2014 Men’s Olympic Hockey Preview: Russia

It’s finally here. With the Olympics getting under way and the hockey starting soon, it’s time to roll out our preview of each team between now and puck drop. May the best team win.

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The basics

The Russian men’s national hockey team is currently ranked 3rd overall by the IIHF. They’re carrying 14 NHLers on their roster, they’re coached by Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, and finished 6th in 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Member Since	April 1, 1952
Total Players	66,551
Male Players	2,833
Junior Players	63,156
Female Players	562
Total Referees	13
Indoor Rinks	386
Outdoor Rinks	2,064
Nation Population	142,500,482
President	Vladislav Tretiak
Men’s World Ranking	3
Women’s World Ranking	4

Group

A, with Slovakia, Slovenia, and the U-S of A.

Roster

Goaltenders	NHL Team
Sergei Bobrovsky	Columbus Blue Jackets
Semyon Varlamov	Colorado Avalanche
Alexander Eremenko
Defensemen
Anton Belov	Edmonton Oilers
Alexei Emelin	Montreal Canadiens
Andrei Markov	Montreal Canadiens
Nikita Nikitin	Columbus Blue Jackets
Fedor Tyutin	Columbus Blue Jackets
Slava Voynov	Los Angeles Kings
Yevgeny Medvedev
Ilya Nikulin
Forwards
Artem Anisimov	Columbus Blue Jackets
Pavel Datsyuk	Detroit Red Wings
Nikolai Kulemin	Toronto Maple Leafs
Evgeni Malkin	Pittsburgh Penguins
Valeri Nichushkin	Dallas Stars
Alex Ovechkin	Washington Capitals
Vladimir Tarasenko	St. Louis Blues
Ilya Kovalchuk
Alexander Radulov
Viktor Tikhonov
Alexander Svitov (replacement)
Denis Kokarev (scratched, injury)
Alexander Popov
Sergei Soin (scratched, injury)
Alexander Semin (replacement)	Carolina Hurricanes
Alexei Tereshchenko

Biggest names

Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, Evgeni Malkin.

Depth

Any team that can afford to leave guys like Sergei Gonchar, Nail Yakupov, Sergei Mozyakin and Anton Volchenkov (as well as Alex Semin, which has since been rectified) off their national team is pretty deep. They’re laughing in net with last year’s Vezina winner in Sergei Bobrovsky and Colorado Avalanche starter Semyon Varlamov. Their d-corps has six NHLers on it, and looks like a group that can move the puck. And if that’s the case, that’ll provide plenty of opportunities for guys like those in the “Biggest names” section to do their damage. While Russia’s depth falls off before teams like Canada, Sweden and the US, the KHL players they brought aren’t exactly jokes.

Strengths

Firepower, dog. Straight firepower. If you love hockey, you have to be kind of excited to watch Pavel Datsyuk play with Ilya Kovalchuk. Ovechkin is the best goal-scorer in hockey and Malkin is one of the game’s biggest threats. Young guns like Tarasenko and Nichuskin can explode for a beauty at any minute, Alexander Radulov is a constant threat, and heaven forbid Alex Semin gets a puck in the slot. Their powerplay should be terrifying, but they’ll be a whole hell of a lot to handle 5-on-5 as well, especially on the big ice. Oh, and their goaltending should go in this category too.

Weaknesses

Oh, Russia. It’s always the same thing here: two-way play. The Russian stereotype didn’t come *poof* out of the blue – many of their best players seem solely focused on scoring, which as you may know, is pretty darn fun. It’s not that they don’t have any two-way players (hell, Ilya Kovalchuk is great both ways, Datsyuk is a Selke winner), it’s just that you wouldn’t say the majority of their players make defense a focus. That puts a lot of pressure on the D-men to break up rushes and get the puck up the ice, and while that group of players is just fine, I don’t think your best bet is too lean to heavily on guys like Anton Belov, Nikita Nikitin, Yevgeny Medvedev, Alexei Emelin and Ilya Nikulin against hockey’s best offensive players. That means scoring chances against, and so, here we are: two-way play (general defense) is their weakness.

Route to the Olympics

Ranked third by the IIHF, top nine get in.

Prediction

I’ve got Russia finishing in the worst possible spot for them this year, fourth. Anything can happen in a one-game elimination tourney such as this – they could just as easily win it all as not medal – but I really, really think the Americans are going to be tough to play, which means there’s not enough room in my top three for Russia.