Russia Needs to be More Intimidating – Kasparaitis

© RIA Novosti . Alexey Danichev / Go to the mediabankDarius Kasparaitis
Darius Kasparaitis - Sputnik International
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Russia does not produce enough tough defensemen and so the national team is unable to intimidate other countries on the ice, former Pittsburgh Penguins and Russia defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said Friday.

Russia does not produce enough tough defensemen and so the national team is unable to intimidate other countries on the ice, former Pittsburgh Penguins and Russia defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said Friday.

Russia is to face Sweden at the world championships Friday, a day after a 3-1 win over Denmark marked by several breakaway opportunities for the Danes.

“We need defensemen who can play rough in defense. We need our opponents to fear us. At the moment no one’s frightened of Russia, it’s bad,” Kasparaitis said in his column for RIA Novosti.

“We should have two or three players like that in the team, so everyone is frightened and knows that in the case of someone coming up and starting something, our opponent will back down.”

Russia does have two good defensemen in its world championship squad in the shape of Ak Bars Kazan’s Ilya Nikulin and former Buffalo Sabres player Dmitri Nikulin, now of SKA St. Petersburg, but they play too elaborately, Kasparaitis suggested.

“Nikulin has both a good shot and he can play a pass. Kalinin isn’t playing badly. The main thing is that they play a bit simpler, don’t make mistakes.”

Russia started the world championships with a 5-1 comeback win over Latvia and a 4-2 defeat of Norway, before a 2-0 shutout win against Germany and the Denmark win.

The game against Sweden pits together the two unbeaten teams in Group B.

 

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