| 14 February 2010
Decades of dominance on Olympic ice have come undone for Russia. Between 1956 and 1992 Russia's predecessors the Soviet Men's Hockey team and the Unified Team never finished off the podium, taking 8 golds, a silver and a bronze in ten competitions. That bronze came in 1980, to put Team USA's Miracle on Ice gold medal in Lake Placid, New York, in perspective. Russia however has scuffled since then. Four Olympics, with a silver and a bronze all they have to show for it. And two fourth place finishes. Have the Russians lost their mojo. Back to back World Championships show they haven't. And maybe Canada Hockey chief (and former Red Wing legend) Steve Yzerman was engaging in a bit of gamesmanship when he declared Russia the team to beat. But it's hard to call his comment unfounded.
'"The Russians have won the last two world championships," Yzerman said. "They have the top forwards in the world, and they are the No. 1-ranked team in the world. They are the favorites going into this tournament."Those back to back world championships restored some of that swagger to the Russians. But the gold standard of international competition comes with five interlocking rings every four years, not every year. Click read more below to see all of Russia's advantages and what might tip the scales against them. Russia's resurgence can accurately be traced to one man, who took the NHL by storm as well. Alexander Ovechkin has won a pair of Hart trophies on his mantle, along with a host of hardware awarded by the NHL. He's the most dynamic player in the NHL today. And as was noted by our own Jenna, Ovechkin does it all:
Ovechkin is a scoring machine. He's ranked number one in the league with 42 goals in 51 games. He is definitely not selfish either, netting himself 44 assists which means a league leading 86 points.Though he won't be wearing either a C or an A on his sweater, Ovechkin is the leader of the Russian team, and it's his performance that will make or break the team.[...]
Not only is Ovechkin offensively gifted, he is not too shabby on the defensive end either. He leads the league in another stat, +/-. He is a +41.
Ovechkin's opposite number is the goalie that he's had occasion to face off against on NHL ice. He'll call Evgeni Nabokov teammate rather than the goalie he's going to beat like a rented mule. Nabokov has posted another solid season in net for the San Jose Sharks. His .927 save percentage ranks fourth best in the NHL. He'll be backed up by Phoenix' Ilya Bryzgalov and the Caps Semyon Varlamov. The lion's share of the work will fall to Nabokov, who'll be called on to carry the team.
Along with Ovechkin on the front lines are fellow young goal scorers, Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Semin, Alexander Radulov and Ilya Kovalchuk. The depth at the forward positions show up with veteran players like Sergei Federov, the eldest of Russia's skaters, Viktor Kozlov, Pavel Datsyuk, and captain Aleksey Morozov, who all rely on experience and a deft scoring touch. Russia can score at will. They'll need to.
The Russian weakness is on defense. They have veteran NHLers Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Markov, but the balance of their blueliners are relative unknowns. Dmitri Kalinin, Denis Grebeshkov, Fedor Tyutkin and Anton Volchenko have played in the NHL, but have hardly distinguished themselves the way that the forwards have. Whether the defense lets down the squad or rises to the challenge of the biggest stage they'll skate on will determine whether Russia returns to their once accustomed top of the podium position.
Joe Tetreault blogs about sports, culture, business/technology and current events at TetreaultVision in addition to being the Editor for Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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