Malkin hopes history lessons will lead home nation to gold
MOSCOW: Russia's Evgeni Malkin was not even born when his country won the last world championship held in Moscow.
It has been a long 21 years since the Soviet Union clinched the gold at the old Luzhniki Ice Palace as they became the last team to win the world title on home ice.
But Malkin, the youngest member of the current Russian team born just a few months after that Soviet victory in 1986, knows about the pressure of playing in front of a home crowd.
"Russia has a great hockey history and we all know too well what it means for our country," said the Pittsburgh Penguins forward, who centers Russia's top line between Ilya Kovalchuk, the NHL's joint top goalscorer in 2004, and Alexander Frolov.
With a talented squad, that includes Alexander Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, Frolov and Malkin - all 30-plus goalscorers in the NHL this season - the Russians are heavy favorites to end their 14-year title drought at the new Khodynka Arena in 2007.
"We haven't had much success at major tournaments lately, but that only makes us hungrier to win now," said Malkin, who scored the winning goal as Russia beat defending champions Sweden 4-2 in their Group E clash on Monday to remain undefeated.
The Russians are also hoping to keep intact their proud record of never losing a world championship game in Moscow.
The Russian capital is hosting its fifth world tournament, with the home team winning gold each time except the first edition in 1957.
55,000 crowd
Russia's Evgeniy Malkin jubilates after scoring against Sweden during their qualifying round group E match at the IIHF International Ice Hockey World Championship in Moscow on Monday. AFP |
Back then, they had to beat Sweden in their final game to clinch the title, but were held to a 4-4 draw to finish second to the huge disappointment of home crowd of nearly 55,000, who braved temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius at an outdoor rink inside the Dynamo soccer stadium.
"Of course, I am too young to remember anything from those days," said Malkin, who should be old enough to recall the last time the world championship was held in Russia.
In 2000 in St Petersburg, the team, loaded with many top NHL players, ended up in 11th place -- the country's worst finish at a major international competition.
In case Malkin has a short memory, his Pittsburgh team mate Sergei Gonchar could easily fill in the blanks. The 33-year-old defenceman is one of three Russian players on the current roster who were also part of the St Petersburg fiasco.
"No, this is not the time and place to talk about what went wrong in St Petersburg," Gonchar told reporters this week.
If he needs any reminders about hockey history, Malkin could turn to Russia coach Vyacheslav Bykov for help.
Playing in the 1986 title-deciding game against their old nemesis Sweden, Bykov scored the winning goal with minutes remaining to give his team a 3-2 victory and the gold.
Bykov too, did not want to dwell on the past, but was superstitious enough to name Petr Schastlivyi the team captain.
Schastlivyi means "happy" in Russian.
"Yes, I've thought about the connotation when I was making him captain," said Bykov, who won five world and two Olympic titles between 1983 and 1993.
"We want to win the gold for our country and bring back past glory to our hockey," he added in reference to a record 23 world and eight Olympic gold medals won by the Big Red Machine.
"We have to win three more games to achieve our goal, but we need more than skill, stamina and hard work. We'll need some luck as well."
In yesterday's quarterfinals, Russia were to take on 2005 champions the Czech Republic, who beat them 4-3 in overtime at the same stage of last year's championship in Riga.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/10/2007 page23)
