Lack of NHL coaching doesn't bother Team Russia

TORONTO -- A study of the coaching staffs of the eight teams participating in the World Cup of Hockey 2016 reveals that seven have at least an assistant with extensive coaching or playing experience in the NHL.
The lone exception is Team Russia.

The closest Team Russia coach Oleg Znarok came to the NHL as a player was a six-game stint in the American Hockey League with the Maine Mariners in 1991-92. The 53-year-old Cheliabinsk native coached in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League and, internationally, at the World Championship with Latvia and Russia.
But Znarok doesn't view his lack of NHL experience as a disadvantage in the World Cup, which Team Russia opens against Team Sweden in preliminary round play at Air Canada Centre on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVA Sports).
"I've been [working] with my NHL players for a long time," Znarok Thursday. "I've been working with them, and I think there's a chemistry on the team, and I will be able to have the team ready and they will be good. We understand that this tournament has the best NHL players, and we want to show just the best game we can, the best games we can."

The World Cup games will be played on an NHL-size rink under NHL rules, which is something Znarok will have to adapt to more than his players. Only four of Team Russia's 23 players likely won't play in the NHL this season and one of the exceptions is Pavel Datsyuk, who plays for Znarok with SKA St. Petersburg this season after 14 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.
Znarok's practices look and sound a lot like NHL practices, except the orders Znarok barks out during drills are in Russian. He's coached most of his players before at the World Championship, guiding Russia to gold in 2014, silver in 2015 and bronze this year.
Although he has a reputation for losing his temper, his players seem to respond to him.
"He's a very good motivator," Team Russia captain Alex Ovechkin said. "He's a coach, but he's still [like] a player. He's always wants to be involved in the game and he wants to be involved in all kinds of situations. He's a fun guy and a great person, so I think the players play for him and play for the country."
Znarok is still learning some of the nuances of the NHL game. During Team Russia's 2-1 shootout loss to Team Czech Republic in a pretournament game in Prague on Saturday, he got his first look at 3-on-3 overtime. He tried to use a coach's challenge during a 3-2 overtime loss to Team Canada in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and was not permitted because he had already used his timeout.
However, his track record shows he knows how to coach.
Znarok was named the KHL's coach of the year three times with Dynamo Moscow, winning the Gagarin Cup in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and the KHL regular season title in 2013-14. He became coach of the national team after Russia's disappointment at the 2014 Sochi Olympics cost former coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov his job.
"He's that kind of coach who creates great atmosphere, a great work atmosphere," said goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who played for Znarok at the World Championship the past three years. "When the team comes together, everybody works for the one goal. He's a leader in our locker room. The guys listen to him and they believe in him."
Like Ovechkin, Bobrovsky likened Znarok to a player in the way he sometimes relates to his players. A product of the old Soviet system who represented the USSR in the 1990 World Championship, Znarok, a left wing, spent most of his playing career with Dynamo Riga in Russia.
"He knows when to make fun and he knows when to get serious and go after guys and motivate guys and push them," Bobrovsky said.
Znarok will match coaching wits on Sunday with Rikard Gronborg of Team Sweden. Like Znarok, Gronborg has never played or coached in the NHL.
But Gronborg has a North American background from studying at St. Cloud State University and the University of Wisconsin and living in the U.S. for 21 years. Gronborg also has two assistants who played in the NHL -- Johan Garpenlov and Peter Popovic -- and is backed by a management team filled with former NHL stars such as Daniel Alfredsson, Nicklas Lidstrom and Mats Sundin.
Znarok's longtime top assistant, Harijs Vitolins, played eight games for the Winnipeg Jets in 1993-94 and 70 games in the AHL with Moncton that same season, but he spent most of his playing career in Russia and Switzerland.
"I've got full respect for Russian hockey and him as a coach," Gronborg said of Znarok. "I think obviously they're proven and he is proven as being a very solid coach and a victor, as such. I'm looking forward to it."
Vladislav Tretiak, the Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender who is president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, has already said that Znarok will remain coach of the national team at least through the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Still, there is pressure on Znarok to win in the World Cup after Russia failed to medal in the past three Olympics.
He admitted to feeling some nerves on Thursday.
"There is still a lot of things that [the players] could improve, and they're working on it," Znarok said. "And there's some moments and installments that we should concentrate on, but we have time for practice, and we are working on it."