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Olympic Hockey Preview 2006: Russia
By BRIAN PIKE, MOP Squad Sports Hockey Editor
Feb 18, 2006 - 3:37:00 AM

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2006 Men’s Olympic Hockey Preview: Russia

2002 Result: Russia took the bronze medal over Belarus after losing to the US in the semifinals.
Since then: Silver at the 2002 World Championships, bronze at the 2005 Worlds

Lineup:

Players are listed in probable combinations with their NHL city or Russian league team in parentheses.

Forwards (LW-C-RW):
1.    Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta) – Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit) – Alexei Kovalev (Montreal)
2.    Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles) – Viktor Kozlov (New Jersey) – Alexander Korolyuk (Chekhov)*
3.    Alexander Ovechkin (Washington) – Alexei Yashin (New York Islanders) – Maxim Afinogenov (Buffalo)
4.    Alexander Kharitonov (Dynamo Moscow) – Evgeni Malkin (Magnitogorsk) – Maxim Sushinsky (Dynamo Moscow)

Defensemen:
1.    Sergei Gonchar (Pittsburgh) – Darius Kasparaitus (New York)
2.    Anton Volchenkov (Ottawa) – Andrei Markov (Montreal)
3.    Danny Markov (Nashville) – Fedor Tyutin (New York)
4.    Vitali Vishnevski (Anaheim)** – Sergei Zhukov (Yaroslavl)***

Goaltenders:
1.    Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose)
2.    Ilya Bryzgalov (Anaheim)
3.    Maxim Sokolov (St. Petersburg)****

*injury replacement for Alexei Zhamnov (Boston, center)
**injury replacement for Alexei Zhitnik (New York Islanders, defenseman)
***injury replacement for Dmitri Bykov (Dynamo Moscow, defenseman)
****injury replacement for Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago, goaltender)

Key Player: Alexei Kovalev. All told, this is a pretty young Russian team. Fifteen players will be playing in their first Olympics. Just nine remain from the 2002 team that won bronze. Gone are the likes of Igor Larionov, Vladimir Malakhov, Alexei Zhamnov, Sergei Fedorov and the Bure brothers (though Pavel is GM of the team). The future of the Russian program lies in the hands of youngsters like Alexander Frolov, Evgeni Malkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Alexander Ovechkin, but for this tournament they need some veteran leadership. That’s where Kovalev comes in. Particularly among the forwards, Kovalev, 32, is one of the most revered, decorated veterans. He’s good with the young players and commands instant respect for his talent and accomplishments. More than any other player in this dressing room, the younger guys will be taking their cues from him; Russian squads in the past have lost despite having great talent, but being unable to quickly come together as a team, which is so important in a short tournament like this, and Kovalev, Russia’s captain, will be a large factor in whether Russia is able to overcome that past deficiency.

How They’ll Win:

1.    Russia has perhaps the most high-powered attack of any team in this tournament. The accomplishments of Pavel Datsyuk, rookie Alexander Ovechkin, and Ilya Kovalchuk this season in the NHL have been well-documented, as all three are among the league’s scoring leaders. Alexander Frolov, Kovalchuk, and Ovechkin gives the team three of the world’s best natural goal-scorers up their left wing; Datsyuk, Viktor Kozlov, Alexei Yashin and Evgeni Malkin are as talented a group of centers at playmaking as you’ll see anywhere; and Kovalev, Maxim Afinogenov, and Russian leaguers (and former NHLers) Maxim Sushinsky, Alexander Kharitonov and Alexander Korolyuk give the team wingers with a great combination of skill and speed. It’s an incredible group, top to bottom the most talented forward corps of any team in Turin, and they should be fun to watch.

2.    Russia’s defense has a great blend of skill and toughness. Guys like Sergei Gonchar, Andrei Markov (who’s been brilliant in Montreal this season), and Fedor Tyutin are all great skaters adept at passing the puck up-ice. Darius Kasparaitus, Anton Volchenkov, Danny Markov, Vitali Vishnevski and Sergei Zhukov, meanwhile, all have some puck skills but are better in their own zone and can lay out absolutely devastating bodychecks. It’s a formidable, well-rounded group that can move the puck up to their flashy forwards and take care of things in their own zone.

