At the moment they are not playing in major hockey events, even so the Russian teenagers managed to put an end to the international scandal. After losing to the senior Belarusians, they refused to accept the second place prize and individual trophies.
Under normal circumstances, the Russian 18 would play against the Czech Republic or Sweden in the season, after which they would start the World Championship in April.
However, as is well known, world hockey has banned the team indefinitely following the Russian war in Ukraine.
The Russian representatives thus have to make do with smaller tournaments with a handful of neighboring countries, which have not given up on the Eastern powers. For example, the 18 plays the so-called Future Cup.
Last week in Minsk, Belarus, she challenged the domestic 20, the Kazakhstan 20 and the Russian 17.
As expected, the winner of the tournament, which was played on a head-to-head basis, was decided by the last duel between the Russian 18 and the Belarusian 20.
The young Russians first turned from 0:3 to 5:3, but eventually fell 5:6 in overtime. And they were furious.
They believed that the forward Ivan Ryabkin was tripped during the escape in extra time and that the goalkeeper Pyotr Andrejanov faced an illegal defense during the subsequent decisive goal.
Then when Andrejanov, incidentally a hope for the 2025 NHL draft, was to accept the award for the best Russian player in the tournament, he left it lying on the ice and drove back to the blue line. He repeated the same when he was declared the best goalkeeper overall. Vadim Dudorov, in turn, refused the trophy for the best striker.
The highlight was when team captain Yegor Surin, who according to the rankings could go in the second round of the upcoming draft, threw down the silver platter for the second best team of the Future Cup.
Even the Russian media evaluates the performances of teenagers as scandalous. Also because the referees did not seem to make mistakes in the decisive moments of the extension.
“Repeated footage clearly shows that Ryabkin was not stopped by tripping or any other illegal intervention and that if anyone prevented Andreyanov from catching the decisive shot, it was only his own defender,” wrote the Russian website Chamionat.
“Unacceptable,” criticized the behavior of Russian teenagers, the former head of Belarusian hockey, Dmitry Baskov.
“Losing with honor and learning from defeats is an art. And this Russian team has not yet mastered it,” he added.
Watch how the young Russians throw away their prizes after losing to Belarus. | Video: Youtube.com
The coach of the Russian 18 team, Alexandr Titov, pointed out that his players refused to accept the awards by themselves and that no one encouraged them to do so. He added to the referees: “It was the usual whistling in a domestic environment, nothing new.”
The Russians have drawn attention to themselves in the past by inappropriate behavior at the closing ceremony.
For example, in the final of the 2010 Adult World Championship, they did not suffer a rather surprising defeat by the Czech Republic. Almost all the players of the team took the silver medal off their necks immediately after taking over.
They caused an even bigger scandal five years later in Prague when, after the final debacle 1:6 against Canada, they left the ice prematurely without listening to the Canadian national anthem. Only a handful of losers remained, led by Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.
“I have personally participated in 29 championships, but nothing like this has ever happened. It was a huge disappointment for me,” thundered the now former head of world hockey, René Fasel.
At that time, Russian hockey had to pay a fine of about two million crowns. This time he will apparently get away without punishment, “only” with a tarnished reputation.
2024-02-12 16:58:22
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