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Ice-hockey roster revelations to
spark Olympic excitement
WASHINGTON — Alex Ovechkin
will lead world champion Russia into the Vancouver Winter Olympics and a
host of his fellow National Hockey League (NHL) superstars will follow him
onto team rosters in the next week. Washington Capitals playmaker Ovechkin,
named the NHL’s Most Valuable Player the past two seasons, and fellow stars
Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar were named on Thursday to
Russia’s 23-man provisional Olympic roster.
Other global powers will follow in the next few days, with defending Olympic
champion Sweden announcing today, Slovakia revealing its line-up on Tuesday,
Czech Republic, Finland and Canada following Wednesday and the Americans
next Friday. Decision makers have used the first three months of the NHL
season as an audition period, looking to see if injured players have
regained their form and young talents have improved their skills enough to
join the quest for gold. Sweden beat Finland in the 2006 Turin Olympic final
with the Czechs beating Russia for bronze and Canada finishing a
disappointing seventh, one spot above the Americans.
Russian talent won eight Olympic gold medals, most recently in 1992 as the
Unified Team, but defeating Canada in the past two world championship finals
has brought bragging rights and a sense the Olympic drought might end in
2010. “A lot of hopes and expectations have been placed on the Russian
national team. A lot of people see us as favorites. This doesn’t bother us,”
Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov told Russian Television. “Canada will be
looking for revenge and won’t need any extra motivation. We won’t be
frightened by them as we know we can play with them and we know we can beat
them.”
Ovechkin, who has 23 goals in 28 games this season, joined Capitals teammate
Alexander Semin and ex-teammate Sergei Fedorov as a line at last year’s
worlds and could reunite in Vancouver. The Russians have eight players from
the 2008 and 2009 world championship squads and nine from Russia’s domestic
league, many of whom have NHL experience and are familiar with thinner NHL
rink widths to be used for the 2010 Games. Canada figures to counter with
Pittsburgh superstar Sidney Crosby, who guided the Penguins to last season’s
Stanley Cup crown, and San Jose’s Joe Thornton, the NHL scoring leader with
10 goals and 41 assists.
Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis
are also among the likely top Canadian scorers in Vancouver while the league
takes a two-week hiatus. NHL all-time shutouts leader Martin Brodeur figures
to get the nod as the starting Canadian goaltender. He backstopped Canada to
2002 Olympic gold to end Canada’s half-century Olympic men’s hockey title
drought. Former NHLer Jaromir Jagr, now in Russia, and veterans Patrik
Elias, Milan Hejduk and Vinny Prospal power the Czech attack with Tomas
Vokoun in the nets. — AFP |
