True or False?
Posted: 29 May 2014, 14:34
That's not even all of it. Russians made 4 goals during questinable penalty killings, including one on 5vs3 with both Finnish penalties show on that video. The tournament was a joke overall. The one where Tshipatsev shouldered Jormakkas head was from the preliminary round though. I don't remember if that video makes it really clear. He got tackled again from dead angle in the final though, and had to leave the game since he was still recovering from the concussion he got from the earlier game I suppose. It's not clear to me. The coach was portrayed as a hero for making death threats to Swedish assitant coach and afterwards, breaking the IIHF rules by attending to the game using microphone. Furthermore, IIHF gave the Finnish sunday ice practice time to Russia so that the coach, soon the be excluded from attending his team, could participate before the final.
But Russia and the referees didn't play together only in the Finnish games. I saw the Russia vs Sweden and while it wasn't as bad as the final, it had some questionable things too. I've heard, though not seen since Finnish TV doesn't show more than Finnish games and the semifinals and finals, that there were bad refereeing in other games as well. I think it is repugnant how a team with so much skill as the Russian team, has to play really dirty, constantly dive and rely on the referees to playing on their side.
This whole ordeal has made a mockery out of the IIHF and the game of ice hockey. Some serious changes are in order to ensure fair chance to play their best games for every team and player.