2 on 1’s all over the ice, and exploit them as they develop (ie, isolations if they are there). The Russians are just not playing winning hockey, they are playing selfish, loser hockey. The kind of hockey I hate watching.

-Inferno

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