Kuznetsov: “If we had won, it would have been unfair” (Photo © Francois Laplante)
After the 1-0 defeat to Sweden in the 2012 WJC Gold Medal Game, Evgeny Kuznetsov shared his thoughts about the game with the popular news agency RIA Novosti.
“In the first two periods we had a total of four shots on net. This speaks loud. If we won, it would have been unfair. Makarov was great, he saved the game for us, he stopped everything. So, destiny decided otherwise. So the Silver medal is good? Maybe it’s good for you. It hurts, but life goes on.
Nothing terrible, we have to know how to lose as well. We will make it through. This will temper our character.”
Kuznetsov went on talking about MVP honors: “Being the Most Valuable Player is always pleasant, but it hurts as I didn’t get the Medal I wanted.”
He also tried to analyse the reason which brought to Team Russia’s defeat: “Maybe we lost many phsycological and physical forces in the game against Canada. Team Sweden was better than us, they completely outplayed us. We started playing well during the third period, but we didn’t manage to score. And the overtime… we all made a mistake. There’s no need to blame any player, we all lost.
I wish good luck to all the players who will play in next year’s WJC.”