Merry Christmas from Russia, where they have unveiled their scary-good Olympic provisional roster.
Goalies - Ilya Bryzgalov, Evgeni Nabokov, Semyon Varlamov
Defense - Sergei Gonchar, Denis Grebeshkov, Dmitri Kalinin, Konstantin Korneev, Andrei Markov, Ilya Nikulin, Fedor Tyutin, Anton Volchenkov
Forwards - Maxim Afinogenov, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Fedorov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Viktor Kozlov, Evgeni Malkin, Aleksey Morozov, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Radulov, Alexander Semin, Danis Zaripov, Sergei Zinoviev
Fourteen of the twenty-three players are from the NHL, including all three goaltenders, five of eight defensemen and six of twelve forwards.
Defense - Sergei Gonchar, Denis Grebeshkov, Dmitri Kalinin, Konstantin Korneev, Andrei Markov, Ilya Nikulin, Fedor Tyutin, Anton Volchenkov
Forwards - Maxim Afinogenov, Pavel Datsyuk, Sergei Fedorov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Viktor Kozlov, Evgeni Malkin, Aleksey Morozov, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Radulov, Alexander Semin, Danis Zaripov, Sergei Zinoviev
Fourteen of the twenty-three players are from the NHL, including all three goaltenders, five of eight defensemen and six of twelve forwards.
And there you go ladies and gentlemen, your Olympic gold medal co-favorites.
4 comments:
How do they leave out Maxim Shushinksy, who is the KHL leading scorer, ahead of both Radulov and Zinovyev?
Ouch Joe, did you have to bring this lineup front and center in print. Looks like Canada has their hands full and more eh?
Merry Christmas
why does everyone always say things like "looks like canada has their hands full and more.." ? The Canadian lineup has players as good as the best on any other team's but without any filler.The russian defence is weak and, aside from a few players on this roster, they have very little muscle to throw around in the smaller NHL rinks.
Sushinsky - That was answered in my interview with Averiyanov the following day.
Russian blue line - The Russian blue line is thin in comparison to their forward units, but a capable group, especially with world class goaltending behind them.
One thing I like about Russia's blue line - there is a natural pecking order. There's no worries about getting players to buy into roles, a problem that Canada may have.
Russia may only have one defenseman (Markov) who could make Team Canada, but their collective group is good enough to get the job done.
Post a Comment