Such actions do not paint the Torpedo players who show excellent hockey.
“Torpedo” right now is one of the main decorations of the Fonbet KHL Championship. Even neutral fans like the bright attacking style of the Nizhny Novgorod team. The philosophy of Igor Larionov’s team also evokes sympathy among fans. The head coach managed to force his hockey players not to be afraid of mistakes and to devote themselves completely to the game. That is why 20-year-old Vasily Atanasov lights up Torpedo, and 17-year-old defenseman Anton Silaev behaves so decisively on the ice, as if he had several seasons in the league behind him.
But it seems there are downsides to this philosophy. Excessive confidence of players develops into self-confidence, and sometimes into arrogance. And even in relation to the judges. This was clearly demonstrated by the Nizhny Novgorod player in the away match against Vityaz. The team of referees did not tolerate this behavior and severely punished the hockey player.
An accident or a side effect of Larionov’s approach?
Took it out on the judge
Torpedo entered the match against the Moscow region team as a favorite. By the way, now most of the league will look preferable to Vityaz, which may suffer the first coaching resignation this season. But the Nizhny Novgorod team is in very good shape, so for them this match on paper looked like a victory on schedule.
And in the second period it became obvious that there would be no surprises in this meeting. The guests scored four unanswered goals in less than 20 minutes. But even a large score did not reflect the full superiority of Larionov’s team. “Torpedo” literally settled in the opponent’s zone, and the Nizhny Novgorod teams competed with each other in the sophistication of combinations. From the outside it seemed that Vityaz was instructed to play without a puck and just watch hockey.
Larionov has a gentleman’s philosophy at such moments. For example, the coach does not put the first special teams on the majority, but gives a chance to the lower links. But it seems that not all Nizhny Novgorod hockey players share the coach’s philosophy. At the beginning of the third period, 22-year-old Torpedo forward Vladislav Firstov entered the opponent’s zone at full speed, where he was pushed to the boards by his opponent, and then crashed into the referee.
Vladislav Firstov / Photo: © KHL / Sokolov Grigory
Instead of immediately returning to the defensive, the young player disdainfully pushed the referee. Firstov simply freaked out because he was prevented from breaking through to the goal and improving his personal statistics. And this is with a very comfortable score and complete capitulation of the opponent.
In addition, the slow-motion replay shows that the Vityaz player knocked the puck away from the Nizhny Novgorod striker even before the collision with the referee. And if Firstov needed to express his dissatisfaction with the episode to anyone, it was only himself. As a result, the young hockey player was expectedly sent off until the end of the game. And after the meeting, additional sanctions may follow.
This player behavior is very surprising. Even big stars do not allow themselves to take their anger out on the judges in this way. Moreover, this cannot be done by a hockey player who is only spending his second season in the strongest championship in the country. And this moment cannot be attributed to a coincidence and excessive emotionality. We can only believe that the Professor will sort out this situation and will no longer allow such things to happen in the club.
Otherwise, it will look like the Torpedo hockey players, against the backdrop of popular love, are taking to the ice with their noses in the air, without having any achievements in the playoffs.
2023-09-26 20:34:23
#crown #grown #young #hockey #player #freaked #pushed #referee #KHL #match
