Where did it all go wrong?
That's the question millions of Russian hockey fans are asking themselves after being booted from the Olympics thanks to a 7-3 loss at the hands of Team Canada.
Coming into the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Team Russia were considered gold medal favourites. The team to beat if anybody else had a chance at the gold.
They were a team of all-stars. Names like Ovechkin, Malkin, Kovalchuk, Gonchar, and Markov were supposed to be so dominant that they would be impossible to beat.
But that wasn't the case at all.
Russia lost twice during the Olympic tournament. A disappointing 2-1 shootout loss to Slovakia in the preliminary round, and of course the loss that ended Russia's golden dream, 7-3 to Team Canada in the quarterfinals.
There will debates for the next several months, perhaps years in Russia about why this happened and how to ensure it doesn't happen again during the 2014 Olympic games in Sochi.
These are some of the things that they will undoubtedly be looking at.
Disappointing Defence
When the Russian Olympic team was revealed on Christmas Day, the big question was their defensive abilities.
Beyond Andrei Markov and Sergei Gonchar, there were a lot of question marks and a lot of holes.
Everyone wondered if a blue line that consisted of players like Anton Volchenkov, Fedor Tyutin, Denis Grebeshkov and Dmitri Kalinin would be good enough. It was not.
In addition to struggling defensively, the Russian defence was terrible offensively. Up until the game against Canada, no Russian defenceman had scored a goal.
Team Russia scored 16 goals at this tournament. They allowed 13.
Poor Goaltending
The 13 goals that Russia allowed in the Olympics can't be attributed only to poor defence. The Russian goaltending situation also wasn't very reliable.
It should have been a clear sign of trouble from game one. After the 2nd period in a game against Latvia, Evgeni Nabokov let in some soft goals and was pulled in favour of Ilya Bryzgalov.
It was a goaltending carousel as Bryzgalov got the next start against Slovakia but lost in the shooout.
Russia went back to Nabokov and while he got the win in a 4-2 game against the Czech Republic, he did not look positionally sound.
It was something Team Canada capitalized on in their quarterfinal match-up.
Canada exploded for four goals in the 1st period alone. And when it was expected that Russian head coach Slava Bykov would put in Bryzgalov for the second period, he instead stuck with the shaky Nabokov. It cost Russia two extra goals, as Nabokov didn't get pulled until it was 6-1.
Power Play Inefficiency
Special teams was definitely not a strong point for the Russians during the Olympics.
Russia went 3 for 20 with the man advantage. That's a disappointing 15% on the power play.
The only teams worse on the power play were Latvia, Germany, and Norway.
Part of the struggles on the power play could be attributed to Andrei Markov.
Markov, who is normally a quarterback on the power play for the Montreal Canadiens, was rumoured to be injured coming into the Olympics.
In addition to having a laser beam of a shot from the point, Markov is a passing specialist.
But in these Olympics, Markov had no goals and only two assists. And on the power play, he was virtually invisible because he was either not being used, or not playing to his full capability.
Stars No Show
For all the talk that this would be a Russian team for the ages, a veritable all-star team, Russia was likely expecting more from it's star players.
Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Alexander Radulov all had only one goal. While Alexander Ovechkin and Alexei Morozov managed only two.
Alexander Semin, Sergei Federov, and Andrei Markov went goalless.
The only Russian player who met expectations was Evgeni Malkin who finished the tournament with four goals.
For Russia, the tournament is over, but the questions begin.
For Team Canada, the road to the gold medal continues as they will take on a very surprising Slovakia team on Friday at 9:30pm ET/6:30pm PT.
For up-to-the-minute Olympic news, stats, and updates 24/7, be sure to follow Ken Beckett on Twitter @ twitter.com/KenBeckett 
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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