Roman Rotenberg: "The players are burning with desire"

Roman Rotenberg, the RIHF's first vice-president, commented on the national team's first training day:

- Today, I felt a correct working atmosphere. The main thing is that the guys are burning with desire to play, and we saw their emotions and how happy they are to be here. They are proud to work here in order to be called up again in the future. In the Czech Republic, we can expect to see a fully committed team. We can use Valery Bragin's youth team as an example of a team which gives one hundred percent in every game. We expect that fighter's quality and team character to transform into this team.

You can say that this is a team for the future. We need to know how many of these players we can take to the World Championship. It wouldn't be right not to give them a chance - if someone gets a chance and doesn't use it, it should be given to another player who deserves it and is hungry to play. We have already seen this today.

Fortunately, we have changed the calendar and the coaches will have a further two weeks before the World Championship after the Gagarin Cup. Players who get knocked out earliest will train with the national team first. We have enough time to build an optimal squad based on the KHL, NHL and the Euro Hockey Tour.

Our main goal is the Olympic Games in South Korea, and we are not talking about which tournament is the most important. We are saying that we have three years to build our system and the development of our hockey. Valery Bragin's contract extension signifies our working process. Oleg Znarok will head the process along with his colleagues. We are creating a special Olympic team for this.

Russian Ice Hockey Federation