Since the start of the season, there has been a lot of talk about Ivan Demidov’s playing time in Russia. The youngster seems to be shunned more often than not by his coach, even though he plays great hockey when he is on the ice.
This is not unusual in Russia, especially for young people who want to go to America, but it is still a shame.
However, in recent matches, we feel that Roman Rotenberg’s approach has changed. The coach is using Demidov more and more, to the point where the latter has played at least 14 minutes in five of his last six games.
Thursday, he played almost 16 minutes… including time on the power play. It’s a drastic change.
And in a recent press briefing, Rotenberg was questioned on this subject… which led him to make a rather, let’s say, particular statement:
Do you watch Oilers games? Do you watch McDavid and Draisaitl’s playing time? It is essentially the same as Demidov’s. – Roman Rotenberg
Bon.
If we look at Draisaitl, we notice that he spends approximately 21 minutes on the ice per game. In McDavid’s case, we’re talking about twenty minutes.
In Demidov’s case, we celebrate the fact that he exceeds… 14 minutes. I would like to believe that KHL teams play with 13 forwards, but we agree that that does not justify the difference.
Maybe Rotenberg wanted to reference McDavid’s recent ice time… missing a few games due to injury. That may be true… just as he may have been wrong and mainly wanted to talk about Jeff Skinner (14:33) and Viktor Arvidsson (15:55).
More seriously, that said, we can see this in two ways. We can say that he is still trying to silence the (many) criticisms of him surrounding the playing time of the kid…but we can also say that he sees Demidov as a guy who can influence the outcome of a game in the same way as the two Oilers stars.
You are free to choose whether you prefer the most optimistic or the most pessimistic version.
In burst
– I like to see that.
– Martin St-Louis had good words for Shea Weber.
– The CH hopeful is having a great start to the season.
– Auston Matthews’ shot is praised by his counterparts.
– The Rouge et Or crowned champion.
– He is the story of the hour in the MLB.
