Sergei Bobrovsky, his mask flipped up on the head he’d just been standing on, clapped his big mitts together in an apparent show of appreciation before leaving the Air Canada Centre ice.
Hopefully some of the cheering in the stands was directed back at the Russian goalie, because he was the only reason we all got to have even a little bit of fun on Saturday night.
Every criticism lobbied at a skilled-but-flawed Russian entry at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey eventually came to light during its 5-3 semifinal loss to Canada.
Once again, they’ll depart a best-on-best tournament without ever truly looking like they could win it. It’s a stinky status quo for national program that clunked out at the past two Olympics and hasn’t won a premier hockey event since claiming the 1981 Canada Cup on behalf of the Soviet Union. So, the question was raised again: Why can’t this roster, thick with talent, make a deep push?
“I don’t have an explanation right now, sorry,” said veteran defenceman Andrei Markov.
The game that ended their trophy hopes surely offered hints. While Russia did some good things against Canada, there was never anything in the way of a sustained attack during a contest that saw the winners hold a 47-34 shot advantage. Without Bobrovsky, this one would have been over after 20 minutes.
“We didn’t help him enough,” Markov said.
That said, for a brief time in the second period it seemed the Russians might sneak this one through the side door.
Unlike Canada, they don’t dominate on the walls; they don’t recover loose puck after loose puck. They have to do what Nikita Kucherov did when he streaked down the ice on a 2-on-1 and wired a shot past Carey Price’s stickhand and into the net to tie the game 1-1.
With fewer than five minutes remaining in the middle frame, Evgeny Kuznetsov knocked home a loose puck to give his side the lead. But a rag-tag Russian defence corps that figured to struggle against the world’s elite skaters never had a real shot at holding the house. Canada got even just 1:12 after falling behind, then pulled away in the third.
“If we finish the second period with a [lead] it would be a different game,” said captain Alex Ovechkin.
Possibly, though the final period reinforced a hard truth that couldn’t be ignored: Right now, Russia doesn’t belong on the same rink as its historic rivals. Maybe that can be said of every club in this tournament save Sweden, but it’s still jarring to realize that if Canada plays its best game, there’s not a whole lot Russia can do except hang on tight and hope for a goalie-generated miracle.
“I felt great,” said Bobrovsky. “I tried to do as much as I can for the team. I worked hard, I give everything I have. They were better than us today.”
Starting Bobrovsky — who finished the tournament with a .930 save percentage — was any easy decision for Russian coach Oleg Znarok to make at this event. As for his other calls, questions abound.
In fact, one of the most common conversations in the press gallery over the past few days centred on how much better Russia would be if “Competent NHL Coach X” was running the show.
What if Ovie and the other stars were playing closer to 20 minutes per night than 15? Can someone else come up with a power-play scheme that produces better results than the 0-for-11 tournament showing we saw?
Sure, some of that is on the players, but it’s hard to imagine every drop of goodness this team has to offer has been extracted.
Maybe in the not-so-distant future, there will be a natural changing of the guard behind the bench. There’s definitely a youth movement of sorts on the ice as under-25 guys like Kucherov, Kuznetsov and Vladimir Tarasenko take over. If a couple of their up-and-coming countrymen find success on the blue-line, perhaps better results await.
But as for what the precise plan for getting there from here should be, Bobrovsky — like Markov — wasn’t submitting any blueprints.
“I don’t think it’s my job to analyze those things,” he said.
Fair play. Because, really, Bobrovsky is about the only guy on the whole scene who can’t be asked to do any more work.
