KAZAN, February 20, Vadim Kuznetsov. Former head coach of the Russian national ice hockey team Vladimir Krikunov said that he did not consider it right to criticize Alexei Zhamnov and the coaching staff of the national team for the defeat in the final of the Olympics. The Russian team won silver medals in Beijing, losing to the Finns in the final (1: 2). «Of course, the Russian team always goes to the Olympics for «gold, only for gold. But silver is not bad, although it's a pity for the guys. As for the work of Alexei Zhamnov, if a person who had not coached at all before immediately reached silver, that's good. It's not his fault that they appointed him as a coach.» Blaming him for not winning is wrong. Everything is natural. There are no trifles, maybe it worked that we are second, not first,» Krikunov said. According to Krikunov, the Russian team should not have been allowed to lead the Finns along final.» The game is good, I liked it. Both teams fought with a knife. The guys pulled everything out of themselves, there was no rudeness. Everything went according to business, but it was impossible to let the Finns come forward. When we took the lead, I thought that now the Finns will have to open up, now we will catch them on the counterattacks. When they scored, it became very difficult to crack their defense,» the coach said.
