Coming off a 7-1 smack-down of Slovakia, Team USA will look to prove that it’s the class of Group A by defeating the host Russians. The winner of this game is likely to secure a bye into the quarterfinals. While the hosts have the flash, the Americans have the substance, and the challenge for the former will be figuring out how to deal with the massive depth advantage of the latter. Here are how the teams lined up on Friday in practice. It’s unclear whether any of these changes will stick. We do know that Jonathan Quick will start his second straight game in nets for the US, and that Stepan and Faulk will remain scratches. Sergei Bobrovsky will start for the Russians.
United States
Parise – Kesler – Kane
van Riemsdyk – Pavelski – Kessel
Pacioretty – Stastny – Oshie
Brown – Backes – Callahan
McDonagh – Suter
Orpik – Martin
Fowler – Shattenkirk
Faulk – Carlson
Russia
Ovechkin – Malkin – Semin
Kovalchuk – Datsyuk – Radulov
Tarasenko – Anisimov – Kulemin
Popov – Tereschenko – Tikhonov
Nichushkin – Svitov
Markov – Voynov
Belov – Nikitin
Emelin – Medvedev
Nikulin – Tyutin
Puck drop is at 7:30 am EST on CBC, and you can stream it live here. It is also available in French. You can find the game on TV in Canada via CBC, and in the United States on NBC SportsNet.
