Double Olympic champion and seven-time world champion Vyacheslav Fetisov admitted to “KP Sport” that he is grateful to the head coach of the Nizhny Novgorod hockey “Torpedo” Igor Larionov who took some risks.
Torpedo defeated Dynamo Moscow (4–2) in the first round of the Gagarin Cup with a score of 4–2. Nizhny Novgorod have won three consecutive matches in overtime (5:4 OT, 4:3 OT, 2:1 OT).
Do you remember the Detroit Russian Five? Today, three of them are on the coaching staff: Slava Kozlov is at Dynamo. Sergei Fedorov – in CSKA, Igor Larionov – in “Torpedo”. It means that this creation, this game, also appeared for a reason. You don’t just have to feel this clever game, you have to be able to tell it. And you have to be able to show it to those hockey players who have to repeat it. When I congratulated Igor on reaching the next stage of the playoffs, I wrote to him: “The main thing is that the team plays!”.
Torpedo is now a continuation of Soviet hockey traditions. And who should perpetuate these traditions, if not those who established them? I am grateful to Igor for taking some risks. When he was leading the youth team, I told him: “You can’t retrain hockey players to play Soviet hockey in two weeks.” And now he has proven in one season that with the right approach you can achieve results even in such a short time,” Fetisov said.
“Torpedo” for the third time in history reached the second round of the Gagarin Cup. This has already happened in 2012 (2-4 with Dynamo Moscow) and in 2016 (1-4 with CSKA).
Torpedo’s opponent in the quarter-finals will be determined later, after the seventh game between CSKA and Severstal. If the army team goes further, Torpedo will play against SKA, if Severstal players prove stronger, Igor Larionov’s team will oppose Lokomotiv.
Watch live broadcasts of matches of the Fonbet KHL Championship on the federal channel and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.
KP Sports
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
