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World Cup – Russian Team Breakdown/Schedule |
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With the preliminary games starting up today (September 8, 2016) Russia faces off against the Czech Republic.
Team Russia has named Ovechkin their captain and has Malkin and Datsyuk wearing the A as they will be the assist captains. It’s not only an honor to play for your country, but to wear the C or A is really something special.
This will be Pavel Datsyuk’s time to shine as he has left the Detroit Red Wings to play in the KHL for his home country. Representing team Russia in the World Cup is the first step to his return to hockey overseas.
Ovechkin is 30 years of age and has 966 points in 839 NHL games.
Malkin is 30 years of age and has 760 points in 644 NHL games.
Datsyuk is 38 years of age and has 918 points over 953 games.
Team Russia has a lot of firepower upfront, but will be lagging behind in the defensive and goaltending department compared to other teams in the tournament.
There are eight teams competing and Russia will be competing in Group B which consists of Finland, North America and Sweden. A very difficult group with a lot of skill spread throughout each roster.
Preliminary Games:
Thursday September 8th (today) – Czechs vs Russia
Saturday September 10th – Russia vs Czechs
Wednesday September 14th – Canada vs Russia
World Cup Games:
Sunday September 18th – Sweden vs Russia (game 1)
Monday September 19th – Russia vs North America (game 2)
Thursday September 22 – Finland vs Russia (game 3)
An update will be present once the single elimination games are decided. (A1 vs B2 and B1 vs A2)
The Russian team is heavily loaded up front, some extremely talented players who know how to put the puck in the net.
Ovechkin leads the offensive surge for Russia, followed by a number of different players who should have no problem contributing if Russia has any hopes of winning the tournament.
NHL forwards include: Artem Anisimov, Nikita Kucherov, Nikolay Kulemin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Evgeni Malkin, Vladislav Namestnikov, Artemi Panarin, Alexander Ovechkin and Vladimir Tarasenko.
KHL forwards include: Evgeny Dadonov, Pavel Datsyuk, Vadim Shipachyov and Ivan Telegin.
Where Russia is weak is on the defensive end, and it could be what cripples them unless they have a goalie stand on his head or the Russian forwards light the lamp like they hope to.
Defense includes: Alexei Emelin, Dmitry Kulikov, Alexey Marchenko, Andrei Markov, Dmitry Orlov and Nikita Zaitsev.
Goaltenders: Bobrovsky, Varlamov and Vasilevskiy.
The goalies all have the potential to get the job done and some, but each has something about them that may be of concern for the Russian squad.
Bobrovsky has been injury riddled and his confidence is not where it needs to be.
Varlamov is in the same boat as Bobrovsky, finds himself going hot too cold like a damp cloth.
Vasilevskiy who I think is a great goalie is still young; could he be the dark horse?
Team Russia has a chance to win this tournament, they simply need their forwards to produce and play a solid two-way game to help out their defensemen and goaltenders.
Russia is currently winning their game 3-1 vs Czech Republic.
Thanks for reading, enjoy some hockey!
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