Must Reads
It’s gold or nothing for the Russians in Sochi’s hockey tournament, and they start their campaign versus the mega underdog Slovenia. Team Russia is poised to start off with a victory, helped along by two members of the Montreal Canadiens; Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin. They are going to run one of the most offensively gifted top 6 units in the tournament, along with an blue line that can chip in on the offensive side of the game as well.
Slovenia managed to qualify for the Olympics against all odds, considering they beat out higher seeded teams in Denmark and Belarus. With only seven indoor rinks in the entire country, and less than 150 pro players to choose from Slovenia did a fantastic job by qualifying for the Olympics.
Unfortunately there has been little word on Slovenia’s potential lines, however it’s expected that the bulk of the work will be placed upon the shoulders of their only NHL representative, Anze Kopitar.
Russia is expected to run with these lines:
Ovechkin – Malkin – Semin
Kovalchuk – Datsyuk – Radulov
Tarasenko – Anisimov – Kulemin
Popov – Tereschenko – Tikhonov
extras: Nichushkin, Svitov
Markov – Voynov,
Belov – Nikitin,
Emelin – Medvedev,
extras: Nikulin, Tyutin
Varlamov
Bobrovski
Puck drop is at 7:30 am EST and you can stream it live here.