3.    It must be nearly impossible to play for the Russian team and not feel the weight of history behind you. All told, in the twenty Olympic tournaments where medals have been handed out for ice hockey, Russia (including the Soviet Union teams) have won twelve medals, eight of them gold. At the World Championships, Russian teams have been even more dominant, with 23 golds to their credit, including an incredible run from 1963 to 1990 where the Soviet team took 20 of 25 gold medals awarded. While the national team program spent much of the 1990’s in transition as the old USSR broke up and some of the old veterans of the team retired, this is a program that’s once again on the rise. The young stars on this squad give hope for the future, and Russia’s under-20 teams have won medals (three of them gold) at five of the last seven World Junior championships. No other team except Canada can boast a history of excellence in hockey that comes close to Russia’s, and while that creates some added pressure to win, it also lends a certain level of confidence that this team is always one of the favorites in a tournament like this.

How They’ll Lose:

1.    While Russia’s defense has some bangers on it, the forward group is lacking a bit in terms of grit. Viktor Kozlov is the biggest player on the team at 6’5 and 225 pounds, but the way he plays is somewhat emblematic of Russia’s problem: he rarely uses his size to his advantage in terms of digging pucks out of the corner and out-muscling defensemen. The Russian forwards have, in the past, been thrown off their game by a physical defense that doesn’t give them as much space to freewheel as they’d like. That’s essentially how the Americans defeated them at the 2004 World Cup and it’s the strategy that a lot of teams will employ against them here as well.

2.    Russia has an incredible amount of individual talent; that much is undeniable. But while it sounds cliché, hockey’s a team game, and the Russians have proven in the past that they aren’t always able to come together as a team. Vladimir Krikunov, who coaches the powerful Dynamo team in Moscow, will coach this team; after leading Russia to a third place finish at the 2005 Worlds he’ll be looking for a better result here. Krikunov’s challenge will be to get this team of vastly different personalites (and some might say large egos in a few cases) on the same page, like many Russian coaches before him. When a Russian team gels, they blow the opposition away with their crisp passing, mind-boggling moves and solid team defense; when they don’t, they turn the puck over at both bluelines, refuse to backcheck, and take undisciplined penalties. Occasionally they’ll go from one extreme to the other over the course of one period of play; Krikunov will be working to get more of the former and less of the latter here, but predicting whether or not he can do so is almost impossible.

3.    Quite often the story for a Russian team going into a tournament is who’s not coming as much as who is. This was especially true of the World Cup, where a large number of star Russians turned the national team down after a flap which led to the resignation of manager Igor Larionov that alienated a lot of players. With Pavel Bure firmly in charge, no scandal like that has erupted as yet, but the Russians are still missing some key players due to injury or refusal to play. Sergei Fedorov turned this team down, as did Sergei Zubov and a number of other veterans who would’ve looked really good in this lineup. What’s worse, Alexei Zhamnov, Alexei Zhitnik and Nikolai Khabibulin were all forced to withdraw due to injury, leaving some holes in the lineup that will be tough to fill. Khabibulin in particular will be missed; while Evgeni Nabokov is San Jose’s starting goaltender and Ilya Bryzgalov has split time in Anaheim with Jean-Sebastian Giguere, neither have the resume that Khabibulin does or his proven big-game ability as evidenced by his 2004 Stanley Cup ring. Russia clearly has the talent to get by without these guys, but they might’ve looked a lot better with them than they do without them.

The Bottom Line: Russia is as unpredictable as ever this year. It’s tempting to say that they can win this tournament on their individual talent alone, but the reality is that once again depending on whether they can come together as a team, Russia could conceivably win gold or end up losing very early on in the playoff round. We’re confident Krikunov can bring them together, though, so it’s a silver medal prediction for Russia.


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