Fan In Van

Here Come The Russians!

In my mind, this is going to be one hell of an Olympics. Despite having home-ice advantage, Team Canada is still reeling from their seventh-place finish in the 2006 games. And this year, don’t expect things to get any easier, especially from Team Russia, who finished 4th in Turin and are the defending World Champions.

Today, Russia executive and hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak released the Olympic roster:

Alex Ovechkin - Pavel Datsyuk - Alexander Semin
Ilya Kovalchuk - Evgeni Malkin - Maxim Afinogenov
Slava Kozlov - Sergei Fedorov - Alexander Radulov
Danis Zaripov - Sergei Zinovyev - Alexei Morozov

Andrei Markov - Anton Volchenkov
Sergei Gonchar - Fedor Tyutin
Dmitri Kalinin - Denis Grebeshkov
Ilya Nikulin, Konstantin Korneyev

Evgeni Nabokov
Ilya Bryzgalov
Semyon Varlamov

Before you gouge your eyes out, just take a look at the Russian top six. Headed by Alex Ovechkin, that is an incredibly frightening list of forwards. Ovechkin and Malkin are two of the game’s best players, Pavel Datsyuk is hands-down the best two-way forward in the NHL and in a supporting role Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Semin would be considered front-line players on any NHL squad. Even Maxim Afinogenov has had a great year, developing chemistry with Kovalchuk in Atlanta.

On defense, expect Andrei Markov to be fully recovered from his injury in October to lead the blueline. Behind him is another strong supporting cast in Gonchar, who last year won the Stanley Cup with Malkin, as well as one of the most physical players in the NHL in Anton Volchenkov. Grebeshkov may be a bit of a question mark here, though, as he has been injured this year and hasn’t been terrific.

Perhaps my deepest concern is between the pipes. Yes, there is Evgeni Nabokov, who has been a borderline top-five goaltender with San Jose for the past five years, but the real wildcard is Ilya Bryzgalov. Big Bryz has carried the Phoenix Coyotes on his back this season, winning 21 games and registering five shutouts. On some degree, Bryzgalov’s story has been heavily under-publicized this season, as he has the third-best GAA, is ranked third in wins, fifth in save percentage and leads all goalies in shutouts. If anything, Bryzgalov has demonstrated that he can carry a lacklustre team towards greatness, and if he gets hot during the Olympics, there may be no looking back for the Russians.

Some notable exceptions from the Russian lineup: Alex Kovalev and Sergei Zubov, who are 36 and 39 years of age, respectively. More pointedly, Kovalev was the captain of the 2006 squad and his absence signals a change in leadership among the Russians, fueling speculation that a younger player like Ovechkin may be given the team captaincy. Alexander Frolov, who has had a mixed campaign with the Kings this year featuring a few healthy scratches, was also left off in favour of other Russian talent not in the NHL. Youngster Nikita Filatov also failed to crack the team, as did fellow KHLer Nikolai Zherdev.

Personally, very shocked to see Sergei Fedorov in the Russian lineup. Can he still play? Judging by his play with the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk team, yes. But is it enough to merit consideration over other younger two-way centres?

In any event, Team Russia in my mind is not just in contention for the gold, but given the fact they are the defending world champions, I consider them the favourite.

And a look at this year’s World Hockey Championship final between Russia and Canada: