Thursday, February 20, 2014

It Is Tough To Be A Russian Hockey Coach

Russian men's hockey coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov watches his team during its quarterfinal loss to Finland. ZUMAPRESS.com

Russian Olympic Hockey Coach: 'Eat Me Alive Right Now' -- Wall Street Journal

A Shocking Loss to Finland Leads to a Theatrical Postgame Interview

Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, the 58-year-old head coach of the Russian hockey team, faced a crowd of stunned Russian journalists after Finland eliminated his squad from the men's hockey tournament here with a 3-1 win in the quarterfinals.

A news conference with Bilyaletdinov, followed by a brief impromptu session surrounded by roughly 20 reporters, offered evidence of how much the loss shocked Russia. Excerpts of the exchanges between the coach and Russian journalists are below:

At a news conference at Sochi's Bolshoy Ice Dome shortly after Russia's loss to Finland:

Read more ....

My Comment: To new readers of this blog .... my nationality is Russian .... and I love hockey. I now live in Montreal .... so I now get to see the Montreal Canadiens play regularly ... but it is not the same. Today's Russian loss is a shocker .... at least the Canadians won (barely) .... but the Russian loss is still a shocker.

Sighhh ....

My prediction is for a Canadian - Finland final match-up .... and the Canadians will take the Gold. But still .... no Russian - Canadian/U.S. final ..... what a bummer ....  :(

Update: Yup .... I know how these guys feel.

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