Sure, Schenn led the tournament in scoring, but he also led his team from a 3-0 lead going into the third period of the gold medal game to a 3-5 loss. The MVP award should have gone to this guy.
Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson felt the same way, telling TSN:
"Nobody seems to want to give the Russians any credit for what they did," said Wilson. "From everything I can see, I know Brayden Schenn played great, but the most dynamic player in that whole tournament was (Yevgeni) Kuznetsov. When he decided he was going to make a difference in the game, he certainly could, he turned the switch on. ...
"He was unbelievable, almost unstoppable when he got going. He looked like an (Alex) Ovechkin or an (Alexander) Semin."
He sure could. In the gold medal game, Kuznetsov had three assists, and along with captain Vladimir Tarasenko, got the Russians back into the game.
Before that, Kuznetsov pretty much single-handedly defeated Finland in the quarter-finals. Finland was up 3-1 until, in the last four minutes of regulation, Kuznetsov scored the 2-3 goal, assisted on the equalizer and sent Finland home in overtime with his second goal. The guy is a real gamebreaker, and without his efforts, it's hard to imagine Russia could have won the gold medal. If that doesn't make him the most valuable player of the tournament, then I don't know what does.
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